hello again,
we were supposed to head on down to the south coast of cambodia yesterday to a resort called sihanoukville for some beach action but we hit a bit of a scare as ross woke up with chronic stomach pains and aching bones,muscles etc so fearing the worst and just to be on the safe side we got him quickly to a hospital for treatment and diagnosis but i can happily say that hes now on the road to recovery and it seems that it was a little case of food poisoning so nobody worry!i was a little tired when i wrote last and forgot to mention that we'd visited the killing fields and the infamous s21 (s for security) khmer rouge jail in which there were 14,000 inmates (all innocent people as none of the khmer rouges victims/prisoners had a actually committed any crime!)and only a handful survived!this was an experience and a valuable historical lesson but it also sent shivers down my spine to see such horror and deprivation as it was based in a phnom penh childrens school with the classrooms transformed into cells and torture chambers.i could never imagine such horrific crimes and the agony of these people must've been immense and for this it makes me very sad but happiness now comes from walking the streets and seeing the country and the people rebuilding their self confidence,self belief and individuality as a culture they have built over thousands of years,and that they truly deserve!that's all i will say on that subject as although it is good for us all to remember these atrocities and to pay thoughts and prayers to the many victims at times i cannot think about it for too long as it can get a little too much and can make me very sad and frustrated at how any member of the human race can reach such a pinnacle of pure evil!
on a lighter note!my guitaring is coming along pretty well and yesterday i learnt the first basic chords towards my mission to play the blues!sweet!
"w'w'w'w woke up this mo'nin d der der der dum
ok forget the singing part but hopefully i'll be able to play it eventually!hehe
it's all coming along nicely and im taking it a step at a time but i must say im a little suprised at myself as i've not once before seen myself as a future guitarist(even now really!)so im really enjoying it!ross almost has the didgeridoo technique going on and maybe a couple of days if he practices he'll have it mastered so its all good and productive on the musical front in fact we've been pretty productive all round,writing songs,learning didge n guitars n i've finally finished my first wooded carving that i started on my arrival to thailand in january!its made with ebony wood and is one of the best ive done and im looking forward to starting the next!
i was in a shop the other day in phnom penh and the owners were eating at the counter out of a bowl that had some sort of mixture in which looked ok and they offered me some.well,not one to offend the locals i tried a spoonful and it was very nice!what was the slight crunch that accompanied the strong garlic taste i wondered!on closer inspection of the bowl i spied a variety of contorted red bodies in amongst the flavoursome mixture that i immediately recognised as the large red soldier ants that are always nibbling my feet!haha got my own back on the little buggers!brilliant!and they actually taste pretty good!next stop tarantula!mmmmm anyway we are now in sihanoukville on the south coast of cambodia and are hitting a long awaited and sorely missed bit of beach life before heading back to phnom penh and up to siem reap to soak up the immense energy that the angkor wat will surely have to offer us!anyway so thats it for now
take care every one
much love
damo xx
Friday, 24 March 2006
Monday, 20 March 2006
suustey from cambodia
helloooooooooooooooooooo (suu stey!) from cambodia!
its been a wee while since my last update so prepare yourselves for another page of endless dribble from the slowest typer in the world!or at leat in phnom penh!either that or just bypass it and delete it as i guess a few of you may do!
