LAID BACK LAOS

WAITING FOR THE TRAIN BANGKOK

We leave Bangkok on Saturday the 9th of August booked on the 1920 train to Chang Mai unfortunately no sleeper berths are available on any of the night trains due to it being a big national holiday weekend in Thailand, so we settle for the 2nd class air con recliner seats, after our Indian railways experience we are curious as to what condition the Thai railway network is in. The train leaves promptly and our carriage is clean and comfortable, food is provided which came as a bit of a pleasant surprise as we didn’t realise food was included, shame I went out and had a meal before leaving but you always have to remember that famous old adage “you never know where your next hot meal is coming from so eat when you can”. The cleanliness of the train staff was amazing after each meal they would come round collect up all the rubbish and then sweep and mop the carriage floor, unlike the Indian railways staff who at this point would open the door and throw all the rubbish out on the track the Thai’s actually kept it and disposed of it at the station, even when we arrived at Chang Mai some 12 hours later they where washing the windows of the train before we had even got off and then it returned to Bangkok.
Chang Mai turns out to be larger and a lot more modern than we had expected, Jan had a dodgey stomach so we spend the two days here quietly not venturing far from a toilet but we manage to see most of the many Wat’s (temples) and take in some shopping and recharging our batteries. THE THREE DRAGONS!!!!!!We stayed at the SK Guest House which is where our daughter Stephanie stayed when she was here last year the only difference being we are budget travellers and so didn’t get the air con rooms that she had, but we still get to use the pool which is a bonus. From Chang Mai we head off to Chang Rai on the bus a 4 hour journey on remarkably good roads but after India in the truck I suppose anything would feel good, the bus is full but thankfully no chickens or livestock are inside and our first public bus trip in Thailand passes without a hitch. We are on our way to the border with Laos we have a couple of nights in Chang Rai,

INTERNATIONAL FELIXSTOWE ROAD RUNNERS STRIKE AGAIN CHANG RAI

here is where we get caught in our first major rainfall of the monsoon while on our way to a restaurant in the evening, after 20 minutes of sheltering from the rain under a cafe awning with no sign of it letting up we make for the nearest bar that serves food and also happens to have a live group playing 60’s music, three bottles of wine and several beers later we all leave drier on the outside if not the inside than when we went in. It’s while in Chang Rai we learn of the unusually high water levels on the Mekong river the highest since 1966 which were due to peak 15 metres higher than normal the day before we leave, the Hotel that we were booked into was flooded up to the first floor and our river trip is hanging in the balance, this is the combination of high rainfall and the Chinese opening a dam further up river not thinking or probably not caring of the consequences of what happens downstream. We are still convinced that it’s a devious plan by the Chinese to keep us the E.O.E group out of South East Asia after not allowing us into Tibet and then not allowing the truck into China and now trying to wash us away down the Mekong River.
It’s an early 5.30 am start on Friday 15th to get a minibus to the border crossing point Hauy Xai, before picking up our slow boat down the Mekong river to Pak Beng, arriving at the border which is formed by the river and consists of small boats ferrying people and their luggage from one side to the other, this all takes place on the river where the water level is finally receding leaving some slippery dangerous banks, but everyone makes it across dry and no lost bags, mind you if you went in with a backpack on your back I don’t think you would surface until you got to Cambodia. BORDER CROSSING POINT THAILAND/LAOSWe clear customs and immigration in record time about an hour in total including the boat ride across the river, ensuring we have our passports and not somebody else’s after feeding them into the system one end and trying to retrieve them 20 minutes later from the officials who are happy to give them to just about anyone, if you ever need a spare passport this border crossing could just be the answer. We set off in search of our slow boat, now Stephanie had told us a little about this trip as she had done it last year when she was here so our expectations were set quite low as to what to expect and here’s where all the usual boating terminology goes out of the window, for instance delete quay and insert muddy river bank, delete gangway and insert muddy plank perhaps even 4 inches wide sometimes, so here we all are loaded up with backpacks, a very muddy and slippery river bank after the water levels have dropped, and loads of backpackers trying to squeeze onto this boat via the small plank, mind you we did upgrade a bit we purchased some cushions for 12,800 kip to go on the rickety benches that they use as seats and as there’s 16,000 kip to the pound we thought we could easily justify that huge expense of 80 pence for two days of bum protection but they were still numb at the end of it. We managed to get seats up the back on the quarterdeck, but as this was just behind the diesel engine I think it’s better if we call it the engine room annex, once they had squeezed everyone on, at one point Jan was about to get off and walk as she thought it was overloaded but we pointed out to her that it was a long walk down the river bank she stayed seated asking for her life jacket, which then highlighted the next little problem what life jackets, you can’t pack this many people on to a boat and expect to have room for life jackets as well. But once we were all seated and it got under way and the noise from the diesel engine deafened us, it turned out to be not so bad after all, cold beer I find always helps !!! We arrived at our overnight stop the one with the flooded hotel accommodation so we needed to source along with most other people on the boat some more,

