Rats, Rubbish and Rotten Tyres

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  Koh Samet, Thailand
Wednesday, March 14, 2007

We must start this blog by enlightening you all as to some of the very silly things Lindsey has been saying on this trip. For those of you that know her well, you will understand when you read this. Firstly quite early in our travels when we were in Koh Lanta, Thailand, Lindsey noticed signs everywhere saying 'Visa Run 900 baht' or 'Visa Run 1100 baht'. To which finally after being very confused she said, "Why do you have to pay to do your visa card?" She did not get that it was to go out of the country and renew your visa for another 30 days.

The next silly one was on the slow boat whilst chatting to Travis the marijuana farmer, on the second days travels, where Travis asked Lindsey did she have any opium pushers at her guesthouse, to which Lindsey responded "I don't know what they look like." Travis said neither does he! They then worked out after laughing away that Lindsey thought he said "Did you have any opium bushes at your guesthouse?" Oh dear.

We then were out at a lovely bar in Luang Prabang for drinks with Sandra and Jerome, a couple from Amsterdam we had met on the slow boat. Lindsey and Sandra were talking about what they do for work, when Sandra said with her Dutch accent, that she was a HR advisor. To which Lindsey responded "Oh my Dad used to work for Pfizer!"

We were then walking home after drinks one night to our guesthouse when a Laos guy on his motorbike rode up to us and asked "Want some good weed?" Lindsey said "No it's okay we're walking home!" She thought he was a Tuk Tuk driver! This has kept us very amused!

We decided to extend our stay in Luang Prabang for a couple more days as there were still some things left that we wanted to do. Firstly we arranged a day trip that would take in the Pak Ou caves and the Kouang Si Waterfall. Unfortuantely the Pak Ou caves trip involved a round trip on another slow boat of 4 hours. Whilst most people on the trip seemed to enjoy it, it was a bit of a chore for us after 16 hours on a boat over two days on our way down to Luang Prabang. To be honest the caves weren't event that impressive and we wouldn't be heading back to see them again in a hurry.

The afternoon of the trip though more than made up for the caves. We took a mini-bus 45 minutes out of Luang Prabang to the Kouang Si Waterfall. The waterfall itself, was picture postcard perfect and there were a couple of swimming holes made up of pristine clear water. There was only one problem though, it was freezing! It wasn't too bad though and once our bodies had adjusted to the temperature it was actually quite refreshing.

On the way back from the waterfall we stopped at the local Mhong Village. Once again the village was set up with all the local handicrafts that the villagers made. However, what made this village different was the use of perhaps south east asia's best sales team, consisting of numerous children aged between 5 and 10. Lindsey was trying to haggle with one of the young girls, who then proceeded to haggle back in three languauges, Laos, English and French, saying Sabadee Madame, No can do, Higher, S'il vous plaît. With that, Lindsey couldn't resist and paid the asking price!  That evening we met up with Sandra and Jerome as well as Fred and Cindy for the afore mentioned drinks.

The last day before we left Luang Prabang, we hired bicycles for the day and had a lovely ride all around the town. We rode out to a local market selling fish, meat, vegetables, fruit etc. We also rode along at perfect timing when Monks were banging drums in their temple. The Tuk Tuk driver outside informed us that they do this every fifteen days when their heads are shaved. Lindsey went in after asking permission from one of the Monks if they would mind her taking photos, to which he said no, so she managed to get some great shots of the Monks in action.

The night before we left Luang Prabang, Mark managed to find a bar that was showing the Manchester United versus Liverpool (murderers!) game. He was at the bar an hour before the game to get a prime seat, where he had given strict instructions to Lindsey as to no talking during the game. This is too hard for Lindsey to do, so after we had a drink with our Marijuana Farmer friends, Travis and Mark, Lindsey went shopping around the night market. She returned just after half time to find Mark abusing the referee, Liverpool players, and basically anyone who was on the screen! The game was 0-0 with only 3 minutes left when John O'Shea playing for Manchester scored a goal. Oh my god, Mark was like a madman! He jumped around yelling and screaming and going beserk! I'm sure the Monks saying their prayers up the road at the temple said one for that madman screaming his lungs out.

The next morning it was onto the minibus to Vang Vieng for one of the wildest drives we have ever had. It was three hours of winding and hills, with three to four kilometre drops on either side of the road (it made the Snake Pass look like a motorway!). It was after about an hour and a half that Lindsey saw the very first 'Slow down, windy' roadsign on the whole trip. It should have read 'If you're still alive by now, you're doing okay!' Mark got a little travel sick, with no ventilation, smoke coming in from the tribe people burning off, and it being about 30 degrees in the bus.

We finally arrived safely at Vang Vieng, where Lindsey asked the minibus driver how often he does that drive, to which he said "Every day for 22 years." Amazing! After checking in to our guesthouse we had a walk around this funny little town. It seems that the bars here think they're on to a good thing by showing re runs of 'Friends' or 'The Simpsons' 24hrs a day.