well i believe i left off in vientianne in laos,so i'll start there!we left vientianne on a 14 hour journey by bus south bound to the southern town of pakse and after a very long winded bumpy ride we arrived,tired and rather grumpy at 6am jumped,3 up onto yet another surprising and fun new mode of transport!i'll let you see the pics when i get back!needing a bed really and some sleep we held out and sat at a local restaurant on the street,had a coffee to lift the tired eyes and had fun trying to order some breakfast to aid the deprived bones on which we were sat.we ended up getting all pro active and getting on a sight seeing mission to see some of what the area had to offer instead of getting our heads down and it payed off!after speaking and haggling with the only tour shop in the main street for around an hour we then decided to just grab a tuk tuk and do the lot ourselves.as the driver was so friendly and the tour shop prices kept fluctuating so much we ended up just giving the driver our cash to show us around!not a happy chap the tour guy but then he shouldn't have gotten greedy n tried to rip us off!anyway it turned into a really great day and i think for the driver too as he brought his wife along n made the most of it!we started at one of the most breathtaking waterfalls ive ever seen if not THE most with a duel drop from two small rivers about 20meters apart dropping about 120 meters through a massive valley in the jungle!at first we saw it from a view point then we hired a very friendly local guide to show us more.we trekked through coffee and tea plantations learning lots about the different strains and harvest methods along the way and dense jungle after that until we made it to the top of the water fall!it is named tadt fane and is named after a wild animal as are all of the waterfalls there as they all have differing and unique character to them and as we reached this river the heavens opened and just about the hardest rainfall ive ever been caught out in soaked us down to the bone!nice!especially tricky then trying to see over the edge to the pool 120 meters below with wet slippery rocks under your feet!what an arse!sorry i didn't fall off so there'll be a few more emails comin your way!: ) well then it was another trek through the now sodden wet dense jungle onto the next totally spectacular waterfall which i think was tadt lo but can't be certain as my big aim was warming up a little n getting some food n a hot cuppa into me.luckily the sun came out and we explored the waterfall and got some cool pictures and unlike the previous waterfall we could get to the bottom and see the whole thing and take it all in with amazement and awe.man what a truly magnificent land,never before have a seen nature in such power and grace in one and it made my trip to laos and filled me with pure contentment before leaving this beautiful country!we trekked back,now roasting hot from the beating sun and quickly dry again passing a village where we met the locals and watched them making coffee from the already sun dried and roasted beans and that was a nice thing to behold!next was the tea plantation and this also was a great insight into exactly how its all produced and we sat with a very old laos guy and tried some of his finest leaf and it was so good i bought a massive bag from him to take back to thailand and drink to my hearts content!though hopefully the thai customs wont search my bag on entry and think its another sort of leaf hey!: )after spending that night in a 2 dollar a night room and a good catch up on the sleep we missed on the bus we were ready once again to move on and headed for the local bus station(dusty market full of pigs,goats and more dust)and jumped on a pick up with twenty locals,a few other travellers 30 sacks of rice and about 3 tons of other sorts of various produce we headed even further south toward the long awaited 4000 islands near the cambodian border!these are a large cluster of island within the banks of the mekong river a nd are truly amazing!just like an island of the ocean yet surrounded by beautiful lime green fresh water of the mekong river!we found a great place on the sunset side of the island of don det (don means island in laos)with a great bungalow with space for two hammocks and just enough for our ever growing hair and made camp for a week!you can take tubes out and explore the river and islands or kayaks or just swim around the place so long as you dont fall asleep and drift downstream!a little down stream there be a miriad of waterfall all cascading from all directions into a torrid flow of dangerous currents and jagged rocks,absolutely amazing!especially as we were told the waterfall was not big or special(from some blind fool!)we hired bicycles and trekked a few kilometers to get there but when we di we were yet again taken aback by the amazing sight before us and as the mekong is so bloody wide it was creating endless separate falls from all sides almost like the niagra falls in shape and flow and very very powerful!we went further down stream and found a beach and set up camp there,after burning my feet red raw on the almost melted sand (its alot hotter down this way you know so wear your shoes!)adventurous as we are we decided to explore the river and trying not to get washed away as we did!getting more and more daring as the day went on we decided to throw ourselves down the rapids (after careful inspection of course as theres no-one else there to advise you!)whoa strong currents but great fun and the most amazing swim ive ever had though getting sucked unders a bit of a knee trembler!probably the best day ive had in laos and seeing all the warning signs on the way home that we'd missed on the way made me feel a little grateful to be alive but also added to the excitement!: )not as bad as almost losing my right eye attempting a front somersault into the river from 4.5 meters up but close!don't worry its all good just hit the water face first with my eye open and burst a few blood vessels but managed to perfect my running back flip(gainer) once my confidence was back on track!i would urge anyone in the area to check this siland out as its cheap,very friendly,magnificent and the water is a pleasure to swim in and very warm!one day ross and i were teaching some young laos kids to snorkel as they'd never seen a snorkel and mask before and were so intrigued we gave them lessons and that was so rewarding seeing them so excited and happy and once they understood how it worked they were thrilled and couldn't get enough!
well,i now reside in cambodia and am in the capital phnam penh have been here for three days with ross and a great scottish guy that we met in don det waiting for the boat and will stay with probably for the next two weeks or so!this city is great!bustling and vibrant and extremely crazy!i didn't know what to expect upon my arrival and had heard some bad horror stories about it but my mind was instantly eased by the friendly people and hospitality and yes its very in your face and full on at times but nothing over the top and unbearable and we're settling in quite well as we found our feet got a room for 5bucks for three of us and not realising that the back half floated on the massive boeung kak lake on floating decking we then were instantly at home!after five minutes with the fresh lakeside air,a beer n a dooby we were well relaxed and forgot about the 12hour nightmare journey we had undertaken but i'll spare you any more and leave you to the rest of your day!sorry to write so much crap n go on but im a little tired and dehydrated blah blah as i type so slow i started yesterday!:)
take care y'all
much love
damien blah blah blah xxx
p.s. the language is a little more difficult here but its coming slowly!
