April 21th - May 1st
Trip Start
Feb 14, 2011
1
9
Trip End
Jun 13, 2011
Luang Prabang, Louangphabang, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Thursday the 21st : A crazy day. I woke up, met with a friend for breakfast, headed to work,
worked my tail off on the video before I left, and than went to teach PE for the Brewer clan. It
was a great day. At night it started getting a little crazy because I had lots of random little odds and ends to pick up. After that I went to a church service at the Vietnamese church, then to see my friend Emy before she left to go back to Canada. She had just returned from thailand after a serious accident. I talked about her and Shelby a few weeks back. They had surgery and are doing much better, though the healing proccess is slow. I went to bed around 11pm that night and woke up at 4:45am for my flight.
Friday: At 5:00am me, my skateboard, and some lugagge were bombing down the street to the airport. I made my 6am flight to Hanoi, then connected to LPB (Luang Prabang). I landed
around 10am and was overwhelmed by the beauty of the place. Wow. I was so taken back by it.
I took a cab to my hostel, which I was unsure on what to expect. I stepped inside and was
taken back by the peacefullness I felt at the Villa Merry Laos- Swiss. They showed me to my
room. It was a great room for 17$ a night. Wow! I took a shower and then skated around. It was really hot out though so I tried to keep a good pace skating around. My first objective was to find a map. I skated around a while, then finally found Tour Guide Ro which is a road that the night market is on. It's packed with Tour places. I bought a map and navigated around a bit. I found Joma (which is just as good as the one in Hanoi). Had a pizza and a drink, then went back to the Hotel. I changed into my swimsuit, went for a swim in the brown colored river just south of the hotel. It was kinda smelly, so I didn't swim long, but dang the current was strong. I met some Spanish girls down there who were telling me about some things to do around the area. I also made friends with some of the local kids who were making very obscene gestures at me. I was surprised. Laos is very different than Vietnam. It's quieter, it's people are taller and thicker, it's food is different with bigger portions, and also the people obey traffic laws. ahah. But the children
of Laos seem to have lost some of their innocense. Which is just the same as Vietnam.
After I swam I went to a local pub and talked to some of the local Ex-Pats. I had some amazing
crepes (one with fake crab and one with banana and chocoloate). Then I went back to the Hotel and slept until Anna knocked on the door. It was supposed to be 3 people on the trip, but Emy
wrecked by an SUV and so Anna and I had decided to try it with only 2 people. She's an amazing
friend to have while traveling. Wow. She unpacked her stuff and then we walked to the night market for some dinner. We found a random food everywhere. Everything from fruit shakes to Pumpkin bread (YUM!) and some rice with meat. We had a few servings of at a buffet like place and then walked through the market to buy some random trinkets. We headed back home and passed out around 1030pm.
Saturday: We woke up and headed downstairs for an amazing banana pancake breakfast with Laotian coffee. Man that stuff is good. The rest of the day we spent walking around and picking the best tours to go on for the cheapest prices. In the end we decided on a 50k mountain bike ride for Monday and a rock climbing excursion on Sunday morning. We also grabbed some flyers for some other tours as well and then headed off to Joma coffee for some lunch. I ate an amazing sandwich and sat in the coolness of the air conditioning for a bit. After lunch we grabbed a tuk-tuk (a fun little taxi thing) and headed out for the waterfalls that we had heard so much about. It took us about an hour or so to make it all the way out there, but it was worth it. We walked through the entrance and up through some trails. We found a black bear sanctuary which was really cool and then we saw it….a big swimming area, waterfalls, and a rope swing!! I went crazy and headed straight for the rope swing. I hucked myself way out there and up over the water, it felt like I was flying. After I landed in the cool turquoise water I swam back and waited for Anna to go. While I was waiting in the water though, my feet were getting nibbled on by fish. I had forgotten that the fish near the waterfall were said to eat the dead skin off your feet. I wasn't prepared for that and leapt out of the water. Anna swung out and splashed in, and came out screaming with joy. Her and I both did the rope swings once more and then headed for the water fall jumping area. I got up there and jumped in from about 20 ft. up. I beckoned Anna to go, but she hesitated for a little bit and then bailed in. She had never done waterfall jumping before so she was stoked!