OUR ORIGINAL ACCOMADATION NOW A BIT DAMP

Jane and Mo were going to go off ahead and try and beat the crowds to get our 8 rooms while the rest of us got the bags together on the jetty no sorry riverbank, the docking procedure seemed to be going well until there was this rumbling noise and everyone who was helping to tie up the boat ran away very quickly, the boat next to us started her engines and made for a hasty exit together with us. It turned out that a building just above our landing stage that we had been admiring some 5 minutes earlier because it was propped up on beer crates after the bank had been eroded in the recent flood, had picked this moment to slide down the bank and into the river, the people and boats were trying to get away to prevent being hit by any floating debris, at least this was one off of Jane’s list to try and book for tonight’s accommodation(well at least we hoped so !). But good news we find a near new guest house with fans and hot showers that can house us all comfortably the only drawback being the power goes off at 10.30 pm so no fans through the night but as the rest of the village is in darkness we don’t feel out of place. Back on the river the next morning to continue down to Laung Prabang the river level has dropped over night and our boat has been moved to the other side of a flooded part of the road which then means that some helpful village people can charge us for walking across their boats to get to ours at the extortionate rate of 10,000 kip about 50 pence, back on our way, this time we’re out the front of the boat a bit quieter but just as cramped,

A RELAXING BEER ON THE SECOND DAY

it was a shame the river was so high, it covered all the rocks and concete marker posts marking the channels, all we saw was a vast expanse of water with lots of whirlpools and logs going round and round in the same place, ( SF&RS take note, this could be a good place for the water rescue refresher training if of course it happens ! what was the budget again), we arrive an hour early at our destination due to the strong current. Laung Prabang is said to be the prettiest town in south East Asia and with its French colonial buildings it does look very nice, especially at night when the illuminations help to disguise some of the tiredness which is exposed by the daylight. Plenty of shopping as there is a large tourist market every night here and Jan enjoys wandering around the stalls looking at the jewellery and clothes, time for another ankle bracelet or toe ring perhaps.

THE ROOFS OF THE SETTLEMENT THAT USED TO BE BY THE RIVER, NOW IN THE RIVER AT LAUNG PRABANG

OH NO IT FITS !!!!!!!!

We take a trip out to Kuangsi waterfall this turns out to be a big hit the recent rains have turned it into a real monster, when we arrive we discover its running through the picnic areas and over the paths very impressive we all opt to go for a swim even Jan (must be warming up now) hopefully my camera will dry out after all the spray at the bottom. John in action at the waterfall.

We leave or should I say should have left at 1600 hours for a six hour bus trip to Vang Veng a much smaller town 160 km's away on the way to the border with Vietnam, this is our first bus trip in Laos and we start with a 2 hour delay not leaving to 1800 hours complete with plastic patio chairs down the aisle to house the other 20 people who don’t have seats, cosy but not to worry it’s only 6 hours? or is it, we were promised toilet stops every 2 hours and after 3 hours the driver finally stops on the road for people to visit the call of nature (definitely an advantage being a male at this point, life’s so much easier), at midnight the time we should have been arriving we are still some 75 km’s away and have just come across a landslip on the road which takes us another 2 hours to negotiate, finally at 3 o’clock in the morning we get to stop at a roadside cafe for hot food and facilities, not bad 9 hours into a 6 hour trip before we get our first proper stop, finally at 6 o’clock in the morning we arrive in the pouring rain at Vang Veng and we all crawl off to our accommodation to get into bed for a few hours kip (I never spent this long up at night when I was in the Fire service). Vang Veng is a lovely little spot set out in the mountains with a disused landing strip running right through the middle of it, I unfortunately go down with a heavy head cold (man flu) which takes me to my bed for two days unheard of before, but I think that in the hot humid temperatures it’s makes it worse and of course I’m a pensioner now so things always take time!, which means I miss out on the tubing down the river something Vang Veng is renowned for, you hire a tube and then a Tuk Tuk takes you by road up the river where you get in and float back down stopping off at all the bars on the way they have swings and slides and generally a good time is had by all, Jan rally enjoyed it.

