Back in Thailand

Okay, that was a long trip. After three days traveling, two days by boat and one day by bus, I finally arrived in Chiang Mai in Thailand. Back in the city I visited about 10 weeks ago. Although this time the city looks different, it is more.. hmm modern? Yes, I am pretty sure it is. Many cars, supermarkets, small cinema. Was that here before? Must be.

It is funny to see how your vision gets blurred by the culture or country you compare with. The last time I was here, my reference was Holland. This time, my references are countries like Laos and Cambodia. Which are less rich, and less (do I dare to say it..) developed. Small things like the size of the local sops, the diversity in clothing, more cars compared to motorbikes, women wearing make-up, the presence billboards. Something you would not even notice coming from a european country. Something you will definitely notice coming from a poor south-east asian country.

I like it here. Chiang Mai is, compared to Bangkok, a quiet city. Even though it contains 1.2 million inhabitants. For a traveler there is a lot to do: courses, bars, nightclubs, big markets, rafting, many day trips, etc. So I decided to spend a few days here and do a Thai massage course! Spanning 4 full days, the course will hopefully teach me the basics behind Thai massage. Although I do not expect to be any expert afterwards ofcourse, it will be nice to be able to give somebody a massage that goes beyond the usual tickling of the muscles in the shoulders. Which, by the way, is something which I am even barely capable of (yes, some people out there know what I am talking about). Oh yes, and maybe it will impress girls.

I don't know if I have mentioned it before, but massage is a very common way of dealing with stress in the southeast asian countries. Ofcourse many tourists endulge themselves in an hour of thai massage, herbal sauna, blind massage, swedish massage, oil massage, etc. Which I am not in the least fond of myself (I especially like the sauna combined with a massage). But also many local people are capable of giving a proper massage to family and friends. You can see massages being performed between local people on a market, in their houses (of which the doors are always open, so you are able to peek inside) or just on the streets. People in the SE asia countries are far more intimate with each other than in W. european countries.

Ok, so just a few days left before I leave S.E. Asia and head to the south of China: Hong Kong. Some people have asked me how traveling is here. You have to know that my former travel experience has only been in European countries, so that is my reference, but here is how I experienced it.

First of all, it is easy. It really is. The infrastructure and local bus system in Thailand is superb, some compare it to the bus systems in the south of Europe. But even in countries lacking the infrastructure, like Laos and Cambodja, it is still very easy to travel by local buses. Or to travel by organized tours. Because, you see, when there are tourists (or travelers), there is money. And where there is money, there are always people jumping in this market to provide you with all the means necessary to get to your destination. I can say that while traveling here I got a lot of help from the local people. Compare this to holland, where you have to figure most things out yourself (get to the trainstation, get ticket, lookup timetable, transfer to another bus, get local bus because taxi is too expensive, etc).

Second. The food. Obviously you must be a little resistant to eating rice and noodles a lot. But that is if you want to travel cheap. If you really want to, you can get european food (beef steak and fries, spaghettig, hamburger) at most places I have been to. Although at a price (up to 6x the price of local food), ofcourse. But don't despair, the local food is very nice anyway. And in the former french colonies you can will find a lot of baquette (bread) too. 

Third. Safety. As in every country, don't be stupid. But, during my months here I have not felt a single time felt less safe than going around in Holland. In fact, bad neighborhoods in Holland give me more the creeps than walking in a dark city here. Although you have to be aware of theft, physical assault is very unlikely to happen.

Why do I say this? Well, I guess for those out there that are contemplating about going abroad, but are doubting whether to go to 'safe' Australia or 'unsafe' S.E. Asia, I can just say that there is absolute no rational to this. Just go :)

I'm heading back to my guesthouse now for dinner. Tomorrow the flower festival starts here, which is one of the biggest anual events in Chaing Mai, so that will be good!

La gone!

p.s. I have put some pictures of the boat-trip online. For those unable to locate the photo's (Eljo?): they are on the right. I have moved the photo's up a bit, so they are more apparent now.

Laos

Hi there! Another message from Luang Prabang, a small town in the northern part of Laos.