its been a wee while since my last update so prepare yourselves for another page of endless dribble from the slowest typer in the world!or at leat in phnom penh!either that or just bypass it and delete it as i guess a few of you may do!
well i believe i left off in vientianne in laos,so i'll start there!we left vientianne on a 14 hour journey by bus south bound to the southern town of pakse and after a very long winded bumpy ride we arrived,tired and rather grumpy at 6am jumped,3 up onto yet another surprising and fun new mode of transport!i'll let you see the pics when i get back!needing a bed really and some sleep we held out and sat at a local restaurant on the street,had a coffee to lift the tired eyes and had fun trying to order some breakfast to aid the deprived bones on which we were sat.we ended up getting all pro active and getting on a sight seeing mission to see some of what the area had to offer instead of getting our heads down and it payed off!after speaking and haggling with the only tour shop in the main street for around an hour we then decided to just grab a tuk tuk and do the lot ourselves.as the driver was so friendly and the tour shop prices kept fluctuating so much we ended up just giving the driver our cash to show us around!not a happy chap the tour guy but then he shouldn't have gotten greedy n tried to rip us off!anyway it turned into a really great day and i think for the driver too as he brought his wife along n made the most of it!we started at one of the most breathtaking waterfalls ive ever seen if not THE most with a duel drop from two small rivers about 20meters apart dropping about 120 meters through a massive valley in the jungle!at first we saw it from a view point then we hired a very friendly local guide to show us more.we trekked through coffee and tea plantations learning lots about the different strains and harvest methods along the way and dense jungle after that until we made it to the top of the water fall!it is named tadt fane and is named after a wild animal as are all of the waterfalls there as they all have differing and unique character to them and as we reached this river the heavens opened and just about the hardest rainfall ive ever been caught out in soaked us down to the bone!nice!especially tricky then trying to see over the edge to the pool 120 meters below with wet slippery rocks under your feet!what an arse!sorry i didn't fall off so there'll be a few more emails comin your way!: ) well then it was another trek through the now sodden wet dense jungle onto the next totally spectacular waterfall which i think was tadt lo but can't be certain as my big aim was warming up a little n getting some food n a hot cuppa into me.luckily the sun came out and we explored the waterfall and got some cool pictures and unlike the previous waterfall we could get to the bottom and see the whole thing and take it all in with amazement and awe.man what a truly magnificent land,never before have a seen nature in such power and grace in one and it made my trip to laos and filled me with pure contentment before leaving this beautiful country!we trekked back,now roasting hot from the beating sun and quickly dry again passing a village where we met the locals and watched them making coffee from the already sun dried and roasted beans and that was a nice thing to behold!next was the tea plantation and this also was a great insight into exactly how its all produced and we sat with a very old laos guy and tried some of his finest leaf and it was so good i bought a massive bag from him to take back to thailand and drink to my hearts content!though hopefully the thai customs wont search my bag on entry and think its another sort of leaf hey!: )after spending that night in a 2 dollar a night room and a good catch up on the sleep we missed on the bus we were ready once again to move on and headed for the local bus station(dusty market full of pigs,goats and more dust)and jumped on a pick up with twenty locals,a few other travellers 30 sacks of rice and about 3 tons of other sorts of various produce we headed even further south toward the long awaited 4000 islands near the cambodian border!these are a large cluster of island within the banks of the mekong river a nd are truly amazing!just like an island of the ocean yet surrounded by beautiful lime green fresh water of the mekong river!we found a great place on the sunset side of the island of don det (don means island in laos)with a great bungalow with space for two hammocks and just enough for our ever growing hair and made camp for a week!you can take tubes out and explore the river and islands or kayaks or just swim around the place so long as you dont fall asleep and drift downstream!a little down stream there be a miriad of waterfall all cascading from all directions into a torrid flow of dangerous currents and jagged rocks,absolutely amazing!especially as we were told the waterfall was not big or special(from some blind fool!)we hired bicycles and trekked a few kilometers to get there but when we di we were yet again taken aback by the amazing sight before us and as the mekong is so bloody wide it was creating endless separate falls from all sides almost like the niagra falls in shape and flow and very very powerful!we went further down stream and found a beach and set up camp there,after burning my feet red raw on the almost melted sand (its alot hotter down this way you know so wear your shoes!)adventurous as we are we decided to explore the river and trying not to get washed away as we did!getting more and more daring as the day went on we decided to throw ourselves down the rapids (after careful inspection of course as theres no-one else there to advise you!)whoa strong currents but great fun and the most amazing swim ive ever had though getting sucked unders a bit of a knee trembler!probably the best day ive had in laos and seeing all the warning signs on the way home that we'd missed on the way made me feel a little grateful to be alive but also added to the excitement!: )not as bad as almost losing my right eye attempting a front somersault into the river from 4.5 meters up but close!don't worry its all good just hit the water face first with my eye open and burst a few blood vessels but managed to perfect my running back flip(gainer) once my confidence was back on track!i would urge anyone in the area to check this siland out as its cheap,very friendly,magnificent and the water is a pleasure to swim in and very warm!one day ross and i were teaching some young laos kids to snorkel as they'd never seen a snorkel and mask before and were so intrigued we gave them lessons and that was so rewarding seeing them so excited and happy and once they understood how it worked they were thrilled and couldn't get enough!