MUST REMEMBER TO LET GO

We then have to try our second bus journey in Laos to get us to the capital Vietainne we are not looking forward to it after our first experience but it turns out to be much better we even arrive on time and there was no plastic seats down the aisle either.

ANOTHER BUDDA LOOK ALIKE COMPETITON

Vietainne as far as capital cities go is quite small but it does boast its own look alike Champs Elysees with an Arc de Triomph at the top of it, mind you as it say’s on the board next to it, its looks at its best from far away once up close it’s a bit tatty where it hasn’t been finished yet and they started it back in the 60’s. We leave Vietainne taking our 3rd coach trip to go to Savanghatn a town near the border with Vietnam from where we can make our final bus journey to the border crossing point, first impressions of our bus are good nice paintwork nice soft fabric seats and air con plus on board toilet could we be that lucky, almost once we set off no end of street vendors got on selling everything from fresh baguettes, and drinks through to barbecued cockroaches but once underway the air con temp is set so low that you could hang meat in there, the T V was playing Laos pop music so loud you couldn’t hear yourself think it was like travelling in a chest freezer listening to the Eurovision song contest (brain dead by lunch time) and don’t even think about using the loo as all the luggage that wouldn’t fit underneath gets stacked in front of the toilet door, but by the afternoon when they finally turned off the TV and either the air con had broke or it was connected to his gears because the first 2 gears didn’t seem to work either peace ensured but we did arrive on time bonus.
Our last bus is a real beauty looks like it was built in the 60’s and been patched every 5 years since, one large fan in the middle that doesn’t work but is just the right height to bang your head on as you walk down the aisle, a couple of chickens in the locker underneath and lots of locals inside, an hour into the trip we stop to pick up a lady who has 20 50 kilo bags of fertiliser with her which they stack down the centre aisle which makes for a nice foot rest! But the bus drives much better than a lot of the newer ones that we have been on and we get to the border at 1300 hours as promised. This time the border is a nice firm land crossing point with the Vietnam side having a very new swanky building most out of place. We have enjoyed our time in Laos the relaxed laid back lifestyle and cheap food and drink have made for a great time apart from the odd memorable bus journey we have really enjoyed this country, if Vietnam is anything like Laos let the good times roll.

A COUPLE FOR RALPH NOTE THE SAFETY FLIP FLOPS ON THE SCAFFOLD

TRUCK IN TRANSIT

Well this is it the last leg with the truck, Katmandu to Mumbai the last bumps to remember, we all meet up at 0800 on the morning of the 23rd of July that is after our taxi took us to another hotel instead of the truck park after assuring us he knew where he was going, this in heavy rush hour traffic but we make it with 30 minutes to spare, a quick bite to eat by the side of the truck of cereals and coffee and then we are off in the pouring rain on our way to Bardi National Park. The rain keeps up for most of the day well it is monsoon season after all and we pass several accidents where lorries have left the road probably down to the bald tyre wet roads combination again. We bush camp at night and due to the rain that we have had all day the off road going is getting very soft but after using six wheel drive and the trusty use of a spade to help release the bogged in front wheel we find a nice spot amongst the trees and the rain finally stops falling just in time for dinner.
The next day is an early start 0700 still quite a way to go and with the road winding its way through the mountains it could well be a long day as it turns out its our most testing of the trip so far, the first obstacle we come across is a landslip across the road with

not quite enough room for us to pass so break out the shovels and spades and the road widening gang get to work half an hour later and we’ll ready to pass or we would have been if Jan acting as official photographer at that point hadn’t stepped on the side of the landslip to get that last shot and promptly sunk up to her knees in liquid mud so we transfer all our efforts into releasing her minus one thong (for all of you back in England that’s not underwear she didn’t sink that deep, but a flip flop and only the new ones that she got three weeks earlier as we entered Nepal) THE GREAT THONG HUNT IT MUST IN HERE SOMEWHERE !!!!!!!!

