Andrej and Karen Brummer

The adventures of the Brummers

Monthly Archives: October 2010

Sukhothai

View our location map in Sukhothai

We decided to go to see the Sukhothai Historical Park, the sacred ruins of the first independent kingdom of Siam, at sunrise with the hope that we would see the coloured sky over the ruins. As it turned out it was a misty morning and so we didn’t really see the sun until it was quite high in the sky, it didn’t matter though because we still got to be the only people at the site for the first 2 hours we were there, and then there was just one other couple there for the next hour.

The park was even better than we hoped it would be and being there amongst the peaceful energy by ourselves was a perfect way to start our day.  We spent time walking amongst the ruins and ride on our motorbike in between the sites.  As the sky changed from misty to blue and the first light hit the temples it felt very surreal and was amazing to see.

By the time the main hordes of people started to arrive we were finished seeing everything we wanted to see (around 9am) so we went to an amazing Thai restaurant and had Sukhothai noodle soup which was honestly the best noodle soup we have had in Asia.    We rode around for a while looking around the area and then decided to relax at our bungalow for a while. Our host suggested we ride the bike to see the sunset over the rice paddies so we decided we’d do just that. It was a little sad to see the flooded rice fields which provided a gorgeous setting for the sunset – it was like seeing beauty within tragedy. The farmers will be unable to use the rice which has been ruined from the flooding and we felt really grateful to be so lucky in life.

We also visited the food festival and have spent time just wandering around and reading on our balcony. We will probably spend another couple of days here before moving on to Chiang Rai. Our photos are here.

Phitsanulok

View our location map in Phitsanulok

It took us 2 attempts to leave Laos this time.  Our first attempt was interrupted when we got to the train station in Vientiane – we had decided to get the train to Bangkok and then to Chiang Mai and then the bus to Chiang Rai – only to be told that the flooding in Thailand was so bad that the trains weren’t running.  Flooding in Thailand?  The complete absense of TV or checking any news websites had left us oblivious to the fact that 20 people have died in Thailand and Cambodia because of the worst flooding in 15 years – and with more rain forecast and water running into the lowlands from the hills, they were predicting the flooding would get a lot worse before it got better.  So what to do?  We could either cross the border and figure it out once we got to Thailand, or go back to Ben and Christerine’s house and use the time there to do some research on the internet about the flood affected areas and make a plan from there.  Since a 14 hour bus ride to Chiang Rai from the Thai border sounded very unappealing, we opted to accept Ben and Christerine’s kind offer to stay the night at their house so we could figure out what to do next.

We decided to get a bus from Vientiane to Udon Thani in Thailand, and then change buses to Phitsanulok, and then depending on timing, change buses again and go to Sukhothai, an area in Thailand that we both wanted to see anyway and a good mid-point to stop off on the way to Chiang Rai.  As it turned out, we didn’t get to Phitsanulok until 1.30am so opted to stay the night here.  Once here we realised it’s quite a nice place, and so we’ve decided to stay another day or two here before going to Sukhothai.

So far the ultimate highlight has been just being able to wander around the streets without being covered head to toe in dust, many trees around, and general green-ness which is a welcome relief from Vientiane.  Laos was the most awesome country of the trip so far but we are definitely not sad to have left dusty Vientiane.  We found some ruins just on our street and spent some time soaking up the joy of just being able to be outside without melting from oppresive heat and being covered in dust.  We even got to see the most beautiful rain storm we have ever seen… yay for Thailand!  We love this country.  Our photos are here.

Vientiane

View our location map in Vientiane

We arrived in Vientiane a day or two before our Lao visa’s ran out, so our first task was to go to Thailand for the day and renew our visa’s.  It worked out well because we got to go to an actual supermarket (we now realise how we have missed supermarkets and normal stuff in Laos!) and buy some basic supplies like toothpaste etc, and then return to Vientiane.

A couple of days before we left Luang Prabang we randomly met a couple of guys who had riden dirt bikes from Vientiane to Luang Prabang.  We ended up going to dinner with these guys and after talking for hours, ended up agreeing to visit Ben in Vientiane, where he lives with his wife and daughter, after his brother (who was his dirt bike riding companion) had finished his holiday with them.

So, we found ourselves in Vientiane with one of the coolest guys we had met on this trip, and spent the following 10 days hanging out with him, his wife Christerine and their daughter Ashley.   We quicky realised that we are meant to be here to see these guys, they have made such an awesome positive impact on our lives and we think we will end up being friends for a long time.  We also got to catch up with Eric and Emma again and had dinner before our goodbyes for Lao and hopes to catch up again in Vietnam or elsewhere.