well,i now reside in cambodia and am in the capital phnam penh have been here for three days with ross and a great scottish guy that we met in don det waiting for the boat and will stay with probably for the next two weeks or so!this city is great!bustling and vibrant and extremely crazy!i didn't know what to expect upon my arrival and had heard some bad horror stories about it but my mind was instantly eased by the friendly people and hospitality and yes its very in your face and full on at times but nothing over the top and unbearable and we're settling in quite well as we found our feet got a room for 5bucks for three of us and not realising that the back half floated on the massive boeung kak lake on floating decking we then were instantly at home!after five minutes with the fresh lakeside air,a beer n a dooby we were well relaxed and forgot about the 12hour nightmare journey we had undertaken but i'll spare you any more and leave you to the rest of your day!sorry to write so much crap n go on but im a little tired and dehydrated blah blah as i type so slow i started yesterday!:)
take care y'all
much love
damien blah blah blah xxx
p.s. the language is a little more difficult here but its coming slowly!
Sunday, 5 March 2006
howdy
helloooooooooooooooo!
hey again my dear fellows,i do hope everyone is doing great and all that malarkey as per usual!well,an eventful two weeks to say the least since my last email,in which i was sitting in this exact same seat i think!well,we started form the capital of laos(vientiane)which is where i now dwell once again and headed north on a very slow,but overall very pleasant bus journey to the next destination of vang vieng.a slight discomfort though due to the fact that i had to let myself dehydrate fairly and that my pea sized bladder,lots of water and 3 hours without a toilet would've surely created an even more uncomfortable trip hey!haha best be on the safe side n i'd rather be a little hot n sweaty than exploding on the back seat and the other sleepy passengers on board!hmmm a little too much information but bear with me here im trying to paint a picture!hehe anyway,one wee stop(which i didn't need!!doh)and some barbecued goat later we made it to vang vieng,dropped off by the bus at the bus stop...basically a wide open gravelled surface which also doubles up as an air strip.we then ventured through the dusty high street(track)in search of a guesthouse.luckily for us a western guy on his scooter with a local girl on the back then helped us on our way to our first bed for the night!sweet,and as mr b.a barrakus once said " aaaah love it when a plan comes tagether!" and that it did we were directed to a lovely guesthouse,funnily enough managed by the western guy and his laos lady friend and at only 1.5 dollars per night who were we to argue!on checking my emails a little later on we realised that a couple of good friends from koh pha ngan were also in the vacinity and we then went on a mission to find them(whoa sorry im blabbering a bit so i'll try to cut things a little simpler!)anyway basically we found them had a great time blah blah blah and all that jazz!
the next day we could actually see the true beauty of the place in which we had just arrived as we had gotten there on the brink of sunset and didn't really get a chance to look around.an awesome backdrop of beautifully formed mountains graced the skyline in the distance looking out from the veranda of the guesthouse was a great start and a great view to start the day with along side a coffee and an omlette and on a rainy day the slight possibilty of a dooby!; )sadly we must end the video diary that we've been making throughout each and every wonderful day as my video camera has finally given up on me and it brings a tear to our eyes every time we see something beautiful(which is near constant!)that we cannot log for you all to see on our return and this for us is very upsetting but also part of the experience and we are learning to deal with it!
