July 8, 2005

 

Hey now!

 

I woke up the morning after I sent my last mass email to all of you and took a shower immediately.  Afterwards I used a q-tip and it came out BLACK.  I blew my nose and it came out BLACK.  YUCK!  Manila has the most pollution I have ever seen, it's even worse than China.  I took a couple of different buses that day to get to a small city outside of Manila to see the Taal volcano.  When I arrived, people bombarded me with offers to actually take me across the lake and onto the volcano.  I fended them all off until a nice guy came up with pictures and a professional brochure.  I looked at the price and agreed to go with him by boat over to the volcano where we would climb to the top and overlook the crater lake.  The climb was not easy but it was not too long so it was do-able.  Although the ground was radiating heat throughout the entire climb up, and the sun was beating down creating an almost unbareable heat, it was all worth it when we arrived at the summit.  My mouth dropped to the ground in amazement.  I looked into the crater and saw boiling water and steam coming up from all around the edges of the water.  Beyond the crater was a series of islands that created a most stunning view.  I was all smiles when I thought to myself, "You just climbed to the top of a volcano!!!"  It was a great experience.  

 

The following day I took off to go back to the Kuala Lumpur airport in Malaysia where I would, once again be sleeping overnight in the airport.  I loved it so much the first time, I decided I just had to do it again. To tell you the truth, I was actually looking forward to sleeping there because my room in Manila didn't have air conditioning and I sweat my butt off night after night while sleeping there. My flight took off the following morning around 10:00am heading to Thailand where I met up with good old Janelle Hill later that day.

 

It's been nothing short of amazing since she has gotten here.  We have swiftly conquered Bangkok,  where we took private boats through the canals to see the real way of life here in Thailand and then shopped our butts off.  After that it was off to north Thailand where we went on a day trek.  This included an elephant trek through the jungle and water, a visit to a few tribes throughout the area, a jungle trek on foot and bamboo rafting.  We also had the option of cliff jumping during the bamboo rafting portion and, of course, I volunteered to throw myself off into the river and take the plunge.  Gotta love my brilliant ideas sometimes.  Although it was a lot higher than I would have liked when I finally reached the top, I still jumped with a scream and it was good fun.  

 

We stayed on the Thailand/Laos border one night before we took the step and immigrated into Laos, a country that is at least 50 years behind Thailand, a country full of absolutely AWFUL transportation.  We took a speed boat along the river for about six hours one afternoon to get into the middle of the country and I came to the conclusion within the first ten minutes that this was the worst thing I have voluntarily done in the six months that I had been traveling.  The night before when we were at the guesthouse we were staying at, people warned us about the speedboats and told us they often crash.  WHAT?!?  It was obviously too late to change our plans at that point, so apparently we were destined to crash the following day.  We boarded this mini boat with no roof and sat with our knees up to our chins, bags between our legs minimizing the space we DIDN'T'T have, wooden planks digging into our backs and were wearing life vests, most of which had slits at the top where the padding was coming out.  There was obviously no hope for us if this thing tipped.  

 

After making it safely to Luang Prabang in Laos (which was a miracle because our boat began sinking at one point and then our second boat that we were transferredd into after almost sinking lost it's propeller) we booked into a place for the night.  The following day we rented a little taxi type thing called a tuk-tuk (where you sit in the flatbed of a truck and have a chinsey little roof over the top) and went to a nearby cave and set of waterfalls.  Both were really neat but the waterfalls were beyond incredible.  The color of the water was that same peptol bisthmol blue I had seen in New Zealand near Mt. Cook. They were just absolutely stunning!  On our way out of the park we saw a tiger in a cage and the keeper let us pet it.  It was quite an experience petting a five year old ferocious feline!

 

Later that night we took a VIP bus to Vientiane which was about five hours away, or so we thought.  The bus was not so VIP after all.  Transportation experience number two was hell and a half.  Nine hours later after being packed in this bus that was supposed to be air conditioned, we were still sucking exhaust, listening to terrible Laos music that was blasting over the loudspeakers, and dying from restlessness.  It was 4am when we finally pulled up to our stop. Apparently the reason we kept stopping and waiting was because landslides that had fallen into the road kept stopping us from continuing on the windy roads that were on the side of cliffs covered in mud.  Fabulous combination, right?  When we got off the bus in the pouring rain at our dreary looking, dark, scary bus stop, we looked at each other with half closed eyes and then thankfully spotted a heavenly yellow sign across the road that read "guesthouse."  We headed over and woke up the guy that was sleeping in the reception area and he gave us a room for a few hours.  

