In Amsterdam

In Amsterdam now and the city is everything I expected it to be... coffee shops full of stoners, heaps of hookers in red-lit windows and bicycles everywhere! There are also art galleries and museums galore; the whole city just smells of culture (and weed!). At first I was daunted by it all and depressed over the prices of everything but after a couple of days I'm beginning to really like the city. It is just so nice to wonder the streets and eat pastries by the canals during the day and then chill out at one of the coffee shops of a night. And there are plenty of attractions here to fill the day. Yesterday I visited the Rijksmuseum, which displays artworks from celebrated Dutch artists throughout history, including Rembrandt. Today I'm planning to take a tour through the canals and maybe check out the Van Gough Museum or Anne Frank's House. The Sex Museum or a Live Sex Show are also options, but I think I'll give them a miss this time hehe.

Jack and Jesus

I'm back on Khao San Rd in Bangkok, the street where every copy CD store plays Jack Johnson all day and all the foreigners look like Jesus. I've been spending my days with Kieran and Virta (Spanish girl) and a few other Irish lads, one of whom was wearing Celtic sleeves the night we first met and thus inevitably became my best mate. This place is crazy. It is its own little world, so far removed from the rest of Thailand (well at least what I have seen of the country so far) that it doesn't even feel like Asia, but rather a distopian land of drunken Swedes, Brits and Aussies who desperately need showers. I had no intentions of staying here again after my first experience of a sleepless night due to non-stop techno beats, yet the overnight bus from Chiang Mai dropped us off here and the street kind of just sucked us in. At least the place I'm staying at now is next to a reggae club and so I am kept awake by my favourite music rather than the type that one needs to be smashed to appreciate.

Anyhow, I am off to Europe tomorrow. I'm both happy and sad about that; happy because I love being on the road and am excited to explore a part of the world that I haven't seen since I was a wee one, but sad because I adore this part of the world. At least I can rest in knowing that I'll be back in a few months time.

Hilltribe Trekking

I've been trekking up north for the past few days with two other Aussies and a Scottish couple and have never gotten so dirty in all my life. I am a walking slab of mud! But I had such an awesome, eventful experience. Here are a couple of highlights...

After climbing a waterfall (twice in two months!) we ate lunch with a Tibetan hilltribe before trekking through some breathtaking scenery and passing through a few remote villages, where long-standing traditions and tribal laws are still adhered to and where such things as electricity are non-existent. The tribes living in these villages originate from Myanmar, Tibet, South China and Mongolia and have until recently relied on opium and amphetamines as a primary source of income - the Thai government has come down hard on the drug trade in recent years and apparently thousands of tribe members have been killed as a result. I felt a little uncomfortable 'watching' these tribes, as to me it seemed almost like a human zoo, however I was assured by our knowledgeable guide that part of the profits from the trek go to the villages and that outside interest in the tribes has prevented the Thai government from forcing assimilation.

We stayed overnight in one village belonging to the Palong (?) tribe. They cooked for us and the women and children performed a few songs and dances, which was hilarious since the kids were buggered and weren't performing with a great deal of enthusiam, much to the annoyance of the proud elders. They in turn asked us to sing a song for them yet we all came down with the fits of the giggles and were unable to grant their wishes. They were looking at us puzzled, which only served to make us laugh all the much harder. They are terrible, those moments when you can't stop yourself from laughing!

For about 15kms I rode on the head of an elephant through forrest and rugged farmland... that was a test of balance! With the Scottish couple sitting on a chair behind me, I tried so hard not to fall off or to faint when the elephant in front kept farting (nothing stinks more than elephants' farts!!!). We got a bit of a soaking as well, when our elephant felt the need to have a drink from a stream and sprayed us with half of what it's lonk trunk soaked up.

We sailed down a river on bamboo rafts for about an hour this morning, which would have normally been a very relaxing journey, however the guy paddling my raft wasn't what one would call normal. While the other paddlers seemed to be calm and careful, mine decided to jump off the raft ten minutes into the journey and lunge at a water-snake while I was left on the raft without a paddle. He eventually swam back to the raft and handed me the half-alive snake to hold, assuring me it was too far gone to bite. Then while the other paddlers stopped their rafts as we approached a huge fallen tree and advised the other Aussies and Scots to hop off while they lifted the raft out of the water over the tree, my paddler decided to be adventurous and steered the raft straight for the tree. He screamed 'duck!' and so I did, protecting my head with my arms, and after being scraped by the overhead branches and knocked on the elbows with another (I have a huge black bruise now!) we came out the otherside where the others were looking at us in horror. After that little episode, the other paddlers had a bit of a go at my paddler, after which the rest of the journey was smooth sailing... although I was still holding the snake!