hell,i knew i shouldn't have taken it to that jungle rave!!: )
you never know we may end up finding something by pure magic but contrary to popular belief it really isnt that cheap for that sort of thing out here!sadly!sob weep sob
ok so now armed with our camera we decide to hire mountain bikes and to head out toward the numerous mountain tracks and caves that are there to be explored,only two minutes down the track i decide(as you do as i big kid!)to test the brakes and do a big skid only to find,in a very abrupt manner that some smug joker had switched the front brake with the back brake and yes,over the handlebars i went!hmmm good start me thinks!so,needless to say we had made it only as far as the nam song river about a few hundred yards where in which we had a lovely fruit shake,a little dooby and there we stayed to nurse my fresh cuts and take in the ambience of the river side!after that we did actually make it exploring and there are countless different caves to explore.some that are about 3km into the mountains!there is one particular cave that at the same time every evening at sunset thousands of bats disperse from the cave and flow as one complete unit like a giant ribbon blowing in the wind ,visible for a mile or so before slipping off into little flocks that are almost like the formations that fish like barracuda use to ward off potential predators and i must say it was a spectacular sight!
the next thing was the river,i think it was the nam song or nam som not sure but it was sooooo pretty and the best way to see both the beauty of the river and the countryside was to take a tube down it!by tube,yes i mean an inner tube for a tractor tyre which are easy to rent and a little tuk tuk takes you up the river about 3-4 km and drops you off!its very slow moving so its perfect and takes a few hours to float down to vang vieng depending on how many stops you make on the way and how many beer lao's also!!there are many different bamboo bars along the river side and each one trying to intice you in with something or other and its pretty hard to say no and needless to say that our first stop was about 100 yards down river!: )fed with a free lao lao (local moonshine!)on our arrival i instantly felt welcome and happy!(until i drank it that is!) but that was my first encounter of the flavoursome tipple and im now well accostomed!: ) these bars have constructed the craziest rope swings ive ever seen and the make shift wobbly wooden platforms are about 30+ feet up and don't look much from the ground but once you climb them you instantly regret it!hmmmm not a great one for heights me but swing i did and manged a back flip while i was at it allbeit a very petrified,scared stiff sort of technique!if you let go at the right time then you probably make around 40 feet high before you begin your descent into the clear,cool water below trying to avoid kamakaze tubers along the way!after that we then set off sown stream again but yet again made it only 100yards before we stopped again!not really a bar but just a bamboo platform in the middle of the river with a very drunken local guy with a guitar so as ross can sing and play guitar very well and i'm learning to play he flagged us down and we stopped for a while!well,several free lao lao's later we were all singing and gaining new members to the group as we did!great fun!finally,happy and half pissed we managed to leave that little pagoda of joy and set afloat once more trying to race the sun and get back before dark as this can cause somewhat of a problem!well ok,one more beer stop and then homeward bound and just before dark too!phew!what a great day!
my guitar playing is coming on pretty well and i'm very pleased overall with my progress and ross is now starting to see some progress on the didgeridoo also which is great and now he has even more incentive to continue which makes me happy.
this will make you laugh and,well,i did afterwards but it was a little embarrassing at the time as i had said this to many people over my various trips.i was speaking with a laos guesthouse owner and very sincerely told her in laos that i was tired!no big deal!apart from the fact that instead of saying"i'm very tired " i actually said " i have a very hairy dick!!"haha shit!!yes i cringed fairly but luckily she was laughing more than me and wasn't atall offended but the difference of the two sentences is a mere virtually unrecognisable change of tone in one of the words!hehe oops and when in thailand i asked for an orange shake once and he looked blankly then up at the roof and then back at me with a puzzled face!this happened two or three times until i evetually just said "ok",in english "i'll have an orange shake please" and he laughed and told me that he though i wanted to fix the roof!shit,i only said two words and usually they work fine but i was a little tired and a little fungally annebriated!!unbeknown by me of course!so now if im tired i just make the two hands clasped by the head gesture instead and it works just as well!hehe
one other upsetting incident that occurred (other than the video camera getting malaria)that i must regretfully report is of a burglary in our room!luckily for us they only took some dollars and thai baht,ross' mobile phone and my mp3 player and could've taken passports, t.cheques you name it so like the morphys,we're not bitter,well not anymore but we have a suspect and boy i hope we don't see him around as i'd quite like to stay outa the bangkok hilton for now!its very upsetting that a fellow traveller could even think of such a dreadful deed but we're here for the duration and we're taking whatever is thrown our way and dealing with it,although we have been plagued by some terrible luck over the trip so far!everything has a bright side and if ross' bag hadn't been sliced apart in numerous spots we wouldn't have known that we were actually naturals with a needle and thread recieving praise for our new found skill far and wide : ),and now his brand new 150pound rucksack has its own story to tell complete with battle scars so its all good!