 

We moved to the place we were supposed to be at the night before and had a lovely breakfast overlooking the limestone karsts on the other side of the river that flowed through town. That afternoon we went tubing down the river where there were little pubs all along the way.  Each little place had bamboo poles they would pull you out of the current with and then they would help you out of your tube and happily serve you a beer laos.  Beer Laos is one of the best beers on the face of the planet.  So, basically the whole day was spent floating down the river, stopping at various pubs, swimming inside of caves, jumping off of rope swings, meeting fellow travelers from all over the world and sipping down a few beer laos in the process. The beers cost $1 and the tubes cost $3.50 for the whole day. It was quite a cheap day and very fun nonetheless.

 

We headed down the Nam Lik river the following day on kayaks in order to get our adventurous spirits flowing.  We were headed towards Vientiane in central Laos and would be picked up half way through kayaking and take a tuk-tuk the rest of the way.  Along the river there were plenty of rapids and, of course, in order to get the real experience, you need to tip over at some point, right?  Well, I definitely managed to make that one happen.  The rapids were a lot bigger than I thought they would be and over I went with one felt swoop of the tidal wave coming my way.  The kayak flipped and I went under, barely knowing which way was up until I finally came up and the kayak was on top of me.  I would consider myself a strong swimmer and I still struggled a great deal trying to keep my head above water even with my life vest on!  It took all I had to hold my breath for two more second while I went back under and pushed the kayak away from my head so that I could come out from under the thing and take just that one precious breath. I felt my favorite reef sandals fly off my feet and, as they sank into the deep abyss below, I knew they were gone forever.  The guide that was in my kayak before it flipped swam to the side and I was rescued by the guide in Janelle's kayak. Why did my guide swim to the side of the river? Could he even swim?  Why was he on the side of the river as I was quickly floating down the river with the flipped over kayak?  Did he know something that I didn't? Something was wrong with this picture.  Safety standards here are clearly nothing like they are in America.  I think I'll stick to solid ground for a while.

 

Upon arrival in Vientiane, we went to our guesthouse and showered before we went out for a great dinner at a nice little Italian restaurant.  I got a salad...a SALAD!  And it had real lettuce and tomatoes in it!  It was excellent and was followed by good old lasagna and dessert as well as a bottle of fine red wine.  I was in heaven and made sure to go back to that same place the following night.  Since Janelle and I needed to wait a few days for our Vietnam Visa's to go through we spent the time in Vientiane just relaxing and getting several massages, manicures and pedicures, paying very small amounts for such great service all the while.  It was nice to have a few days to relax after going full tilt boogey for a little over a week.

 

We took a flight over to Hanoi in Vietnam on the night of July 4th and ended up staying in a great little place in the center of town.  The following day we took a day trip out to Halong Bay, one of the most scenic places in all of Vietnam.  There are thousands of limestone rocks and small mountains jutting up out of the sea.  We took a boat big enough for about 30 people (there were only four of us) out around the different islands and checked some of the caves out.  We swam in the sea, preformed stunts off the second level of the boat into the water and had a wonderful 207 course meal.  There was LOTS of food.  The weather was beautiful and the positive experience, along with my cheesy grin all day, made me remember why I fell in love with Vietnam the first time I visited this wonderful country in the fall of 2002.  We were off to Ho Chi Minh City in no time and spent two days there shopping and sight seeing.  Being there, visiting the same restaurants, markets, parks and squares was beyond surreal.  It felt like a dream.  Things seem a little more high tech and a lot more busy than I remembered.

 

Leaving Vietnam for the second time makes me just as sad as it did the first time.  There is so much to do here and so many wonderful people to meet.  I will come back again someday, for sure, along with the million other places I want to go back to as well.  We're off to Cambodia tonight to visit the temples of Angkor Wat for a few days.  After that, we will end a month long journey together on the islands and beaches of Thailand.  It's about time we had a few days for some R&R!  It sure is a tough life over here...

 

Lauren P. Coker