What else??? Oh, I stacked it big time on a pebbly path! That was quite embarassing haha.

Hungover in Chiang Mai

Big night last night. Too many rums at a reggae bar. Returned to our guesthouse in bright sunlight. Not feeling the best right now, but a very good time was had!!

Back in Thailand

After a few more days bumming in Luang Prabang I hopped on the slow boat headed for the Thai border. The trip, which took 20 hours over two days was, well, long. And the wooden benches that we were forced to sit on were not exactly comfortable. However, the scenery was just beautiful - emerald mountains, remote fishing villages, limestone cliffs - and the journery was made more enjoyable by three really cool people that were on the same boat - Lucas, a surfer from Cactus Beach in South Oz (one of the very rare species of surfer that is actually interested in travelling to lands not blessed with surf) who has been travelling through Indo over the past couple of months, and Kieran, an Irish electrician, and his Spanish girlfriend who are eight months into a year-long round-the-world adventure. The four of us have been sharing rooms at the various guesthouses we've stayed at, making travelling very, very cheap!!

We are now in Chaing Mai, Thailand, which seems worlds apart from Laos. Returning to Thailand was like stepping out of the jungle back into civilisation. I immediately wanted to go back, where there's no smog, no traffic problems, no stress! At least Chiang Mai is meant to be a groovy kind of place with more bookstores than shopping plazas... but still, it's not Laos...

A Step Back in Time

I've spent the past few days in a northern Lao village near Nong Khiaw, where I spent my time hanging in a hammock reading a book and watching the local children splash around in the river. The village, nestled between huge emerald green mountains and consisting of little more than a cluster of bamboo huts, one that sheltered me from the rain for the short time I was there, can easily fool its visitors into thinking they've stepped back into a different age. There are next to no cars, the little boys play chess in the dust using bottle lids, women walk around in their bras carrying bags around their heads and there seems to be absolutely no concept of time (service in a restaurant takes a lifetime, buses leave whenever they feel like it). I had such a wonderfully relaxing time!

My trip back to Luang Prabang was a little less relaxing but it was a cracker! I was crammed into a truck with about 20 Laotians and twice my backpack, which was stuffed amongst boxes of fruit on the roof of the truck, fell off the back of the truck. Some Lao man would run to pick it up and upon his return I'd have all 20 sets of eyes staring at me waiting for a reaction. When I'd laugh and shrug my shoulders my fellow passengers would break out in hysterical laughter and one old man would ask 'no eggs?' and both times I'd reply 'no eggs', generating more laughter from the easily amused crowd. Such fun to take my mind off the fact that I was squashed in the back of a truck for four hours with dust in my eyes.

Heaven!!

I have been walking around Luang Prabang today, the same streets, passing the same people, but still finding it all so enchanting. The pace here is so slow and sleepy. The setting is stunning, with crumbling French buildings, little French laneways, the Mekong River and lush jungle in the background. The people are so friendly; if you buy something from them they are extremely happy, if not they are still extremely happy just to have said hello to you. For instance, one old Lao man on a bicycle rode past me a little while ago and asked if I wanted to buy an icecream off him. I politely refused and he just smiled widely and thanked me for visiting his hometown and wished me an enjoyable stay. And the food is lovely too... a little Thai, a little French and a lot of sticky rice. I am in heaven!

Luang Prabang and Beer Lao

In Luang Prabang now following a nine hour bus trip through the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen. Mountains, jungle, rivers, little villages of straw huts and gorgeous Lao kids running up to the road to wave... it was absolutely stunning, like Luang Prabang itself. On the edge of the Mekong River, Luang Prabang is a bit of a hippy town it seems and very, very relaxed. I think I'll stay here for a while.

I am sharing a room with a Dutch dude and two Swiss girls that were also on the bus (we were the only four foreigners). All very nice people. We managed to score a nice room with private bath, a/c and TV for us$3 each! We're very happy. The three of them are sleeping now because we are going out for some drinks later. I definitely won't be having Beer Lao.... yesterday in Vientiane I decided to give it a try as it is supposedly the nicest beer in Southeast Asia. That may be the case, but not being a lover of beer I still didn't like it. Nevertheless I drank the whole glass so as not to embarass myself infront of the diplomats and NGO workers around me at the bar, the whole time trying to hide the fact that I couldn't stand it. No easy feat, I'll tell you that! I'm never going to have a drop of beer in my life again, be it good beer or not!!

Aaahhhhh!