After swimming for a bit, we walked around and took some pictures of the beautiful water, trees, and plants. We then found the "main" waterfall; man this thing was huge! We walked around it, and then found a path that went up to the top. We hiked up its muddy trail in sandals and took a few pictures at the top. After hiking up and down we decided to head back to our Tuk-Tuk. Our driver was the last one left; we were the last ones out of the park. We made it home, took a shower, and then went out to the night market to get some dinner. I thought myself invincible with what I ate because I had buffalo the night before, and was looking to score some Laos sausage that night. We ate well, walked around in the night market, bought some random things and then headed back to the hotel. I was still wide awake, so I told Anna I was going to go to this little café down the road called Eutopia. It was a nice little spot, full of foreigners, and loud music. That was not the coolest part though; there was a beach volleyball court in the middle of the place. Oh man! I thought, we need to get out there and play. Just as I thought that 5 dutchies (Holland folk) challenged us to a game. It was a fun few games, I got some sweet smashes and after a few games went back up for some water and talked with some of the people I met. It was a great night. And I went to bed after setting my alarm for rock climbing.
Sunday/Monday: I awoke with a jump from Anna shaking me, telling me “Robin we over slept, we have 15 min. to get to the rock climbing office”. Crap! I rolled out of bed and got dressed quickly. As I was getting dressed my stomach had decided to roll around a bit and started feeling weird, but because my stomach is another living creature inside of me, I just ignored it. We grabbed a “to go” breakfast from the hotel staff and ran over to the office. We got their a little late, but the other guy was late too that was supposed to be going with us. Around 8am we all left for the boat that was taking us to take us to the climbing spot down the river. I was surprised at the guy who decided to join us. His name was Wayne and he was from Australia. He smoked like a chimney and was around my age, but a very opinionated and voiced Australian to say the least. He didn’t make a good impression on me with the boat ride because he sat in the front and smoked the whole way, and well I smoked with him because I was down wind of him, PUNK!
We got to the rock climbing spot, went over so rules, and learned how to belay on the mechanism our guide “Mark” had. We each did 3 runs. The first one was a good warm up, but it wasn’t too hard. The second one was longer, but not too bad either. The third run we did was around 40 m high, and had some hard spots to it. Anna made it almost to the top then freaked, took some profile shots of herself with her camera, and then, headed down. Wayne used some branches to make it to the top, and I think smoked at the top, then I went. It was a great climb the first time. I actually climbed up with my Nikon to take some shots. It was pretty awesome. I made it down and then mark said “We have time if you want to climb again”. So without a breath I headed back up and just as I was about to get to the top, my muscles gave out with a burning fury. It was a great day of climbing!
We packed up our stuff and sat down for a sticky rice meal with mark the boat driver. We ate some traditional Laotian food, consisting of sticky rice balls, minced Jack fruit, fish, pork, and pickled mango. It was good, but my stomach still didn’t agree. We headed back home, and as we docked, Wayne began talking (never a good thing). See Wayne had already said that he “wanted to go home, was sick of Southeast Asia, over the crazy food and people, over the hot weather, and wanted to return to his comic book man cave” (this guy was a trip). And to top it off he decided to tell us what a miracle we were for not being “fat, self centered, burger eating imperialists” that we had “surprisingly broke the stereo-type of the common American”. Why had I not heard that before from an Aussie, I feel like most Aussies actually liked me and my country? So besides the fact I wanted to smack Wayne with a sock full of rocks, we parted ways and headed for a shower back at our hostel. That’s when….it started.
After having a bowel movement of epic proportions, my stomach seemed to still want to get rid of food. I didn’t think much of it, but I knew something was up. I pounded some water and drank some other liquids. Then Anna and I headed off for some lunch and devo’s because today was Easter Sunday. We had a big lunch and began discussing Luke’s view of Easter. As time went on I began to feel more and more awful. At this point as well I had gone to the bathroom 4 times, and there was nothing solid about it. We had to take a Tuk-Tuk home and I laid in bed for a few hours before my stomach really started to go downhill and I began throwing up. Anna ran around for a bit buying me some anti-biotics and random things, but at 1am I woke up, threw up and knew I needed to go to the hospital.