so a quick wash in the running water at the side of the road and we can resume our journey thong less for some of us. As we move west across Nepal the villages become more rural and use less man made products in there construction straw roofs and mud walls its like stepping back in time compared to Eastern Nepal where a great deal of brick walls and tin roofs are used. Our next problem is huge traffic queues as the students are protesting against the government on cuts to their budgets (heard this before somewhere) but after careful negotiation we are allowed to continue on our way providing we keep putting the money into their economy the trouble is every town has a demo going on so we have a few of these to negotiate even one with burning tyres in the middle of the road and nobody seems to care especially the police in actual fact there nowhere to be seen. A stop for lunch at a small roadside cafe for spicy vegetable noodles and soft drink total cost 30 pence each, and then off on part two of our journey which involved driving through rivers because they were rebuilding the bridges what they do is lay a base of stones in the river and then you drive through the trouble with having so much rain the day before meant that it can get quite deep and there was a queue of buses lined up because they couldn’t get through, after offering to walk through to check the depth and realising as I got half way through and it was up above my knees (I know my legs aren’t that long before anyone say’s anything) that my wallet was still in my pocket and this was no time to fall over, but I made it and Jacko and the truck followed me through much to everyone’s relief who was in the back.
The accommodation at Bardi National Park sits down a track which is some 12 kilometres off the main highway and look what trouble we had on that earlier on, so we thought there might be a few problems in store for us, the first being a wide river crossing followed by the standard low power cables that had to be lifted and finally a creaky wooden bridge that fortunately for us flexed rather than snapped as the truck passed over it we were going to remember our last trip in the truck one way or the other but we made it safely. THE HOW AND HOW NOT TO WEAR MAKEUP
Arriving at the park we were allocated our mud huts! Much to Jan’s concern, very basic, but done the job complete with luminous green spiders and our own pet frog by the side of the bed they had heard that Jan was in town and were keen to meet her, we all booked our trips for the next day and surprise, surprise, Jan decided against the safari walk and opted instead to have a quiet day in the village which as it turned out was quite informative as one of the guides took them around the market and village showing them the houses both inside and out. Some of us opted for the walk and the rest done a rafting safari we discovered that the leeches were again out in force as Jacko and myself got them on our legs and we had trousers on (get in through the little hole where the legs zip off) plus the usual ones on my stomach great fun!, saw some wild boar well we were almost run down by them as they dashed across our path and we had been following some tiger tracks at the time which made it a bit of a heart stopping moment, also got to know a baby elephant who took a shine to Oscar’s hat. Only had the one day at Bardi and then its off for the border crossing at Bambasa this turns out to be a bridge across the river that is only one foot wider than the truck with a difficult dog leg approach and exit what with having to get the traffic to stop crossing from the other side because there’s no room to pass, and trying to get an Indian to stop do anything when they’ve got it in their mind that they want to cross is an almost impossible task, and yes we’re back in India noisy, busy and plenty of rubbish about again. A NARROW BORDER CROSSING
Another bush camp that night in a disused petrol station the trouble with India is, it’s so packed with people or farming land that there is just nowhere to camp and so we have to take whatever we can get and disused petrol forecourts seem to work quite well, although once the locals got to hear we are in town 50 to 60 of them turn up to watch us cook and eat our meal a bit like being back in Pakistan !!! We set off on National Highway 3 down to Mumbai but this is more like a single lane farm track with vehicles having to pull off the highway to pass each other, we think it should be called National footpath 3 not that the indian lorry drivers are that keen to leave the hard standing and its a game of bluff to see who pulls over first, needless to say progress is painfully slow but we manage to transverse the Indian sub continent and after a couple more bush camps one on a disused factory site and the last one on the grounds of a disused mosque we arrive in Mumbai formerly Bombay and look forward to our first hot shower in four days. LAST GROUP PHOTO WITH THE TRUCK Jacko,john,Kat,Mary,Mo,Jan,Rob,Lorraine,Lucinda,Lynda,Oscar&me kneelingENTERING MUMBAI NOTE THE TRAFFIC GOING THE WRONG WAY DOWN THE OTHER CARRIAGEWAY BECAUSE THEY COULDN'T BE BOTHERED TO QUEUE
What a difference the last time I was in Bombay was back in 1975 when I was in the Navy and joined my first ship the Salisbury here, the place has changed a lot not surprisingly and most certainly for the better, it’s the best Indian city I have visited so far, cleaner, less busy even with a population of 16.4 million only another 4 million and they would have as many people as is in the whole of Australia, it’s just got a much better feeling to it than any other, we hope to ship the truck back to UK from here after doing some 22,051 km’s since leaving London on April the 6th, but as it turns out this could be a long process to organise so much so Jacko is still back in Mumbai trying to get space on a ship one week after the rest of us have left. We have three days in Mumbai before we get the overnight sleeper train to Kolkata, time to package up our tents and other stuff that we don’t need until Australia and send it on, lightening the load for South East Asia, a trip to the post office via the post office wallahs ( men who sew up your goods into a cloth parcel) ready for taking across the road into the post office for a five day delivery to Oz, lets hope Australian customs and immigration let it all through otherwise we’re be sleeping under the stars. A couple of days sightseeing, India Gate, and plenty of old colonial buildings with a trip out to Elephant Island to visit some temples which have been hollowed out of the rock. While on the one hour boat trip out to the island we pass the Navy dockyard and there tied up alongside is the old Hermes now sold to the Indian Navy and still going strong after all these years she was the other ship that I served on in NOW WHERE DID I LEAVE MY SEA LEGS