I arrived in Laos this morning and am already in love with place. There are some places that just you just fall in love with stepping off the bus (or in my case the back of a pick-up truck) and Laos is one of them. The people are just so friendly. Everyone is so laid-back. There seem to be no rules, at least with traffic anyway. The Lonely Planet SE Asia on a Shoestring book said that traveller's let out a long sigh when arriving in Laos, like falling into a comfortable chair. I think that describes how I feel perfectly. Aaahhhh.

The adventure here was a different story. After spending the weekend at a teacher's house by the Mekong River in Ubon Ratchathani, I was so exhausted and I was kinda looking forward to a long bus ride so that I can get some rest (being the only farang in town over the past few weeks, everybody has wanted a piece of me and it is extremely tiring trying to please everybody!). Unfortunately the 9 hour bus ride to Udon Thani was excrutiating; the CD that the driver insisted on playing was scratched to buggery and he didn't think to change it, the man infront of me was coughing for the entire trip and the woman next to me was very, very large and so I was very, very squashed. Arriving in Udon Thani, I rocked up at the first guesthouse I could find. It was dirty and sleazy but for $3 I didn't care, I just wanted sleep. Of course my room had to be next to the room of a drunken European man and his Thai mistress who were making loud grunting noises all night!! Despite wrapping my sarong around my head in an attempt to block out the noise (I'm sure it looked as ridiculous as it sounds) I think I managed a mere 2 or 3 hours sleep before setting off for Laos this morning. An hour long bus ride to Nong Khai, a trip to Friendship Bridge in a tuk tuk, a shuttle bus to the border, half an hour processing my visa and a 20 minute ride on the back of a pick-up truck with about 10 curious Lao people and several boxes of rambutan later, I am now in Vientiane, relaxed and ready to do absolutely nothing for the next couple of weeks!

Although I am indesribably happy to be here, my last day at Nonpoon school was very sad. A couple of the teachers who I had grown close to shed a few tears and so did several students. My favourite student, a girl called Malai, was hugging me so tightly and wouldn't let go. She is such a beautiful girl and I would love to one day shout her a ticket to Australia. I bought her a top-of-the-market Thai-English dictionary before I left and you should have seen how happy she was. She presented a little gift for me too - a photo frame made from shells with a picture of herself above the words Malai Loves Lis (that's what she called me) as well as a bracelet with mine and her names written on it. They are things I will keep forever. I also bought a few gifts for some of the teachers to thank them for their kindness. In addition to a Ned Kelly DVD, I gave a handmade elephant ornament to Mr. Udom as a tribute to our 'amazing' journey to the elephant village. He pissed himself laughing and repeated 'cow is son of elephant' hahaha. It's those little things that you remember most about people long after you leave them.

Amazing Thailand

Last weekend Mr. Udom, an overly nice teacher, and his lovely family took me away for the night to the city of Buriram where I visited nearby Phanom Rung temple. It's apparently the most beautiful and intact Angkor temple in Thailand. They shouted me a night in a motel with a/c, television, a shower and (drum roll) a bed!!!! I spent the whole night lying under crisp white sheets watching hilarious Thai soapies with 1960s-type special effects, enjoying the break from the comparitively rustic conditions of my Sisaket house. Mr. Udom also took me to Thailand's elephant village. According the the 'Amazing Thailand' advertising campaign, hundreds of elephants are meant to roam the village streets, however after driving the two hours to see for ourselves we found a village of many many cows but no elephants haha. Mr. Udom, who speaks little English, kept saying "Amazing Thailand, Amazing Thailand!" and "Cow must be son of elephant" and laughing hysterically at himself. I was in stitches... I guess you had to be there.

During the week I visited two primary schools that are even more remote than my school. The students have never seen a farang (Westerner) before and were sooooo excited to see me. At both schools I had over a dozen little Thai kids attached to my arms as I strolled around the school grounds. The kids of one class even drew pictures for me and wrote 'I LOVE LISA' beneath their drawings. Awwwww. I also attended the local rocket festival during the week. I was told that the people of northeast Thailand believe that building rockets and setting them off into the sky ushers in the rainy season. The festival was little more than a group of Thai farmers getting pissed on Chang Beer and lighting a few firecrackers but it was fun nonetheless, at least until I was forced into embarassing myself by dancing to a Thai pipe instrument with a drunk old toothless farmer haha.

By the way, it looks like I will be heading to Laos on Monday or Tuesday. School has been cancelled this coming week to allow the students to participate in a week-long scouting course. I had intended to go to Cambodia, yet I have decided to visit Laos first as I am closer to the border-crossing and because my sister wants to visit Cambodia with me in December. Can't wait! Everybody seems to rave about Laos. I will miss Nonpoon school though, if not my accommodation.