I yelled from the bathroom “Anna……we need…….to go to the hospital”. She had already started packing and had told our hotel manager, Laum, who was sleeping in his boxers downstairs what was up. Laum took me to the hospital and then came back to get Anna. The hospital was “the best” in LPB. And that was a scary thought. There was bloody foot-prints to the bathroom, the bed had blood stains and dirt all over it, the pillow was yellow, the doctors outside were getting drunk, and there was moaning from the surgery room. I was delirious, but remember Laum saying “Your bed is dirty” while smiling at me. Thanks Laum, that helps. So when he went to pick Anna up they brought some better sheets for my bed. I was freaking out right now, praying so fervently I could barley understand the words. I know that G was there though. His presence was def. felt.
The worst part about this whole experience was when I had to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. I tried to go into the bloody bathroom, but heck no! There was no way! So I grabbed my IV and walked around looking for a cleaner toilet. I found the reception area and they pointed me upstairs. The first toilet was dry, with no water; the second was a squatty potty. Dang it! And it was super small….so I placed my sandals on the floor and had to poop pretty much on the floor. Wow. And yes my IV was being held in my mouth as all of this was taking place. Oh ya sure laugh, but that was the most humbling experience I’ve ever had in my life. Frick! So I walked back downstairs with a smirk on my face. Ahaha.
I was in and out of sleep the rest of the night. Poor Anna slept at the foot of the bed as I tried to fall asleep without moving too much. Laum said he would pick us up at 6:30am, but we waited until 7am and then walked out, waving to our Dr. who gave me some IV, pepto, and electrolytes hoping I would get better. The bloody foot-prints were gone because the cleaning lady was there. I guess she only comes once a day (that can never be good).
Anna and I pretty much slept the rest of the Monday, and had to reschedule our mountain biking tour. We went out later that afternoon, made an elephant riding reservation, walked around a bit, ate small amounts of food, then watched a movie and went to bed. It had been a tiring few days and my body was not feeling up to par. I slept well Monday night.
Tuesday: Anna and I woke up around 8am, headed downstairs for a quick breakfast, then ran off to the elephant riding place. We took a small little trolley to the elephant place. It was only us, an Australian girl, and another couple. We met up with 5 other brits as well who were enjoying their holiday because of the royal wedding. I really didn’t know what to expect. Man, was I in for a treat. There were 9 of us and each elephant could hold 3, one on its neck, two on its back in a saddle/bench like thing. We had the fast elephant that bolted in front of the others. We walked around on them for a while, loving the experience, except for the massive amounts of poop they produce, and the massive amounts of gas they let off. Wow! To say the least, I smelled like butt when we were done riding, and it felt nice when the elephants charged into the river to swim. Sept, our elephant was a slow one and it took some coaxing for her to submerge. I dove off of the elephants backs a few times and swam around, until I saw some green grenades floating by, and decided I think I want to get out now. Ahaha. We headed back after our elephant adventure.
We grabbed some lunch at Joma, I ate so much because my stomach was actually accepting food. Around 3pm we left for “The Cave”. It was a lousy ride, because the tuk-tuk that we had taken had no shocks what so ever. About an hour and a half later we arrived at a small village just before sunset. The caves were not clearly marked, so we got lost in the small village, found a random monkey named ling-ling, a baboon that was being poked in the butt by kids, and an owl with black eyes. Weird I know, but interesting. We finally found the boats that would take us to this big cave. So we took it across and got in right before the cave closed. And it was good that we went than, because there was a lot of funky buddah stuff that the Hly Ghst didn’t like at all. So we walked around to the other side of the cave and found even funkier buddah stuff and called it a day. We ran back down to the boat and headed back to our tuk-tuk.
When we got back, we went for a walk, grabbed some “safe” food, we made reservations at a culture center for Laotian dance and music, for a dinner and show. We then went to get some pumpkin bread, and back to the night market where Anna shopped…and I just grumbled. Finally we made it through the market, went back home and watched “You’ve got mail”. Great movie and it made me laugh because a few days before I had met a girl named Meg Ryan. Funny.