If it wasn’t for Ben and Christerine, we probably would have left Vientiane a day or two after we arrived, because it is a dirty, dusty, hot city with not really any redeeming features.  (We haven’t really taken any photos here because there isn’t much that inspires us or is photo-worthy.)  The definite highlight of Vientiane has been going to Christerine’s favourite, awesome massage place and getting full body massages – pure bliss.  We initially planned to hang out with Ben and Christerine until the end of Oct when they were going to go to Thailand… we soon realised though that we couldn’t stand being in Vientiane for that long.  So when we decided that we couldn’t take the dust and opressiveness of Vientiane anymore, we told Ben and Christerine we had to get out of there.  They then invited us to spend the following month with them in Chiang Rai, where they have now rented a huge 2-storey house for us all to stay in.

So… instead of going to Vietnam next we have decided to spend at least part of the next month with them in Chiang Rai.  So back to Thailand we go… for the 3rd time so far in this trip.

The ‘best job’ in Laos

View our location map in Vang Vieng

Our one or two planned nights in Vang Vieng turned into six nights when Karen got too sick to travel.  (First sickness in 4.5 months of travelling though so not complaining!)  By the end of our time there we both felt kind of vindicated in our original decision to not go to Vang Vieng – we were going to fly straight out of Luang Prabang to Hanoi because it didn’t sound like a place we would enjoy – and we were mostly right.

Vang Vieng is an incredibly beautiful place.  It has everything – huge rice fields, endless limestone karsts, a beautiful river, quite a few enormous caves, turquoise swimming holes and waterfalls.  It is a shame that most tourists who visit Vang Vieng don’t get to see many of these things.  Some people do come to town to do tubing on the river, others come to break up the trip between Vientiane and Luang Prabang, a few for the beauty.  However the majority of tourists in Vang Vieng are there for one thing:  the adult disneyland that the Lao’s have cleverly created to draw tourists to their beautiful country.

Let me elaborate.  When Eric told us it was the disneyland of Laos we didn’t quite get what he meant until we went and saw it for ourselves.  The Lao people are extremely intelligent and know how to create opportunities for themselves.  So, there is tubing down the river.  Instead of this being a tranquil, beautiful, safe thing to do, they have put bars along the edge of the river, which throw ropes out to people tubing past to catch and pull themselves into the bar.  When they have finished drinking, they can use rope swings to get back into the river.  Now I don’t think anyone expects the safety standards to be the same as in western countries – you might as well stay at home if you want that – probably though many people don’t realise how many rocks are in the river below the rope swings that people die on every year.  So many people walking around Vang Vieng are injured – many are hospitalised – and some die every year.  This seems pretty extreme for a place that is the main tourist attraction in Laos.

In addition to this, many bars and restaurants in town have ‘happy menus’ which means that printed alongside normal food items are joints, magic mushrooms and opium, all of which can be made into milkshakes or pizza, all listed as though they are a normal menu item.  They market Vang Vieng as a safe place to come and try these menus.  What they don’t tell people before they arrive is that every single day, plainclothes policemen (who are all sons of the family and friends of the chief police officers in Vientiane) then go around and fine as many tourists  as possible for using the drugs that are on the menu.  So in a country where the average wage is around USD$60 per month, these plainclothes policemen are earning between 5-6,000,000 kip per bust.  (Around USD$600-700).  In low season, they bust a minimum of 4 tourists per day, and in high season many more.  They drive around town in their BMW’s and Mercedes and easily have the cruisiest and most well-paid job in Laos.   Many of the plainclothes policemen are also fakes, so they are just clever Lao’s who have figured out how to make big bucks from the silly falangs who come to their town to indulge in craziness.

So all in all Vang Vieng is an extremely beautiful, and horribly ugly place.  The natural beauty surrounding the area is phenomenal but the town itself really is an example of how stupid many tourists will be if given the chance (and how entrepreneurial Lao people are).  By the last day we ended up being glad that we came here, especially with Eric and Emma because without them we probably would have left before we saw the beauty.  We saw some amazing waterfalls and caves and had an awesome, tranquil view from our room.  In terms of natural beauty it is one of the most beautiful places we have been, sadly though with the crazy development of the town we couldn’t wait to leave and got out of there as soon as we could.  Our photos are here.

Kuang Si Waterfall

On our last day in Luang Prabang we quickly realised we had saved the best for last.  We got a car and driver to take us to the largest waterfall in Luang Prabang early so that we were there before any other tourists arrived.  We didn’t realise before we got there that there is also an Asiatic Bear conservation centre on the same site, so before we even got to see the waterfall we spent some time watching the beautiful bears play and sleep.  When we got to the first part of the waterfall we were impressed – a lovely pool at the bottom to swim in, and the water was freezing which was very welcome in the Lao heat.  (Even at 8 in the morning it’s hot!)

After half an hour or so swimming at the bottom, we decided to investigate the next level up, and were blown away at how huge the waterfall was.  When we got up to the main large part of it, we saw a sign that said you could walk right to the top – and instantly decided we’d do that.

