Katy and I find ourselves constantly singing "everybody move to the back of the bus" as we endure hours and hours of bus travel throughout Southeast Asia. We have ended up on quite a few local buses and I don't know why they want the white people in the back, but that is where we get put constantly....and I think I must have developed some sort of facial deformity traveling because I have never been stared at so much in my life....I am definitely becoming more aware of what it feels like to be a minority!
We have only been traveling one month and have racked up quite a lot of bus stories that might be worth a laugh to some of you (they are usually worth at least minimal frustration and buckets of sweat to us). Here goes....
Journey 1: Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng via minibus (about a 14-seater).
Estimated travel time: 6 hours. Actual travel time: 7 hours
This ride was actually quite smooth as far as bus breakdowns and thermoregulation go. There was some decent air con and no mechanical problems along the way. The bus was full of backpackers and everyone had an actual seat. What was not smooth was the road....this was quite possibly the worst road I have and will travel on and the positive point of this adventure was that my abs were used more in that 6 hours than in the entireity of my travels.....and that is because if I had let them loose, I most likely would have fallen out of the bus :) Pothole after pothole, however, we made it to Vang Vieng.
Journey 2: Vang Vieng to Vientiane (VIP bus...read: more expensive, large seats, air conditioning, all backpackers).
Estimated travel time: 4 hours Acutal travel time: 6 hours
Now we're thinking....we got this down. Bus travel...easy. While there was a 2 hour delay for the bus to pick us up, the actual ride in was perfect. No biggie.
Journey 3: Vietiane to Thakhek via public bus. (Public bus capacity= 40, aka 40 seats on the bus. How many people were on our bus? We counted 70, and I think we were a few shy)
Sweat factor: 20/10 (10 being that you don't have to pee for about 2 days post-ride)
Estimated travel time: 6 hours Actual travel time: 9 hours
Picture a stifling, sweat-filled rickety old bus filled with people, seats that were about to fall through the floor, and chickens (okay, there weren't really chickens- but we have still fondly named this "...the chicken bus"). When stopped (which was often), the temperature would rise to a cool 95 degrees or so (no exaggeration-I don't think I have ever lost so much fluid while sitting in my entire lifetime ). When moving, however, a balmy 88 degree breeze would come in the window, so no worries :) Let me try to further paint of a picture....Katy told me to take a video of the bus so that we could explain it to people and I responded, "You can't tape smell."
The best part of this journey? We had paid 120,000 kip for a VIP bus ticket (thats $15, a TON of money for a bus). When we got to the station, they said the VIP bus was broken (read: only 3 Westerners paid for it, therefore, they would not run it). But they COULD offer us a $2.50 refund for our troubles. Thanks, guys!
And you may wonder how 70 people fit into 40 seats. Well, we (along with 5 others) were sitting on the engine in the back and then they filled the aisle with stools and people sat all the way up and down the aisle. Makes getting on and off for squat toilet breaks quite the physical challenge.
Oh, well- we made it in one piece and have a story to tell from it!
Journey 4: Thakek to Pakse
Estimated travel time: 6 hours Actual travel time: 4.5 hours
We had gotten stuck in Thakhek thinking we were closer to this cool cave than we were...and ended up not being able to see the cave. So we were trying to get out as quickly as possible (there is nothing else in this town) and were being told by the hostel that there were no buses available (and this went on all day). We didn't believe him so we went to the bus station to see for ourselves and, as we expected, hopped right on a local bus to Pakse. This thing was amazing- only about 10 people 20 seats, air con and got to the planned destination EARLY.
Ha- joke is still on us!! Because we got there "early," we rolled into Pakse about 345am. Our next bus wasn't until 730am....so we spent a few very dark hours sitting vigilantly in the Pakse bus station by ourselves.
Journey 5: Nakasang (right near the 4000 islands) to Siem Reap (VIP bus, all backpackers. Estimated travel time: 14 hours from start to finish (included boat from the islands, border crossing, etc). Actual travel time: 17 hours
Well this one started off great. Nice bus, friendly co-riders in the bus, border crossing into Cambodia went smoothly, and I had a shiny new Visa and two more stamps in my passport....some of my favorite things :)
Let me digress and talk briefly about honking in SE Asia: When you drive, you don't slow down for other things in the road. You honk when there are bikes, smaller vehicles, cows, dogs, or people present. And then they get out of your way. So about an hour or two in, we are riding along and our driver blows on the horn longer than usual.....and the honk was followed by a loud thud. We kept driving. I hope to God it was only a cow.....