Vang Vieng is known as the 'Tubing' capital of Laos. So we booked ourselves the following day a trip down the Nam Song river sitting in an inflated tractor tyre tube. This was very funny, as we'd heard about the bars along the river, but it was insane. We hopped in our tubes and floated away, to come across the first bar only 100 metres down the river. The guys running the bar pull you in with a bamboo stick and help you out of the tube, where you can then trapeze into the river after a Beer Laos with a 30 foot drop.

Mark was in heaven, Beer Laos and floating down one of the most beautiful sceneries we have ever been in. The river itself is not deep at all most of the way, with magnificent Limestone cliffs on either side and friendly Laos, shouting at each bar " Beer Laos, Beer Laos" for you to stop at their bar. We then stopped at another bar where they had a really big trapeze into the river. After watching a few girls have a go, Lindsey plucked up the courage and swung away after dropping off about 20 metres up.

We continued on down the river with funny little makeshift bars dotted all the way along. There were even Laos ladies on the side of the river with their kids, selling beer straight out of the cases, to which Mark had to stop at them to support the children! It was great fun, and just amazing that we were floating down such a beautiful river in a tractor tube! After about five hours we arrived back at Vang Vieng just on dark to return our tubes.

The following day we were again on the bus, this time to the Laos capital, Vientianne. It was a nice bus ride through rice fields and farming areas to arrive in Vientianne with no guesthouses having any rooms spare. After walking around for a while with our backpacks on in 35 degree heat, we stumbled upon a really flash hotel to ask how much for one night. After being told it was $35 US for one night, and seeing how nice the rooms were, we splurged and stayed there, where they spoilt you rotten.

We went for a walk down to the Mekong River and had a lovely dinner, sitting on cushions and cooking our own on coals in a 'hot pot.' The next day we found a cafe that was owned and run by two Australian girls, so we spent most of the hottest part of the day in there having a lovely lunch, and Lindsey entranced by Australian Womens Weekly magazines! That night we hopped on the overnight bus to head to Bangkok, where we went across the Laos/Thai Friendship bridge over The Mekong to immigration. Thankfully we had no problems getting back into Thailand after our over stay on visa last time.

We settled in for a nights sleep on the bus after stopping for some fried rice dinner at a roadside stop, to be all woken up with a massive bang at 4am! It was a blown tyre, which is apparently very common in Laos as the roads are so bad, however ours managed to blow in Thailand. Luckily the bus driver pulled up right outside a tyre shop so after 6 Thai guys stared at it for a bit, they got on with the job and replaced it with a very unhealthy looking retread tyre! We arrived safe and sound smack in the middle of Bangkok to mad traffic at 6am.

Our next place that we were heading to was Koh Samet an island south east of Bangkok. So we got a Tuk Tuk to the bus station and hopped on a government bus to Rayong to then get the ferry across to Koh Samet. After being so spoilt by the beauitful beaches and islands in south Thailand, Koh Samet was a bit of a let down. Because this island is so close to Bangkok, it has heaps of people on this very small island, which we saw very quickly it can't sustain.

This island is meant to be a National Park, which we paid a 400 baht fee to enter, or $13 or 6 quid, to go around the corner and see rubbish everywhere. Unfortunately it is the Thais who are the worst offenders dropping rubbish everywhere. We decided to find a cheap guesthouse as we were just spoiling ourselves with some time in the sun before we head back to Australia for our good friends Ingrid and Bobs wedding.

We found Tok's Little Huts which had an okay write up in the Lonely Planet, basic room, with a basic bathroom. After going for a swim in crystal clear water on the whitest sand beach, we decided it was okay. Later on whilst playing scrabble in the bar one of the young lads put on a movie, 'Snakes on a Plane' possibly the worst we have ever seen! But funny!

The next morning, Lindsey discovered a pair of her underpants in a hole in the wall down by the floor. She pulled them out to discover they had been eaten!! We had rats! We tried to cover the hole with a bath mat, broom and chairs, so they didn't eat any more of our clothes.

That night, Mark went to a bar to watch United play Middlesborough in the FA Cup. Lindsey decided to stay in the room, reading a good book on an SAS soldier who escaped in Iraq. Whilst she was reading the rat came out! After reading about the escape in Iraq and how trained the soldiers were, Lindsey took the rat hunting very seriously with her broom as a weapon!! Mark returned at 3am to find her on guard with her broom!!

The following day we moved to Naga guesthouse with no rats. We got a basic little guesthouse with beautiful beach views and no rats! After staying a few days we have managed to find some really nice restaurants and lovely places to visit. We have also been amusing ourselves with some of the various sights we have spotted whilst lying on the beach. There are lots of east european men wearing ridiculously high speedo's, including Koh Samet's very own Borat (See photo. Speedo's not shown due to this being a child friendly blog!). On top of this we thought we had spotted some kind of strange creature in the water. At first we thought it resembled something along the lines of the loch ness monster, however on closer inspection it turned out to be the local metal detector man, submerged upto his chin, searching for lost tourist treasures!

So it is here we leave you, on a lovely beach, in beautiful weather, whiling away our time, til next week when we fly to Melbourne!

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Luang Prabang Market	Luang Prabang Monks	MArk at Kouang Si Waterfall	Mark at Vientiane Wat
Mark reading the Bangkok Post	The Arc De Triomphe

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