the time eventually came to depart this wonderful spot and we made a snap decision to head for a big man made lake slightly soth between vang vieng and vientiane and as it was so cheap we took a taxi,boy what a mistake!by taxi i mean a pick with a roof over the back and two benches along the two insides.it was a very overcast and misty morning and thinking we were taking a bus there we sat in shorts and a thin shirt each,freezing cold,our bodies squashed up against the back of the drivers cab and a local guy asleep against my back the whole way!now,considering this was the only day that my stomach decided to be a little tender shall i say,i then braced myself for one of....no ..no...the most terrible journeys so far!freezing cold,squashed,slept on(which wasn't so bad as he seemed like he had a good snooze!)feeling like i was going to have an accident at any given moment be it,orally or otherwise and the fact th that we were going all of 15miles per hour due to the excessive over of people and produce on board i then started to dream about how it would be on the bus that we really ought to have taken!hhmmm definately one of those grin n bear it moments!hehe all two hours of it!after that we were dropped of in a pretty much tourist free area n had to put our local lingo into action and headed by tuk tuk to the lake which has a massive dam and is used as a reservoir and provided hydro eclectric power for laos and parts of thailand!still ill and dropped off in a little shanti town,very poor and delapidated a guy who spoke broken english then talked us into heading over to one of the numerous islands on the lake!now,at this point i agreed to anything and everything as my illness was really pulling me lower and lower!these islands are the remnants of the mountains that once stood in this valley as they are the mountain peaks that weren't quite covered by the flood water when they flooded the vally in 1971 and the water is very clear and a captivating turqoisey green sort of colour!arriving at this tiny tiny island seemed,on top of the illness,all a bit too surreal!now i cannot explain it but basically a tiny island about 70meters wide with a guest house at the centre peak and not a soul on it apart from a little laos lady and her little wooden(derelict)restaurant and home perched on the edge of the island,a few chickens and two dogs!all very mystified and still feeling like the place looked we were shown our room in the top of the guesthouse and indeed the toilet where the moment i closed the door bluuuuuuuuurrrrgggghh out it came!hmmm nice!especially with no lights and electric it made for a wonderful experience!haha the place sort of looked like you'd expect the house on haunted hill to look like,all derelict,no lights,electric,people and every object on the island creaked!oooooh!we were the only ones in the whole place and it felt like we were in a film for the evening and started to dread for the darkness to fall!oh well i was soooo happy to have a bed and to rest my now achey boney structure that we soon settled in,and when darkness fell we took our two candles,kindly placed in the room for us and made the most of the two hours of light they gave us and enjoyed a few games of yahtzee before bed!now i wish i could just paint the picture for you as it was for us but sadly,it's an imposible task but if tranquility is your thing then this is the place and it is a beautiful ambience that i could only really appreciate the day after as my illness had subsided!
hence now we are back in the capital and tomorrow will go to the thai embassy and try to get a 60day visa for our re-entry but before we do we will travel down to southern laos and then hopefully into cambodia to see angkor wat and a friend so i'll keep you posted!sorry for writing such a long winded one email!my love to one and all
take care
love dimson doolittle : ) x
hey again my dear fellows,i do hope everyone is doing great and all that malarkey as per usual!well,an eventful two weeks to say the least since my last email,in which i was sitting in this exact same seat i think!well,we started form the capital of laos(vientiane)which is where i now dwell once again and headed north on a very slow,but overall very pleasant bus journey to the next destination of vang vieng.a slight discomfort though due to the fact that i had to let myself dehydrate fairly and that my pea sized bladder,lots of water and 3 hours without a toilet would've surely created an even more uncomfortable trip hey!haha best be on the safe side n i'd rather be a little hot n sweaty than exploding on the back seat and the other sleepy passengers on board!hmmm a little too much information but bear with me here im trying to paint a picture!hehe anyway,one wee stop(which i didn't need!!doh)and some barbecued goat later we made it to vang vieng,dropped off by the bus at the bus stop...basically a wide open gravelled surface which also doubles up as an air strip.we then ventured through the dusty high street(track)in search of a guesthouse.luckily for us a western guy on his scooter with a local girl on the back then helped us on our way to our first bed for the night!sweet,and as mr b.a barrakus once said " aaaah love it when a plan comes tagether!" and that it did we were directed to a lovely guesthouse,funnily enough managed by the western guy and his laos lady friend and at only 1.5 dollars per night who were we to argue!on checking my emails a little later on we realised that a couple of good friends from koh pha ngan were also in the vacinity and we then went on a mission to find them(whoa sorry im blabbering a bit so i'll try to cut things a little simpler!)anyway basically we found them had a great time blah blah blah and all that jazz!
