The Adventure begins in earnest- LAO WA-OW!

View of Nam Ou river and Nong None mountain from my bungalow balcony in Nong Kuia.



I'm in Lao(s) Spent the night in a place with no phones and electricity for three to four hours a day. Internet extremely difficult and costly. Here is a slightly edited cut and paste from an email i sent my fiance earlier.

---------- Forwarded message ---------- My travels have been wonderful since leaving Hanoi on a motorbike Wednesday. I really love Laos. Its so wild and raw, and its beautiful and peaceful as well. The people are incredibly laid back and mellow. No one hassles you here. (what a relief) I really love it. The only problem (I guess its not really a problem but a double-edged sword) is that it is really remote and isolated. Travel is very difficult and electricity is usually only for a few hours a night. I wanted to spend the night in a village about an hour upstream from Nong Kuia that has no phone, internet, etc and electricity for only four hours a day, but I passed it by and came straight to Nong Kuia so i could contact my fiance somehow and let her know not to worry that i am alive an well, but very isolated from the modern digital world. I checked myself into a really nice bungalow here. I think I need a day or two of taking it easy and not sucking dust and pollen before I venture out on any treks or camp-outs. I turned down a terribly tempting offer from two frenchmen to join them on an adventurous voyage down the Nam Ou river aboard the boat they were buying for that purpose. It would have been awesome but I was in no condition to camp or get thrown in the river and more importantly it would have taken 5 days or more to reach the town/village I'm in now with phone/Internet. I don't want to upset anyone and I certainly don't want people freaking out and contacting the US embassy.

Let me see if I can sum up my trip since we spoke in Hanoi quickly:

Wednesday, woke up a little sick with an awful sore throat and allergy like symptoms. Stuffy nose, itchy eyes, nose etc. I think it may have been both a cold and allergies. Departed Hanoi on a motorbike and had an absolute crazy ride through the lawless city traffic. Hanoi traffic is Saigon squared. Made it out of Hanoi alive but almost suffocated on the terrible dust and exhaust fumes. motorcycle ride turned incredibly beautiful and fantastic very suddenly at the 1.5 hour mark. Most extreme vertical karst landscape I have seen yet. Limestone world trade towers. I saw sights so fantastic that it literally took my breath away. Bedded down for the night in a Thai (ethnicity, not nationality) homestay in Maiu Chai. Slept in stilt house. Saw some folk singing and dancing. Was extremely sick at this point. Dust and smoke was not what I needed on Wednesday. Sickness also compounded by the many shots of Thai Vodka-Hooch that were practically forced on me by every male in Maui Chai over the age of fifteen.

Thursday, Felt ok but still pretty sick in the morning, more dust and the landscape was more domesticated and agricultural. Gently rolling hills, quaint villages and tons of various ethic minority people. Area is the most ethnically diverse in all of Vietnam. Spent the night in the mountain town of Son La. That night in bed I heard a loud pop then the building rocked back and forth noticeably. My bed moved about half of a inch. At first I though a truck or something hit the building then I realized it was probably an earthquake. Not a comforting thought as I was on the fifth floor of a building with undoubtedly shoddy construction. The next night while eating dinner in Dien Bien we saw on TV the quake was a 4.2.

Friday, the terrain became very steep and dramatic again and the countryside was pretty desolate. The views were spectacular and I had an impossible amount of fun riding my motorcycle through the steep winding mountain roads. More dust. The most yet. I looked like I had bathed in brown'/grey talcum powder at the end of the day. Spent the night in Dien Bien. said goodbye to my guide.

Saturday, up at 4:30 for 5:30 bus to Muag Kua Laos. Spent the first two hours on board with a bunch of minority tribe people in full battle dress waiting for the bus crew to load cargo. I felt like Chevy Chase and Dan Akroid in "Spys Like Us". I saw some really disturbing sights involving animals. The rest of the bus ride was amazing. Really mountainous one lane dirt road. Incredible views. Bus drove through mud bogs and riverbeds. Arrived in Muag Kuaw around 2:30. Forced to spend the night because there was no more transport leaving that day for anywhere. Slept well in guest house overlooking river. Fell asleep to the sound of a gurgling stream, frogs and crickets.

Sunday, overslept, woke up with no voice. Contemplated taking Huck-Finn style raft with two crazy Frenchman but took a pass due to the state of my health and my need to contact fiance. Take 6 hour motor-skiff trip down Nam Ou river with group of French and Germans to Nong Kuia. The ride was spectacular. Scenery is breathtaking again. River slices through some incredibly isolated wilderness where the river is the only mode of transportation. 3:00 arrive Nong Kuia check myself into the poshest bungalow I can find. I need a little luxury after five days of being sick and riding hard through the wild. Try calling fiance with skype semi-successfully. Write long-winded email with lots of photos attached.

OK, that's more or less it. Don't expect to hear from me again for maybe up to two weeks. I plan to hang around the river here north of Luang Prabang where there's no phones for a while and do some treking, rafting, mountain biking etc and try to meet some hill tribe people. When I feel better I think I'll head back up the river to that isolated little village I passed today for a few days of exploring. Well i guess this is bye for now. JD

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More later,...