DOLLY BIRD UNDER A BROLLY AND NO ITS NOT RAINING

Navy and its quite a coincidence to see her in Mumbai the same port where I joined my first ship all those years ago, Jan was busy doing her container spotting only Maersk appeared to be running out of this port so she couldn’t tick off any China shipping containers this time. The trip back from the Island turned out to be quite rough and we all got a little wet, but Jan handled it very well, better in fact than the boat trip on the Ganges or the dugout canoe at Chitwan she must be getting her sea legs together now. I was hoping this confidence would carry across to the railway, after reading the rough guide to India which describes the Indian railway system as not only the biggest employer in India but also the most dangerous rail network in the world yes apparently even more dangerous than Network rail (must be bad) with an average of five accidents a month on its network and we were about to embark on a 32 hour train trip from Mumbai to Kolkata we had enough time for one accident maybe even two !! The train journey was quite an experience as you might expect bunks arranged in tiers of three, bars on the windows and usually the doors left open so you can get some air which also allows people to hop on and off once the train slows down enough, which is why your bags have to be chained to the bed to ensure they don’t go walkabout with them across India.

ENJOYING THE EVENING MEAL

VERY PLUSH ACCOMMODATION

Plenty of food and drink which is brought around by the train staff constantly through the journey which in turns leads to quite a bit of rubbish but they come along sweep it all up put it in a bag and then promptly throw it out the doorway while we are moving along, once they even threw it out the door as we passed through the station at speed I hope they all had protective clothing on the platform!, and the term don’t use the toilets while in the station took on a whole new meaning as you could look down the toilet and see the track directly beneath you. But it was an experience we wouldn’t have missed probably wouldn’t want to make a habit of doing it but at a cost of five pounds per head to travel coast to coast across India a total of 1,968 km’s, it’s great value for money.
Kolkata we only have a day here before we fly out to Bangkok on Tuesday the 5th August one day to see the sights, Kolkata is a mix of old and the new rapidly developing India, we walked around in the afternoon coming across people sleeping in the gutter and washing in the streets to only a mile up the road large department stores with air con and all the trappings of any European city it’s quite unbelievable the class system that still exists in India, and the huge gap that exists between the ones who have and the ones who will never have.
So John, Rob, Jan and myself leave India for the second time, the rest of the group are flying out during the next two days to meet up in Bangkok ready for the South East Asia leg, we have managed to travel as far east as Kolkata and as far south as Mumbai overland from London not quite as far as we had hoped to get before having to take a flight but still it’s brings a whole new meaning to the term international dinning what with dinner in Mumbai on Saturday night, dinner in Kolkata on Monday night and finally dinner in Bangkok on Tuesday night. We have now been in Bangkok three days and it’s very nice I can see why my daughter Stephanie enjoyed it so much here clean, modern, cheap and a huge variety of foods and drinks to enjoy, yesterday we visited the Grand Palace

HAVING TO COVER UP IN THE GRAND PALACE

and Bai Yoke 2 the tallest building in Thailand spectacular views from the top, last night we took in a Thai boxing match and today Jan's gone off to the MBK

centre, shopping with the girls while I get the blog updated before we head off north to Chang Mai for three days before going into Laos. Must dash as the green cafe offers free wifi access if you buy a drink so I can update the blog and sup beer while waiting for Jan to return from the great shopping trip perhaps we’re need another rucksack !!!!!!!!!!!!!