the next day we could actually see the true beauty of the place in which we had just arrived as we had gotten there on the brink of sunset and didn't really get a chance to look around.an awesome backdrop of beautifully formed mountains graced the skyline in the distance looking out from the veranda of the guesthouse was a great start and a great view to start the day with along side a coffee and an omlette and on a rainy day the slight possibilty of a dooby!; )sadly we must end the video diary that we've been making throughout each and every wonderful day as my video camera has finally given up on me and it brings a tear to our eyes every time we see something beautiful(which is near constant!)that we cannot log for you all to see on our return and this for us is very upsetting but also part of the experience and we are learning to deal with it!
hell,i knew i shouldn't have taken it to that jungle rave!!: )
you never know we may end up finding something by pure magic but contrary to popular belief it really isnt that cheap for that sort of thing out here!sadly!sob weep sob
ok so now armed with our camera we decide to hire mountain bikes and to head out toward the numerous mountain tracks and caves that are there to be explored,only two minutes down the track i decide(as you do as i big kid!)to test the brakes and do a big skid only to find,in a very abrupt manner that some smug joker had switched the front brake with the back brake and yes,over the handlebars i went!hmmm good start me thinks!so,needless to say we had made it only as far as the nam song river about a few hundred yards where in which we had a lovely fruit shake,a little dooby and there we stayed to nurse my fresh cuts and take in the ambience of the river side!after that we did actually make it exploring and there are countless different caves to explore.some that are about 3km into the mountains!there is one particular cave that at the same time every evening at sunset thousands of bats disperse from the cave and flow as one complete unit like a giant ribbon blowing in the wind ,visible for a mile or so before slipping off into little flocks that are almost like the formations that fish like barracuda use to ward off potential predators and i must say it was a spectacular sight!
the next thing was the river,i think it was the nam song or nam som not sure but it was sooooo pretty and the best way to see both the beauty of the river and the countryside was to take a tube down it!by tube,yes i mean an inner tube for a tractor tyre which are easy to rent and a little tuk tuk takes you up the river about 3-4 km and drops you off!its very slow moving so its perfect and takes a few hours to float down to vang vieng depending on how many stops you make on the way and how many beer lao's also!!there are many different bamboo bars along the river side and each one trying to intice you in with something or other and its pretty hard to say no and needless to say that our first stop was about 100 yards down river!: )fed with a free lao lao (local moonshine!)on our arrival i instantly felt welcome and happy!(until i drank it that is!) but that was my first encounter of the flavoursome tipple and im now well accostomed!: ) these bars have constructed the craziest rope swings ive ever seen and the make shift wobbly wooden platforms are about 30+ feet up and don't look much from the ground but once you climb them you instantly regret it!hmmmm not a great one for heights me but swing i did and manged a back flip while i was at it allbeit a very petrified,scared stiff sort of technique!if you let go at the right time then you probably make around 40 feet high before you begin your descent into the clear,cool water below trying to avoid kamakaze tubers along the way!after that we then set off sown stream again but yet again made it only 100yards before we stopped again!not really a bar but just a bamboo platform in the middle of the river with a very drunken local guy with a guitar so as ross can sing and play guitar very well and i'm learning to play he flagged us down and we stopped for a while!well,several free lao lao's later we were all singing and gaining new members to the group as we did!great fun!finally,happy and half pissed we managed to leave that little pagoda of joy and set afloat once more trying to race the sun and get back before dark as this can cause somewhat of a problem!well ok,one more beer stop and then homeward bound and just before dark too!phew!what a great day!
my guitar playing is coming on pretty well and i'm very pleased overall with my progress and ross is now starting to see some progress on the didgeridoo also which is great and now he has even more incentive to continue which makes me happy.