While the government in the Netherlands will be central afterall, the americans retreat from Iraq and Windows Vista hits the market, life in Laos goes on like usual. Workin in the ricefields, building houses, renewing roofs, going to the market. Yes, quite a difference again, even with Vietnam. Laos is apparently one of the least developed countries, but compared to Cambodia it comes across me as a more wealthy nation. But take off your shoes and lay back .. traveling Laos can only be done nice and slow!

So I took off from Ha noi (Vietnam) to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. A 20-hour busride. But it was worth it, only a few 100 kms west of Hanoi the weather turned out to be a world of difference. The people were not wearing wintercoats and shoes anymore, but shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops. The sun was shining again! It felt good :)

The first two days I stayed in Vientiane. Although it is the capital, it is with 200,000 inhabitants quite small. The main sights are the golden stupa, which is a national symbol. And I decided to bridge the 25km to the budha park by bicycle. This both saved me some money and was a good excercise since the bikes here don't run as smooth as back home! And a great way to travel slowly through the countryside. The first thing you will notice once you are outside the bigger city are the kids waving at you and welcoming you (sabai die!, hello!). This reminded me of Cambodia, but hadn't really experienced that in Vietnam. The people in Laos are more environment aware than their southern neighbors. Although you can find litter regularly on sides of the streets or in backyards, it is much less.

Because Vientiane does not have that much too offer besides some sights I decided to go to Vang Vieng, a 4-hour busride up north. Surrounded by beautiful mountains this small town (16,000 inhabitants) in the middle of nowhere isn't what you would expect.. Upon arrival you will see many guesthouses, neonlights, restaurants, internetcafes and bars. Yes, a lot of travelers stop here to relax a bit. This is the closest thing to home you will get in Laos. You can eat western food, play pool till late and buy pancakes. The restaurants here all have televisions on which they play Friends, The simpsons or just several movies. All day long. Lay back on the japanese-style small tables and pillows and enjoy your drink! And not only drinks .. if you're up for it you can smoke stuff here that isn't even legal in Holland. And it is printed right on the menu..

The second day in Vang Vieng, I went tubing. Tubing is a poor-man's but fun way of travelling the river downstream. A tuktuk will take you 3km upstream. From there you will go into a big tube and go downstream. Ofcourse this is not all the fun. Across the river there are many bars where you can stop to have a drink or some snacks. NMost of the bars have enormous swings (10m high) where you swing from a big wooden structure across the river. You just have to make sure you let go on the right moment to end up splashing in the water. A crazy swing, but fun to do!!

After 3 days in Vang-Vieng, I traveled further up north to Luang Prabang. Another 9-hour busride. Like I said, traveling here goes slow. Up-hill you're lucky if the bus hits the 40km/h. To make up for it, the driver makes sure that the down-hill parts go frightenly fast through the corners. In Luang Prabang there are more caves and waterfalls to visit. But as I have seen quite a lot now, I decided not to go. And relax and walk around the town and it's big night market. I stayed here together with a french girl, Carine. Whom I met on the bus.

Tomorrow I'll take the boat to Hua Xei, the border town with Thailand. The boattrip will take two days (!) so enough time for me to figure out the meaning of life. In Thailand, I'm planning to go to Chiang Mai and staying there a few days before going to Bangkok. I leave Laos a few days before my Visa expires. But I didn't really feel like going up more north. First off, it is very hard to travel here. So I will spend a lot of time in buses. Second, I have seen quite a lot of jungle, caves, villages and waterfalls by now so I didn't had the feeling I would see more new things. If I have the time, maybe I'll do a cooking course or massage course in Chiang Mai. But I will see how that turns out!

All the best!!

p.s. As usual there are new photo's ..

North Vietnam: Hanoi and Hue

The weather here wasn't that good, but it could be worse. Heavy weather now in Holland: big storms blowing away trucks from the roads! I hope everybody survived and is now reading this while enjoying a nice hot cup of coffee or tea. If you're not, maybe you should. I would. One of the things I miss the most from back home? Good proper D.E. coffee. As most coffee here is sweet instant-coffee, it tastes just like that. If you're unlucky and you didn't specify you wanted hot coffee, you may end up with ice cubes in your coffee!.. a national refreshment.

