laos trip report, part iii: the adventure out...

Well, I know what you're going to say: Ryan, we thought you died after your first two Laos entries. Well, don't worry. I made it back fine, only to be confronted with one of the busiest months ever. I'm here to make things right!

In my last post I mentioned that an adventure would soon befall me on the Bolaven plateau. This was no lie. I set out in the morning to head back to Paxse, seeing another waterfall on my way. The morning started out very nice with beautiful mountain streams and brooks, all babbling and clear.



I then made my way onto a dirt road that was to lead me back to a town I had already been through before going back to Paxse. I know what you're thinking... but a dirt road in Laos, isn't that a bad idea? But look at this thing--it looked great, so well-maintained:



Never mind the water buffalo and children--I'm used to that stuff. After a few kilometers it still looked great:



Okay, so maybe a slight red flag should have gone up when I didn't see anyone else, but this is the least populated area of Laos, right, maybe there just isn't anyone to use the road around. So I kept on.

I passed over this bridge held up by big stones--neat.



About 30 kms into it disaster struck. I got a flat. Well that sucks. I'm in the middle of nowhere Laos with a flat tire. But it gets better. Not only am I in the middle of nowhere, I'm in the archetypal nowhere. Also wonderfully, road conditions have VASTLY deteriorated with ruts so deep in the road I'm afraid to slip into one. It becomes painfully clear I will be seeing no four-wheeled vehicles on this trip. It occurs to me that even if I find someone, they probably won't be the kind of person who has a spare on hand, now, will they?

On this count I was indeed proved correct. After making my way slowly through a further evaporating road, I spot some huts by the side of the road:

Hi piggy (you can see the road in the background--a fully functional bridge!):



Now, believe it or not, how to approach indigenous peoples isn't covered in grade-school so I'm a little worried about my actions. I walk around the area where their campfire is--the ground is littered with the bones of the little animals that also scurry around the camp. Luckily I don't have to knock on the hut, a man is outside and sees me. I motion him to come with me cause I don't know how to say "Oh hey man, I've got a flat, could you help me out?" in Laos. He understands and comes with me and sees my motorbike. He nods and says some stuff--nice, he's seen one before. Here is where it gets weird. He motions me to look at this path leading into the woods. Here's the path:



Now you can imagine my skepticism. I am silently thinking to myself: how can you possibly think that the solution to my problems lays on a little dirt path leading INTO the dangerous jungle? I mean, what in God's green Earth could lay down that path that could possibly be good for me!?!? But this guy seems really nice, so I go down the path. Eventually the path gets too rocky to utilize my motorbike (yes I road my scooter down it... with a flat).


So now I need to leave my motorbike behind while I traverse the jungle on foot. No prob. So I start walking around in footpaths in the jungle, and the only people I came upon are two naked kids who were scared to death of me, and a topless woman straight out of National Geographic. I suddenly think about what I'm doing and decide "Yeah, there probably aren't any mechanics out here." So I head back to my waiting scooter. Lo' and behold but my friend is there, he goes into the jungle and motions for me to wait. Logically, I just assume he's getting the local shaman to breathe life into my wheel. Amazingly he comes back with an air pump. It doesn't fit, which is fine, because I'm 99% sure there is a giant puncture in my tube somewhere anyway. But man, one-thousand points to this guy for trying. I thank him as profusely as you can with nonverbal communication. I threw in "kap jai yai yai" which is Laos for "Thank you very very much," but to be honest, I'm not so sure he spoke Laos at all. I received my greatest shock on the way back through the footpath to the road. As I was getting on my scooter, two men walked into view down the path (that I had to leave through).

They were carrying guns.

Hahah, I pretty much just threw that in for dramatic effect; however, I must say that I was immediately pretty damn scared. I mean, a guy just led me down this path, and now I see two guys blocking my way out with guns. After a few seconds of panicking I took a closer look. What was with their guns? As they came closer I got a better look at the guns--a nervous task, mind you--and realize they were about four-foot long muzzleloading, single-shot rifles from what had to be a hell-of-a-long time ago.