Back to mechincal difficulties: Things started going downhill when we heard a hissing and felt a thud about half way into the first leg of our journey. Damn. Tire blew out. Luckily, I think this is a daily occurrence and the drivers literally got under the bus and had the thing fixed in just over an hour. Back on the road.....to drop us at a station north of Phnom Penh to transfer buses. The VIP bus dropped us and left and we all started climbing onto the local bus to take us the remaining 4 hours to Siem Reap. I got on first....and saw 3 seats for 10 of us. Dammit again. After some arguing, we were told that we could squeeze on this bus or it would leave without us and no more buses would come. So we got on...and instead of stools they had full on dining chairs filling the aisle. There was, however, entertainment on this bus ride: first Avatar in Laos, and then an extremely violent, amazingly disturbing crazy Laotian movie about who knows what. Best part of this one? We paid 300,000 kip for this combined ride (a whopping $35...that's over a days budget). Thanks, Pat from Mekong Adventures....when I specifically asked you if BOTH the buses were VIP, you smiled and said, "Of course, of course. Only large VIP buses with seats and air conditioning."
And finally, our most recent journey:
Journey 6: Siem Reap to Phnom Penh via local bus.
Estimated travel time: 6 hours. Actual travel time: 7 hours
Number of stool sitters: Only 5! Sweat factor: 8/10
This one started off smoothly. Left at 0710 and it was a 0700 bus. We each had seats and although their air conditiong didn't actually feel cold, there was some sort of fan system. Sweet...off to a good start.
Fast forward 20 minutes....Katy and I are (surprise!) in the back of the bus where we belong, and a loud hissing sound starts....followed by a large cloud of pungent smoke slowly filling the bus. By this time, we just look at each other and laugh. Evvverybody off the bus.
We found shade under a tree along with some sort of miliatry personnel and a monk and waited. I had a brief encounter with some fire ants when trying to sit down on the ground so standing it was. Luckily, it was early in the morning and it hasn't quite hit 98 degreees yet like yesterday....probably only low 80s at this point. We didn't see anyone trying to fix the bus....so we were hoping another one would come. And just shy of an hour later, one did! Yay!! Climbed back on and headed to Phnom Penh for an uneventful remainder of a ride.
Moral of this very long story: When boarding a bus in SE Asia, wear your dirtiest clothes (you will undoubtedly sweat through them), bring at least a liter of water, be prepared to wait on the side of the road while they fix your bus, and please oh please bring your best attitude and loads of patience....the worse the situation, the better the story :)
Friday, March 9, 2012
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Starting them young, eh?
Since EVERYBODY thinks we are from Canada, figured I throw out a word from my homeland :) We seriously get asked we are from Canada almost every day....but I take that as a compliment frankly. I think it speaks to our character (and maybe Katy's accent at times :). But more on whether or not to say you are from America in a different post.........
On to my thoughts on children:
The amount of children that I have done business with here is astonishing. So far, this seems to be Laos-specific, as I didn't witness it in Thailand. But the children (as young as 7 years old, I would guess) are completely capable of and often appear to be running their parents' businesses. It started at a tubing bar in Vang Vieng when I was desparately craving my daily BeerLaos and the only person in sight at the bar was a 9 year old. With much trepidation and feeling quite guilty, I said "BeerLaos??" He nooded, smiled, and said "15,000 kip, please." And then marched over to the cooler, grabbed a beer, cracked the top on the refrigerator bottle opener, and brought me my beer. Cool, man....thanks. Glad you are serving the tourists of Laos in the middle of a Wednesday :)
These kids speak English well, are great salespeople, and are proficient in making change quickly and correctly. While trying to rent a tube the other day on Don Det, the shop owner was asleep in the corner. Don't worry, though. Her son (maybe 8 years old?) saw us eyeing the tubes and immediately stopped playing with his friends, came over, said "Do you want to rent a tube? 10,000 kip all day" while his mother continued to nap. And you bet your butt he was waiting there when we returned the tubes later that day to say thank you very much and to have a nice evening.
And the best was when Katy and I were on a mission via bicycle a few days ago to find "the best burger in all of Asia," at a hostel called King Kong on the south end of Don Det Island. The joint had been recommended to us by a fellow American we met while swimming the night before and after he gave it his high regards, we couldn't pass it up. The hostel owner came over and we told him we heard he had the best burgers in Asia, and he said, "Yea, man....probably the best burgers in the whole f***ing world."