this will make you laugh and,well,i did afterwards but it was a little embarrassing at the time as i had said this to many people over my various trips.i was speaking with a laos guesthouse owner and very sincerely told her in laos that i was tired!no big deal!apart from the fact that instead of saying"i'm very tired " i actually said " i have a very hairy dick!!"haha shit!!yes i cringed fairly but luckily she was laughing more than me and wasn't atall offended but the difference of the two sentences is a mere virtually unrecognisable change of tone in one of the words!hehe oops and when in thailand i asked for an orange shake once and he looked blankly then up at the roof and then back at me with a puzzled face!this happened two or three times until i evetually just said "ok",in english "i'll have an orange shake please" and he laughed and told me that he though i wanted to fix the roof!shit,i only said two words and usually they work fine but i was a little tired and a little fungally annebriated!!unbeknown by me of course!so now if im tired i just make the two hands clasped by the head gesture instead and it works just as well!hehe
one other upsetting incident that occurred (other than the video camera getting malaria)that i must regretfully report is of a burglary in our room!luckily for us they only took some dollars and thai baht,ross' mobile phone and my mp3 player and could've taken passports, t.cheques you name it so like the morphys,we're not bitter,well not anymore but we have a suspect and boy i hope we don't see him around as i'd quite like to stay outa the bangkok hilton for now!its very upsetting that a fellow traveller could even think of such a dreadful deed but we're here for the duration and we're taking whatever is thrown our way and dealing with it,although we have been plagued by some terrible luck over the trip so far!everything has a bright side and if ross' bag hadn't been sliced apart in numerous spots we wouldn't have known that we were actually naturals with a needle and thread recieving praise for our new found skill far and wide : ),and now his brand new 150pound rucksack has its own story to tell complete with battle scars so its all good!
the time eventually came to depart this wonderful spot and we made a snap decision to head for a big man made lake slightly soth between vang vieng and vientiane and as it was so cheap we took a taxi,boy what a mistake!by taxi i mean a pick with a roof over the back and two benches along the two insides.it was a very overcast and misty morning and thinking we were taking a bus there we sat in shorts and a thin shirt each,freezing cold,our bodies squashed up against the back of the drivers cab and a local guy asleep against my back the whole way!now,considering this was the only day that my stomach decided to be a little tender shall i say,i then braced myself for one of....no ..no...the most terrible journeys so far!freezing cold,squashed,slept on(which wasn't so bad as he seemed like he had a good snooze!)feeling like i was going to have an accident at any given moment be it,orally or otherwise and the fact th that we were going all of 15miles per hour due to the excessive over of people and produce on board i then started to dream about how it would be on the bus that we really ought to have taken!hhmmm definately one of those grin n bear it moments!hehe all two hours of it!after that we were dropped of in a pretty much tourist free area n had to put our local lingo into action and headed by tuk tuk to the lake which has a massive dam and is used as a reservoir and provided hydro eclectric power for laos and parts of thailand!still ill and dropped off in a little shanti town,very poor and delapidated a guy who spoke broken english then talked us into heading over to one of the numerous islands on the lake!now,at this point i agreed to anything and everything as my illness was really pulling me lower and lower!these islands are the remnants of the mountains that once stood in this valley as they are the mountain peaks that weren't quite covered by the flood water when they flooded the vally in 1971 and the water is very clear and a captivating turqoisey green sort of colour!arriving at this tiny tiny island seemed,on top of the illness,all a bit too surreal!now i cannot explain it but basically a tiny island about 70meters wide with a guest house at the centre peak and not a soul on it apart from a little laos lady and her little wooden(derelict)restaurant and home perched on the edge of the island,a few chickens and two dogs!all very mystified and still feeling like the place looked we were shown our room in the top of the guesthouse and indeed the toilet where the moment i closed the door bluuuuuuuuurrrrgggghh out it came!hmmm nice!especially with no lights and electric it made for a wonderful experience!haha the place sort of looked like you'd expect the house on haunted hill to look like,all derelict,no lights,electric,people and every object on the island creaked!oooooh!we were the only ones in the whole place and it felt like we were in a film for the evening and started to dread for the darkness to fall!oh well i was soooo happy to have a bed and to rest my now achey boney structure that we soon settled in,and when darkness fell we took our two candles,kindly placed in the room for us and made the most of the two hours of light they gave us and enjoyed a few games of yahtzee before bed!now i wish i could just paint the picture for you as it was for us but sadly,it's an imposible task but if tranquility is your thing then this is the place and it is a beautiful ambience that i could only really appreciate the day after as my illness had subsided!
hence now we are back in the capital and tomorrow will go to the thai embassy and try to get a 60day visa for our re-entry but before we do we will travel down to southern laos and then hopefully into cambodia to see angkor wat and a friend so i'll keep you posted!sorry for writing such a long winded one email!my love to one and all
take care
love dimson doolittle : ) x
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)