Wednesday: We woke up late…..again. We jogged over to the meeting point for our 50 km (31 mile) bike ride. Man, we did not know what we were in for. Little did Anna and I know that our tour guide had been doing mountain biking tours for 7 years and was the Lance Armstrong of Laos. We road forever, bombed up and down hills, skidded through mud, and had a blast. Well, we were having fun until Anna flipped into a mud puddle and scrapped her leg a bit. She hated me for taking her on that trek after that happened. Oops. Also, in our adventure of cycling, I was taking some video, when some armed soldiers came out of nowhere and told me to stop filming. Little did I know that it was a militia training ground….yikes. We had a great time pushing our bodies to the limit (especially after I was sick only 2 days prior, good call “Extreme Rob”, STUPID!). We rolled into town, dropped our bikes and walked back. We took showers, and Anna fell into a coma for 5 hours. I rested a little, but went out and about for a little.
At 7pm, we got all dressed up and went to the cultural show and dinner. I wore my new suit (which was awesome!) And my new dress shoes (which hurt like a motha! Darn it!). The show was cool, but it was slow, and the food was good, but it was way way too much! My stomach was burning from too much food, which was a weird feeling, but the music was really special, and the dances were very interesting to watch and take photos of.
Anna and I walked back (I was barefoot because my shoes hurt that bad!), and then watched Mission impossible 1 (so good!).
Thursday: Well it was finally time to go home. It was a sad day, but fun. During breakfast we found out that Laum is a believer and so are his family, and many others in Laos (which is so awesome!). And then it all made sense, why G had provided this hotel, with this asst. manager, at this specific time. Awesome! We packed up our stuff and headed to the airport around 130pm. Little did we know that our flight at 230 would be canceled and we would have to be put on a different flight at 430pm. We arrived in Hanoi, took a taxi to Anna’s house and then went to bible study.
It was refreshing to hang out with other believers who spoke English well. We had some good discussion and played some cards until 11pm. Then I headed back to Anna’s and passed out until 830am or on Friday.
Friday: I woke up, made myself some tea, ate some cereal, and watched some sports. Around 11am Anna and I met up with her friend Nelson (and now my friend Nelson) to go into town and buy a tie and cuff links for my friend Keith’s wedding the next day. We found some cool ties, and cuff links after looking around for a few hours.
At 7pm I met up with Keith and had dinner with him at Joma. We chatted for a while about his decision to get married. We chatted for a while then went back to Anna’s and celebrated Keith’s wedding further with a glass of red wine and some Cuban cigars. I then went out driving with Keith to meet up with some other friends. We got a little lost in downtown Hanoi, but met up with our friends Nate and his wife Hue, then headed back to Anna’s around 1130pm.
Saturday: I woke up with a phone call from my friend Keziah who said she wanted to meet up for breakfast before the wedding. So I quickly put on some clothes packed my suit and grabbed my directions I had written down the night before. I was proud of myself because I found my way there to her house. We ate some “ban cung” and then headed off for the wedding.
The wedding went really well and I enjoyed it. It was a good feeling to be a groomsman and be in the front. The wedding went for about 2 hours. There was worship music, a message, and lots of food. I had a great time. It was interesting to know the girl my friend was marrying. Her name is Huong and I met her last September in Hai Phong with my church from home.
I left around 1130 and headed out for some coffee. We talked for a bit to some new Vietnamese friends we had made at the wedding. Then out of nowhere we started talking about awkward bathroom stories, and this Vietnamese guy that I just met was laughing, wheezing, and cackling about the smallest humor in any of the stories told. It was pretty funny actually. So when I told my story about the Laos hospital, he almost fell out of his chair. Ha haah.
After coffee, we went and saw Thor, and then I met up with the bridal party for a dinner Keith wanted us to come to. We talked for a while, prayed, and then wished them the best. A bridesmaid and I named Chang drove over to Nelson’s house to play cards. And I was so proud of myself for remembering the way to his house from across town. We played Nerts and Poker for a while then headed home.
Sunday: I woke up for church, went to HIF (Hanoi International fellowship), then out to lunch for some Indian food. Where I became quite full, which was a good feeling. I also taught one of the waitresses their how to skate after we ate because I had brought my skateboard with me.
After eating, we headed over to Fanny’s for some ice cream. All of us on motor bikes except me…….I was holding on to my friends motor bike skitching on the back with my skateboard, causing quite a stir. Ahah. We hit up some ice cream, than I had to catch the bus in to the airport. It had been an amazing 10 days! Wow!!
-thanks for reading my stories!! And for all of your support!