Where the hell was I?

I realized they were just coming back from hunting. They were surprised at me (the feeling was mutual), but just walked past.

I decided to hoof-it to the road before Joe-Hunter realized I saw his wifes chest. Probably not much of a threat since she was topless anyway, but I'm not taking any chances--Lord knows how good of a shot he is with that revolutionary-war-era antique. So I made it back to the road and went on my way. Still with a flat, and now an amazed look on my face as I considered the shirt-less, electricity-less, reliable rifle-less society I had just left behind.

I continued on my way (still with my flat) and a weird thing started to happen. As I made my way on, I began to see more and more huts, still without any sort of technology. But, bit-by bit I began to see an evolution. Eventually, I saw steel mixed with bamboo to make huts, then some of the huts were nicer and almost house-like. There were more people, too. It hit me that it was exactly like I was watching human evolution, on a single road, and that the farther I progressed, the more advanced it was getting. I kept going and this proved to be true. When I reached the part of human evolution that began to have simple mechanical transportation (scooters!), I pulled over at a rudimentary store-like building and the guy changed out the tube on my motorbike! Woooo! I was afraid what the bill would be--I didn't have much money. He grabs a stick and writes the price in the dirt... I get the bad news:

10,000

10,000?!?!?! Oh, wait, that's ONE DOLLAR. How the heck do you even get a scooter tube for one-dollar? Much less the tube and the time you invested in repairing it? I gave him 20,000, he seemed really pleased.

Oh, by the way, there are so many ridiculous waterfalls in Laos. Here's just a random view from the road:


So I made a little better time now that I had a fully-functional motorbike. The road got terrible. And by terrible I mean, it was finally paved, which you would think would be a good thing. But instead, the paving was of the paper thin sort that was RIDDLED with pot-holes, some of which were over a foot deep. All the scooters (including me) had to constantly weave from the far side of the road to the opposite side. Funny to think I actually ended up making slower time on the paved road with a fully functional motorbike than I was with a flat tire on the dirt road!

Oh, and I got another flat.

No joke. Anyway, another dollar later, everything was right as rain.

I had enough daylight to check out Tad Fane. What an amazing waterfall... It is just stupid-big. Imagine if you were trying to float down one of those two little streams and then came out here... yipes. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:





By the time I got to Pakse, I just relaxed on the banks of the Mekong for a while before getting a good nights sleep. I was treated to dinner by the family that owned the guest-house, which was good because I only had enough money for the bus ride home. I ate as much as I good and had a horrific bus ride the next morning, made worse by the hunger! But I made it home.

laos trip report, part ii: into the plateau…

The second day of my trip to Laos I began making my way to what is actually the least populated area of the country. I would later find out that in this area of Laos, less than 4% of locals were ethnic Laos, with over 97% belonging to various hill-tribes, who I would encounter often on my journey. I really recommend the fantastic Wikipedia article regarding this province (and focus of much of my Laos travels for this trip). It has very good information about the area, and gives great information on how the hill-tribes are perceived by other “more civilized” people.

Speaking of the area I visited, I forgot to include my customary map of where I went so you can gauge where I was in the world:

I went to the southern part of Laos. Other than Si Phan Don, this area is not very heavily trafficked, and I got a nice picture of remote life, away from tourism, in Southeast Asia. It is worth noting, however, that even though I was almost as far away from the beaten path as you can get, there was still one guesthouse in the larger towns I stopped at for the night. The area is most famous for the Bolaven plateau and its stunning waterfalls (which you will, of course, get to see through my photographs). In retrospect, I would absolutely love to spend a full thirty-days or so in Laos, going from the top of the country to the bottom. On my itinerary would be a big loop from top to bottom in Laos, hitting the Bokeo National Preserve Gibbon Experience, then Luang Prabang and the lovely waterfalls near it, then Vang Vien for tubing and caving and fun, then the Plain of Jars by Phonsovan, then farther south to spend a few days on the Bolaven Plateau, before chilling out on Si Phan Don. Sometime along the way I would hit at least 1 three-day trek with Green Discovery. I write this as much for myself as anyone else, but if you’re going to Laos, I suggest you take the time and make this full journey.