Stay tuned


UPDATE: 0025 local.

I am on a hot streak. First I strike Internet gold with my guesthouse/resort here in Nong Khiaw(Kiau). I was quoted an exorbitant rate of 500 kip per minute, but then I find out they have WiFi and its cheaper at 300 kip per minute, but then it gets even better because I pay for ten minutes and my password doesn't time out, but even better still I'm back in my bungalow now listening to the frogs sing while the full moon above baths me, the river and the mountain across the river in moonlight and I am still connected! Ha HA! I guess my excitement sounds silly to those of you back home but last night I had to use a headlamp to brush my teeth standing over a bucket so it makes my humble accommodations here seems like a 10,000 year leap forward from my last five nights on the road. The connection is weak and the wireless is as slow as Canadian molasses but I am feeling generous and awake (too many teas, coffees, and cold medication amphetamines) so I wanted to share a few pictures from my motorbike trip from Hanoi to the NW Lao/Vietnam border and some pictures from my brief travels in Lao so far. Don't expect too much because every one of these pictures with the exception of the one taken from my balcony is drive-by photography, all snapped from a moving motorcycle, bus, or boat. We'll see how far this free internet takes us before I get shut down. Even with the free internet I am going to have to check out of this place soon because it is too expensive and an absolute King's Ransom by Lao standards. It may be a while before I can get around to making another post.


The town of Maiu Chai Vietnam as seen from a mountain road above the town.



My trusty stead. Not as romantic as an old Minsk but more powerful and much more reliable. 135cc Honda.



Typical landscape between Maiu Chai and Son La Vietnam.






I think these women are Hmong. The little ladies in the background with the conical rice-picker hats are slicing cassava into pieces for sun-drying on the roadside. Drying stuff on the road is a big thing here. But from what I have observed they are doing it all wrong. Apparently it works better if you do your sun-drying right after a very sharp blind curve, but first you must annex two thirds of the road in front of your shack with very large boulders placed directly in the road. Remember, the bigger the better, and right after a blind curve is best.









I'm not exactly sure which group these ladies belong to but I did see a lot of them.






Some of the passengers on my bus ride from Dien Bien Vietnam to Muang Khua (Kuaw) Laos. When I saw them I couldn't help but think, "Oh my God these are the people you hear about dying in horrible transportation accidents and we're on the same bus." An old, rickety, overloaded bus that is about to attempt to drive on a very shoddy dirt trail that winds its way through very remote impossibly steep mountains. What could go wrong?



After beginning our journey beneath dark overcast skys the bus suddenly climbed through the top of the overcast layer to dramatically reveal the soaring peaks of the Tonkinese Alps.



That body of water in front of the bus isn't a pond, its the road.



End of the line, literally. Muang Khua, Laos



Six hours of lush towering non-stop scenery like this today during my boat ride. No real towns to speak of, just the occasional bamboo and wicker village and a few Lao people and animals carrying on exactly the way they would have 1000 years ago, with the exception of the motorized boats.



Typical Lao river folk.



My balcony overlooking the river



View from my balcony looking left at the town of Nong Khiaw and the only real bridge I have seen across the river in about 120km.


END.

Ha Long Bay- the cold cold breath of the dragon

HALONG BAY:


Halong Bay was every bit as spectacular as I had heard, but it was disappointingly cold, wet and dreary for almost my entire stay. At first I welcomed the cold overcast and misty conditions as "atmospheric" and a welcome respite from the sweltering tropical heat of the south, but then guiltily I began to wish for a warm sunny day so I go for a swim and enjoy the fabulous beaches of Lan Ha bay. Yes, yes I know November is winter in the north of Vietnam but usually winter doesn't arrive in Halong until December at the earliest and the locals all said it was an extremely severe and unseasonable cold snap the area was mired in during my stay. And to think a friend of mine convinced me to mail back my jeans and my long-sleeve undershirt because I wouldn't need them in southeast asia. Oh jeans why did I spend $35 to mail you away and now I shiver while picking through stacks of size 26 fake Dolce & Gabana bedazzled, embroidered disco jeans! Oh look, here's a nice pair! Oh crap, why is there a embroidered gold tiger on the leg and a gigantic streak of pink paint on the back pockets? I bought a long sleeve shirt two sizes two small with shiny metallic stripes and studded black strips of leather sewn to it in a desperate attempt to wart off the cold.

I choose not to do a package Halong bay tour out of Hanoi despite their popularity and tempting pricing. I had heard good things about Halong Bay's more comely and less touristed twin, Lan Ha Bay, and I had heard good things about small independent operators doing sailing, rock climbing, kayaking and even camping out of Cat Ba island (largest island in Halong bay area) so I didn't want to be locked into a quick cheesy loop of the Halong area tourist traps. I arranged for a one day tourist boat ride through the main sights of Halong bay that would then drop me on Cat Ba to fend for myself in the evening. The bus to Halong City was a pain but once the boat ride finally got under way it was very nice and I enjoyed our stop at a very crowded cave that had been modified to make it more tourist friendly and lit with fluorescent lights. It sounds terrible but it was really cool.