Okay enough whining. It has been ten days since my last log. Where have I been? After the shopping-spree in Hoi An, I went to Hue. The old capital of Vietnam. Here the main sightseeing is the Citadel, the wall-enclosed old city where the king and queen used to live together with their servants and soldiers. Within the citadel is the forbidden city, the actual temples and buildings where the royal family lived. Although still an interessting sight, it has degraded a lot by the many bombings in the war. The old city has been used both by Vietcong and the U.S. army for shelter and protection. And is equally attacked and bombed by both. The result is a big empty space where there used to be old chinese-style temples, libraries, theatres and houses. As with the My Son ruines in Hoi An, the sights here show again that a lot of cultural heritage has been lost in the war. The second big sight in Hue are the tombs of old kings. A dragon boat on the perfume river will take you to these tombs. Actually I have just seen one, because the entrance fee was about 55.000 dong each. Which is about 3 u.s. dollars. Although this is not too much, it adds up and since I still try to travel low-budget I figured one was enough. They all look alike anyway :) The boat trip was great. The weather was good and along the river you can see local people digging up sand and rocks from the bottom of the river, to be processed later onshore. Very heavy work, but it is all done by hand! And ofcourse many of them were women. One thing that is for sure: the women in Vietnam work so much harder than the men!

After Hue I went for a long bus-trip to Ha noi, the (political) capital of Vietnam. Here I met Sun, a korean teacher. And Chang Hi, a 14-year old korean boy traveling alone but barely able to speak english. With them I spend my days in Hanoi. We went to the traditional water-puppetry theatre. Which is essentially a bunch of puppets on sticks in the water staging a play while live-music is performed. Although this may sound dull, it was fun to see how much they were able to do with these simple attributes.

The next day we went for a 2-day boat trip to Hanong Bay. Maybe you can best describe Hanong bay as the sea with a thousand islands. Because throughout the water there are many limestone mountaints reaching out of the water, straight up to the sky. A magnificent view, and in the winter time combined with the fog this gives a somewhat spooky sight. We visited a big cave. And ate on the boats. The lunch and dinners here are general very good. A vietnamese dish is often like a buffer, or spanish tapas. You have a lot of different dishes, and a big bowl of (sticky) rice. Everybody aroudn the table can grab from the plates what they like. Like grilled fish, spinache, spring-rolls (dutch: loempias), beef, vegetables, leaves, etc. A good way to try many different vietnamese food!

In the evening I teached the others (the koreans and a vietnamese guy) the card game koehandel, the famous animal-trading game we play in Holland. Which was big fun as usual :)

The next day was quite relaxing, I was preparing for my departure to Laos (getting US dollars, making photo's for the visa) and we watched some lame movies. Chang Hi and Sun were very good company, so I really enjoyed these last days in Vietnam.

I just finished a 20-hour bus ride from Hanoi, Vietnam to Vientiane, the capital in Laos. I delayed my ticket from bangkok with 8 days so that gives me some more time to explore Laos! Thankfully the weather is great here, although it is only a few 100kms more land inwards.

Vietnam, been there done that. You ask me what I think of it? Even if you're not, I'm gonna tell anyway. Unfortunately I am a little biased because the weather has been bad all the time. Everyday it was cloud and only ocassionally the sun came through. That makes the experience a bit more dim. Compared to Thailand the vietnamese people are much more creative. Their music is better and they try to make things pretty. They have bread, which is a good things. And they have strong vietnamese identity. With old cultural heritage like strong family ties and celebrations still present today. Although capitalism is here to stay, that doesn't mean westernization is here yet. The number of western companies are very limited. Once you start to talk to local people, they are very friendly. What I didn't like about Vietnam is the many scams (dutch: oplichtingspraktijken) that I have encountered here. They try to rip you off in every way you can. And in the bigger cities the people are very a-social. They can order and deliver your food in a restaurant without even looking at you. The whole vibe of the city was more harsh compared to Cambodia or Thailand.

I have already seen that Laos will be a totally different experience, being one of the least-developed countries in the world. I don't know my plans exactly, probably traveluing in the north for a while and then heading south before returning back to Thailand.

I want to thank everybody that has send me e-mails or leaves messages!! I really enjoy reading them :)

And ofcourse there are new pictures of the last days in Vietnam online.

Au revoir!

Vietnam continued. Shopping in Hoi An.