Anyway, I started my trip about the plateau by checking out one of the many waterfalls:

The natural beauty of the terrain here is really breathtaking. Mountain streams are everywhere, with clear, fresh water and large clean stones and boulders. Everything felt so brisk and clean in comparison to Bangkok, it was just very refreshing.

This is a picture of one of the many schools I saw and gives you an impression of the overall plateau view. I saw so many kids walking to school (I believe I already related my stories of their delight in seeing me!), I sometimes wondered how there could be so many happy kids running around.

I then stopped at another waterfall on a whim. It wasn’t even on my map, and turned out to be very nice. Here’s a view of the river feeding the falls. You’ll notice there is actually a lone monk wandering around in the photo. Strangely enough, I actually ran into him about an hour after I took this photo and found out he was Thai. I conversed with him with the little Thai I had and he was very pleased to speak Thai with me.

Here is the beautiful view looking down from the top of the falls. These grassy canyons and basins were just beautiful. Yes those are people!

Here’s the falls from down in the basin.

And the falls in their entirety:

Later on in the day as I wandered, I decided to take a chance and stopped at a school that was being let out. The kids were all lined up (in order of height—see photo), and going through military-like positions of attention and at-ease. I motioned to the teacher to see if I could take pictures and he smiled big and encouraged me. Here they are, in front of their flag of Laos on a bamboo pole. I should mention that oftentimes I would see the Laos flag flown hand in hand with the hammer and scythe—what a strange sight! You can see the schoolhouse in the background.

The kids sang the anthem as they lowered the flag. Adorable!

Here’s the bunch leaving school. You can see by their distance that the kids were afraid (though amused) of me at first. I motioned for them to come over so I could get a photo with them. None would get near me, until a lone boy (the bravest of the group), stood next to me for a picture. More and more kids gathered until I had a good group.

They warmed up to me:

The kids would often have me stand up straight and then mark their height next to me, amazed at my height. This was true of adults as well. In a small market I visited, I was made to stand for about 5 minutes while different townspeople compared their height with mine (I’m only 6’2”). They motioned to my skin often and pointed to my freckles and eyes. They were also incredibly kind and warm—an older lady motioned for me to come over and eat some rolls with her. I did, and they were delicious!

However, all this would pale in comparison the adventure that would soon befall me.

trip report: kanchanaburi province

Originally, my plans for this weekend were to visit the "dark heart" of Thailand, the rich forest and national park of Khao Yai. However, on Friday morning my plans changed drastically after Tyler didn't feel up to the trip. So... I hopped onboard another traveling group for the weekend and took the first bus to Kanchanaburi.

Upon arriving at Kanchanaburi I soon realized that the trip group was too big of a group for my tastes. I've been on some reasonably sized excursions but I decided early that this group was just too big. Skylar was of a like mind regarding the too-large size of the group, so we set off on our own. Our first stop was to rent some motorbikes in Kanchanaburi. And, as chicks dig scooters, Vanessa hopped on Skylar's bike and came with.