Once I made it to Cat Ba I settled into a guest house that Lonely Planet raved about but it was an absolute T.S.-hole and I was too cheap and lazy to move after making a beachhead on top of the dirty bed with my tent. I nearly froze to death in that unheated room. I think a sleeping bag may have been a better use of weight and space than the thermarest I packed. While on Cat Ba I did a good bit of business with the "Slo-Pony" adventure company located in my hotel (very convenient) The folks at Slo-Pony were awesome and I would highly recommend them to anyone considering going rock climbing around Halong Bay, which by the way is excellent for climbing. Slo Pony also offers other activities and kayaking trips which I also booked with them, but I would advise anyone reading the coconut to stick to the climbing as that is their forte and passion.

So one day chilling (literally) on the tourist boat, two days climbing, one day kayaking and one day touring Cat Ba on a motorbike. Cat Ba is pretty big and the scenery is amazing. The sun finally came out for my last day and I got some pretty good shots. I was riding with a guide I accidentally hired for the day (I just wanted someone to let me into hospital cave) so I didn't get to stop quite as much as I wanted for photographs and of course you start to feel silly taking pictures when a Vietnamese motorcycle guide stares at you with a slightly confused smirk while you attempt to get that perfect artistic shot of a goat.



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I've been a bad little blogger. Sorry the Coconut has strayed from the path. My posts tonight are going up thin, rushed and mostly without photo captions, and I am shorting my readers an entry on Hanoi. Hanoi is a mad but wonderful little city with loads of charms, put-offs, worst traffic and smog than Saigon, surprises, idiosyncrasies etc, but my readers will have to wait a bit longer to hear all about it I'm afraid. Tomorrow morning I leave on an adventurous three or four day motorcycle ride through the Tokinese Alps to the Laos border followed by a bus trip then two days on a boat rolling down the Mekong through the green canyons of northwestern Laos until I reach Luang Prabang. I will likely be out of electronic earshot for the next week or so as I undertake my most challenging bit of traveling yet. Wish me luck and please accept these pictures as a peace offering.











Beach on Cat ba








There's a monkey in there if you look closely


Look Mom a real Chinese style Junk just like in Snoopy's Big Book of Boats! I'm pretty sure Halong Bay was the setting in the book as well. The Junk/Halong Bay was my favorite part of the book along with the Gondola/Venice.












In a kayak inside a cave






View looking out from Cat Ba harbor at night. In the foreground is two floating restaurants, in the background you can see the Cat Ba fishing armada illuminated by its fun house fluorescent lights. At first I thought the lights belonged to a theme park located on an island behind the restaurants. The fluorescent lights themselves are very Dan Flavin-esque.

































END

Hue (Who-way) Not Much to Say

HUE:

After Hoi An I blew straight through Danang and stopped for the night and a little sight seeing in Hue, which I believe is the fourth largest city and the former imperial capitol. Hue may have been a much cooler place than I was able to discover in my short stay, I pretty much did a turn and burn in Hue. The bus ride through the central highlands south of Hue had the best natural scenery I've seen yet in Vietnam. Beautiful mountains covered in cheery little pines with the coastal lowland rice paddy flats below dotted by idealic little villages. I had been told by some familiar with Vietnam that Hue was full of well preserved Vietnamese imperial culture and charm, it was not very touristy and basically not to be missed. Hue was the former imperial seat of the Nguyens, the last dynasty to rule Vietnam. The Nguyens were emasculated by the French colonialists and then forced to abdicate in 1945 due to the rise of Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese Communist party. I spent a half day sight-seeing with every other western tourist working the North-South trail and I think I was ready to go after two hours. There were some gorgeous vistas afforded from the banks of the river and the ruins of the imperial palace were OK. (Being just south of the DMZ and a heavily contested strategic battlefield during the war Hue was completely decimated by American bombs) I know this is going to sound extremely snotty, but after seeing Ankor Wat, the Great Wall of China, and the Forbidden City of Peking its hard to get excited about the ruins from the lesser old imperial palaces of the orient. It didn't help matters that it was hot in Hue as it had been in Hoi An, bloody blue blazes, sweat all the way through your shirt in 4 minutes hot. That afternoon it was with great glee that I uncomfortably straddled a scooter balancing my massive duffel bag on my back, as I am very used to doing now, and set off for the Hue train station to catch the overnight sleeper to Hanoi. The train arrived four hours late in a very antiquated and dingy communist train station curiously devoid of signs or posted arrival/departure information. The waiting area was spartan even by old communists standards and with no signs and all of the announcements in Vietnamese there were a couple of times when I feared I may have missed my trains. I had a few false starts too, jumping like a dumb herd animal anytime the other tourists started making for the exits with their luggage. The only tip-off it was 2009 instead of 1979 was a flat-screen TV mounted in the waiting area that displayed a steady feed of advertisements with zero programed content. Maybe this is an example of what Marshal McLuhan really meant when he coined the apocryphal aphorism "The media is the message". The train ride was OK, but not really restful. The train did have the best air-conditioning I have encountered in Vietnam.