Hi everybody! Greetings from a cloudy, rainy and cold Vietnam. That is right, after weeks of no rain and sunshine the weather has finally turned around. A little bit surprised and unprepared I was. Having only a single long pair of jeans and one sweater. But it seems this will be the weather for the next days, and as I'm traveling up north it will be even colder. Although cold ofcourse will still be about 20 degrees..

So no beachweather. What to do then? Well Hoi An, the place I currently stay at, turns out to be a shopping paradise. With over 200 tailors in this small town it is easy and cheap to get your custom-made, made-to-fit, clothes. Even though I was not planning on buying anything, I ended up with 6 shirts, 8 trousers and 3 coats. You think that is a lot? I met people here that go way beyond that: an australian girl bought 13 pairs of shoes (plus a lot of shirts, shoes and bags) and an australian guy ended up with 4 suits. So it could be worse :)

As there is not much to do here except shopping and some drinking at night, I am leaving Hoi An tomorrow, to go to Hue. About a 4-hour busride up north. I hope the weather will improve over the next days!

Cheers!

Bas

Happy 2007!

!!Happy New Year to everybody!!

At least for the ones that did celebrate it. Since the vietnamese people use a different calendar they celebrate newyear on next 19 feb! But that didn't stop them from organising a big newyear party anyway. So I witnessed the ending of 2006 and the birth of 2007 this year without oliebollen, but with loempia's. No oudejaarsconference, but a show of traditional vietnamese dances and music. No champagne, but Saigon beer. And no fireworks but the sight of many vietnamese people going crazy at twelve o'clock. Yes, it was different. But yes, it was good :)

One thing was the same, though. After twelve o'clock we all set out for bars and clubs to party :)

The last two days I spend relaxing in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). I went to the war museum, which displays pictures that really makes you sick. Ofcourse every war is nasty. But destroying villages by using burning Napalm and skin-eating Phosphor is a twisted way of crushing your enemy. From the old guy on the bicycle that is out there to insult american tourists, to the almost propaganda communist videos in the museums, you can still see there is a an anti-american atmosphere here. The defeat of the americans, and the victory of the red north-vietnamese is seen as a liberation of Vietnam. And signs of communism? Well, at least here in Saigon there is not much visible to the eye. Big companies thrive. And although there is no McDonalds. a lot of western-style junkfood restaurants can be seen here. One thing is sure: the vietnamese people are proud of their culture's survival!

Let me give you a feeling of Ho Chi Minh in everyday life. First .. there are many many many motorbikes. I've been told as much as 5 million motorbikes driving around everyday. On a total population of 8 million people. A common view of the city is motorbikes crossing the roads in a chaotic way. Crossing the roads is not without risks (my bag has been hit by a car's mirror already, imagine how close) but, contrary to Bangkok, not impossible. Where in Bangkok drivers just keep on going, in Saigon they will as much as they can try to driver around you, as long as you slowly cross the streets. In the haze of the enginesmoke there are many foodstalls on the sidewalk, selling coconuts (to drink), beverages, fruits, noodlesoup of sandwiches. Especially the sandwiches, french baguette with pate, meat and vegetables is on of my favorites. And at a price of 5000dong, or about US$0.35, very cheap! For a lot of stuff you are charged tourist prices, which may be 4 times the price the locals pay. But since it is often not that expensive, it is ok. Besides the food, there are many kids trying to sell you books. Or actually copy of books (about $3, or less if you're a hard bargain). There are not that many beggars here, I guess because they have a social wellfare here. And it is even easier to get marihuana here than in Holland, since every motorbike taxi driver is also whispering you they can provide you. (Or maybe it's because I wear this 'Von Dutch' shirt). Fortunately, in between all the hectic grounds there are some beautiful parks when you can chill out... In all, I like the city. Compared to Bangkok it is a little bit less hectic (although this might change when the motorbikes will become cars!), and the city is kept tidy.

My stay in Vietnam is only a short two weeks, so I limit my trip to the big attractions. Starting tomorrow, my plan is to travel from the south to Hanoi in the north. But I will do this in 4 trips, and my first bus will bring me to Nha Trang, a busride of roughly 10 hours. Fortunately the buses are relative comfortable and have air-conditioning!

I hope eveybody's big plans for 2007 will work out fine! Till next time!