At this time in the story I need to mention a sub-plot regarding FATE. You see, many of my comrades started poking fun at me after they discovered a fantasy book amongst my belongings in my room called "The Dragonbone Chair." Ever since, I have acquired a sort of self-depreciating humor regarding dragons; constantly referring to them as my favorite thing. Skylar, on the other hand, actually has a legitimate fate centered around his holy number of "four." He decided that after numerous instances of four playing a part in his life, that he would adopt it as his "fate number," so to speak. Therefore, he uses it as his lucky number, and constantly notes his run-ins with the number. He even has a tattoo, circular with four wings made up of four rods each (see later picture). Vouching for his instances with four, at dinner we were numbered off to keep track of bills. True to his trend, Sky was number four. You may wonder how my dragon-liking fits in here. Well, after renting our scooters, Sky approached a table full of helmets to pick his out. All helmets were plain... except one. Of course, it had a dragon painted on it. As Sky didn't know abot my dragon-jokes, he snatched it up (as any sane person would) and tried to put it on. By this time I had begun to weep slightly as I wouldn't receive the dragon helmet. Providence was on my side, and the helmet did not fit Skylar. Needless to say, it fit me perfectly, thus becoming mine. Things were looking down for Sky, until we sat on our scooters, realizing Sky was on number 18 and I was on number... 4. This was obviously some sort of astrological error, so we switched bikes. Fate!

But I digress!

We set off on our super-fun Wave 100's for "Hell's Pass," build by the same POW's featured in the motion picture "A Bridge Over the River Kwai." Sadly, the park was closed upon our arrival (only 100cc engines on our scooters!), so I will have to come back another day (which is easy because Kanchanaburi is only a few clicks away from Bangkok)!

So, we continued our ride north, soaking in the scenery and relishing being away from Bangkok. I even saw a corn field! This wasn't the only thing that reminded me of home this trip. While riding my scooter, I got cold for the first time ever in Thailand. As we rode, there was a slight sprinkling of rain.

This, coupled with the higher altitude and wind from the scooters, gave me a chill which felt just like autumn back home. This had the surprising effect of making me miss home quite a lot, in particular the fall, which is my favorite season. Here the colours do not change; the weather does not change (except to get even hotter); and there is no Labor-Day visits to orchards!

We bedded down in a northern city (I believe called Tha Pa Phum). As we bedded down for the night I realized something funny about our covers (I have a feeling they were made in Thailand). True to my caracterization of Thailand and bad translations:

"We want to sleep and make us happy dreams."

Now, because the second part of this entry deals with a waterfall, I know what everyone is thinking. True to what I've said about Thailand, it is (apparently) made up of three things: badly translated signs, waterfalls, and monkeys. Believe it or not, we didn't see any monkeys this trip, but we did see a: badly translated sign eluding to the presence of monkeys, which I think counts. Oh... and it was at a waterfall.

And what a waterfall it was!!!

It was made up of seven tiers (count them with me!): ...

7:

6:

5:

4:

3:

2:

1:

I know you may think I have digitally alterred these photos. Let me clarify that the water you see here is the natural colour of the water. It had some mineral in the water that made it a very bright blue. You may also see photos in black and white with blue as the only colour, this was not coloured in, but was taken with a special setting on the camera which isolates a colour and removes all others. It worked very well here as the water was so blue!

The waterfalls were in Erawan Park in Kanchanaburi (a very nice scooter ride away from the town proper). I do recommend it if you would like to see a park that looks man-made it is so nice. It is best described as a delightful collection of scenic waterfalls, rocks, roots, vines, and (the cherry on top, so to speak) butterflies fluttering everywhere. It looks far more like something Disney created than anywhere I've ever been. I don't know if I'll be able to match the caliber of this waterfall on the rest of my journeys, so I took a lot of pictures (they're free).

Vanessa and the blue water.

Nice freeze-frame of the second tier.

Sky in a cave behind a waterfall (almost as good as ruins with monkeys!).

Me getting ready to dive in for the swim back (these fish nibble at you BAD!).

Emerging from swimming with the fishes on the fourth tier.

Sunlight filtered through the forest.

Nice shot of the fifth tier.

Me gingerly climbing the falls (which were very grippy where the water flowed fastest, but dangerously slippery where the water slowed).

Sky and Vanessa playing.

Sky and his tattoo of fortune fate four.

Me saying goodbye from the falls!

In the next entry I'll talk about the name Erawan and connect it with my apartment (I'll explain later).