I knew this was going to be a phenomenal burger.
Anyhow, we ordered our burgers and in typical Laos fashion, waited. After we ordered, the hostel owner was sure to take the time to cook himself up a meal, eat it, and roll and smoke a joint before bringing us our food. 45 minutes later, he brought out the burgers and they were unbelievable, as expected: I do love all this Asian food but I have eaten almost nothing except for padthai, curry, lap, and fried noodles for the whole month so you can imagine my excitement when a juicy burger topped with pineapple, bacon, cheese!! (something you don't see anywhere here) and a sauce that resembled In and Out Burger's animal style sauce appeared in front of me.
Sorry- got distracted thinking about that burger again. Back to the children: While waiting for the burger, we had perused the menu and it had a history of the guesthouse spelled out. The man (a fomer chef in Sweden and England) who owned the place had come here years ago, married a Lao woman, and now they ran the hostel and had two children. He noted that his daughter was becoming quite the good cook, and I realized that no, this man hadn't whipped up our burgers in between his own personal cooking, eating, and blazing- rather, his daughter (who I saw at the end of the meal and she appeared about 12 years old), had made us this amazing food.
I don't know whether these children are having great work ethic instilled at them at an early age or if they are bing forced to do work when maybe they should be playing or going to school.... I guess either way, they are learning something!
On to my thoughts on children:
The amount of children that I have done business with here is astonishing. So far, this seems to be Laos-specific, as I didn't witness it in Thailand. But the children (as young as 7 years old, I would guess) are completely capable of and often appear to be running their parents' businesses. It started at a tubing bar in Vang Vieng when I was desparately craving my daily BeerLaos and the only person in sight at the bar was a 9 year old. With much trepidation and feeling quite guilty, I said "BeerLaos??" He nooded, smiled, and said "15,000 kip, please." And then marched over to the cooler, grabbed a beer, cracked the top on the refrigerator bottle opener, and brought me my beer. Cool, man....thanks. Glad you are serving the tourists of Laos in the middle of a Wednesday :)
These kids speak English well, are great salespeople, and are proficient in making change quickly and correctly. While trying to rent a tube the other day on Don Det, the shop owner was asleep in the corner. Don't worry, though. Her son (maybe 8 years old?) saw us eyeing the tubes and immediately stopped playing with his friends, came over, said "Do you want to rent a tube? 10,000 kip all day" while his mother continued to nap. And you bet your butt he was waiting there when we returned the tubes later that day to say thank you very much and to have a nice evening.
And the best was when Katy and I were on a mission via bicycle a few days ago to find "the best burger in all of Asia," at a hostel called King Kong on the south end of Don Det Island. The joint had been recommended to us by a fellow American we met while swimming the night before and after he gave it his high regards, we couldn't pass it up. The hostel owner came over and we told him we heard he had the best burgers in Asia, and he said, "Yea, man....probably the best burgers in the whole f***ing world."
I knew this was going to be a phenomenal burger.
Anyhow, we ordered our burgers and in typical Laos fashion, waited. After we ordered, the hostel owner was sure to take the time to cook himself up a meal, eat it, and roll and smoke a joint before bringing us our food. 45 minutes later, he brought out the burgers and they were unbelievable, as expected: I do love all this Asian food but I have eaten almost nothing except for padthai, curry, lap, and fried noodles for the whole month so you can imagine my excitement when a juicy burger topped with pineapple, bacon, cheese!! (something you don't see anywhere here) and a sauce that resembled In and Out Burger's animal style sauce appeared in front of me.
Sorry- got distracted thinking about that burger again. Back to the children: While waiting for the burger, we had perused the menu and it had a history of the guesthouse spelled out. The man (a fomer chef in Sweden and England) who owned the place had come here years ago, married a Lao woman, and now they ran the hostel and had two children. He noted that his daughter was becoming quite the good cook, and I realized that no, this man hadn't whipped up our burgers in between his own personal cooking, eating, and blazing- rather, his daughter (who I saw at the end of the meal and she appeared about 12 years old), had made us this amazing food.
I don't know whether these children are having great work ethic instilled at them at an early age or if they are bing forced to do work when maybe they should be playing or going to school.... I guess either way, they are learning something!
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