While walking up the almost vertical path/rock ledges to the top, at times we wondered if the effort would be worth it because it was insanely steep and seemed to go on forever… when we reached the top though we were rewarded with breathtaking views not only of the mountains in the distance but also we could actually stand on the edge and look down and see all the water falling below us.  There was even a rainbow in the waterfall below so it was pretty awesome!

We spent probably an hour or so at the top and then decided to have another swim in a different part of the waterfall on the way down.  We ended up spending most of the day there and it was absolutely the best way we could have finished our time in Luang Prabang.  Our photos are here.

Temples and Monks

We have been really lucky to see the monks collecting their alms a few times. We are staying within about 100 metres to 5 different temples and so there is an abundance of monks here. The only sight we see during the day is monks walking past with their umbrellas, and only a few cars per day.

We have been spending time mainly beside the river and visiting temples, we also had a drink for Dre’s dad’s 60th birthday on the Mekong river. We found a couple of places in town that have actual wine – French wine – and this was a pretty exciting discovery! We have occasionally missed being able to have a nice glass of wine and haven’t had any ‘real’ wine since Singapore. (We have tried a couple of Asian wines – they are not what we would normally consider to be wine!) So we had a really nice evening having a glass of wine and some awesome fish hotpot. All in all we’ve had a fabulous time in the past week and tomorrow we’re off to see the largest waterfall near Luang Prabang. We’re really looking forward to the waterfall because we haven’t seen a waterfall in Asia yet! Our photos are here.

Magical Luang Prabang

Well we did find the magic we were looking for in Luang Prabang.  We are so glad that we decided to stay here to see how we liked it because now we totally love this place.  Our first night in the ‘city’ we stayed by the Mekong near to the night market (which is fantastic by the way – so many beautiful things to buy and good food too!) and the morning market in a little place that we thought would be OK, and the following morning we went to see the Monks collect their alms, walked up Phou Si mountain to get an amazing view over Luang Prabang.  We ended up spending a couple of hours up at the temple on top of Phou Si and looking out at the palm trees and green expanse of the town.  There are no high rises and pretty much every building is a 2 storey house.  After the mountain we wandered around the town for a couple of hours and by chance found an amazing cafe, Arthouse cafe on the Nam Khan river where an American lady Debra volunteers there as the manager and teaches local Lao with no skills or education how to serve customers, how to speak English, and really gives them a chance in life.  An added bonus was the food was amazing and clean – they are one of the only places in town where you can get a salad that has been soaked in iodine and then washed in bottled water so you know it’s safe to eat.  To eat lettuce after so long without it is just heaven.

Anyway, we spent an hour or two at this cafe beside the river and decided there and then that we couldn’t leave this area of town without finding a place to stay here.  So we walked the entire street and looked in every single guesthouse until we found the perfect one – brand new French architecture, beautiful wooden floors and ceiling, balcony with heaps of plants on it, beside the river with a beautiful view of the river and coconut and papaya trees.  So, now we are here we really, really love Luang Prabang and think this will be a great place to spend the next couple of weeks.  We also had an awesome night for Tricia’s last night in Luang Prabang and tried some Lao Lao rice whisky with fermented lizards and snakes in it!  We still might go to Vang Vieng as Eric and Emma think it’s amazing there, for now though we are really happy here.  See our photos here.

Fer

We spend so much time eating Fer and Khao Soy in Laos that we thought it was worth a mention.  They are both versions of local rice-noodle soup, Fer is more breakfasty and Khao Soy has fermented peanuts in it – which is sometimes mixed with pork and which means that when the vendor has no english at all we prefer to get Fer (which is maybe slightly yummier anyway and has tomatoes in it as a bonus).

So, you are given a bowl of steaming hot broth which has fresh rice noodles that have been cooked for about 10 seconds, and fresh green vegetables that have also been cooked about 10 seconds and on the table you have about 6 sauces, fresh green vegetables, fresh lime, shrimp paste, fresh, dried and fermented chilli, salt, sugar and msg.  (Yes, they actually have containers of pure msg you can add!)  You then proceed to concoct a soup to your liking, and the traditional way is to add a bit of every sauce, condiment and vegetable.  So we usually pack it full with the veges as soon as it’s served so that they boiling water will sterilise them, and add lots of chilli for added stomach disinfectant (works quite well!).  In addition dunk your spoon and chopsticks in the boiling water to clean them before you eat.  By the time all the veges have cooked the soup is cool enough to eat.  We have eaten Fer and Khao Soy for breakfast, lunch and dinner and recently went a couple of days without it and missed it so much that we had to walk for ages in the heat to find a Fer vendor.  Yum yum.  For our photos of the morning market where we eat our Fer, click here.