Entries about trees

The Laos leg of our tour started in Hanoi. To get to Laos we had 2 very long bus journeys ahead of us. The first one was leaving the next morning down to Vinh - still in Vietnam. But first we had to meet the new guys joining us on the Intrepid tour. After our meeting a bunch of us decided to go find beer junction and then have dinner. Beer junction is an intersection in the old quarter of Hanoi. Each corner has a bar (if you can call it that), with stools on the pavements that spill out onto the street. Now sitting on a stool in the road, drinking a nice cold, cheap draught, praying that you dont get hit by a scooter or a taxi, might not sound like fun but it was grand. Beer junction is the one place in Vietnam where you will see locals and tourists sitting side by side laughing and having a good time at the same place. It has an amazing atmosphere and the beers are around 50c US, with amazing snacks to add to the great evening vibe.

After a few drinks we all went in search of food. We walked up and down a few streets until we found a busy street stall filled with locals and tourists alike. The place looked septic with rubbish all over the floor, bones and leftovers in amongst the litter under the low tables. But that is the norm in Vietnam. Most places we went to on the street was the same with people just chucking the scraps and serviettes under the tables. They cleared a table for us by literally wiping everything onto the floor adding to the pile of trash on the pavement. Now as anyone knows after a few drinks you really need to use the toilet, so my 2 swiss friends and I asked where the toilet was. The one waiter showed us an alley down the street. It was about 60cm wide and we followed it with trepidation. Once we got to the end, about 5 meters, it was pitch black and the rotting corpse type smell eminating from the darkness was making us wretch. Nils had a torch attached to his belt and Ronny took it and went into this 'cubicle' first. Once the torch was on we could see the sewage piled up and the toilet overflowing. The floor was covered by a few centimeters of excrement and urine and could be the single most unpleasant moment of my trip - or life for that matter. As the light revealed more of our situation Ronny discovered that there was a fresh coil steaming on top of the already overflowing pile of poo. Don't ask me how the person managed to squat there without getting it all over their clothes. Anyway we hurriedly did our business and went to eat back at the street stall, laughing at everyone else gagging when we recounted our most recent experience of SE Asia. My meal was the best fried rice I have had on my entire trip. It was a great evening and everyone had lots of fun.

The next day we spent on a bus bound for Vinh playing dodgems with traffic and potholes down the crappy roads of Vietnam. 8 hours of bus later we arrived in Vinh-the birthplace of Ho Chi Minh. Vinh is a port town with nothing to offer these weary travellers. We ate dinner at a place that looked like a sushi bar with a conveyor belt that transported plates of raw fresh food tantalisingly close to our noses. In front of us at our stations was a hole for a soup pot. We could control the temp of our soup(stock) with a little controller in front of us. This is such a great idea. Its basically a hotpot and the food that comes past is placed into your pot and you cook it till you are happy that its done. Boy did I eat - clams, prawns, crab, pork, veg, noodles, steak. . . . . I think the place was called Kiwi-Kiwi. a great concept and for 159 000 Dong for all you can eat, a real steal!

The following morning saw us up early again for another day of bussing. The first 3 hours was spent driving up winding mountain passes to get to the Laos border. Here we left the safety of our bus, crossed the border and climbed onto a new bus. We continued on our journey through the mountains with a long drive to look forward to. The first noticeable difference between the 2 countries are the roads. Laos roads are in better condition. Its cleaner, quieter and full of toyota 4x4s. We stopped for a few scenic photos and some lunch and a drink. Beer Laos is a great beer, in fact most beers in SE Asia have been great. After lunch we drove and drove and drove. We eventually arrived at our Hotel in Vientiane some 13 hours after we had started the day - roughly 333km away. Crap that's slow going.

Vientiane, capital city of Laos and home to roughly 210 000 people is a stunning city. It is clean, quiet and is located on the banks of the mighty Mekong river. We had a guided tour of the capital in the morning. We took in a temple and then walked up a road resembling the Champs Elysee in Paris. This even has its own version of the Arc de Triomf too. We climbed the steps to the top of it for the amazing 360 views across the city. After climbing down the 300 steps to get down, we headed off to COPE Centre. The COPE Centre was set up to help people who have lost limbs or have been injured by bombs that did not explode during the american war. It also helps children with clubfoot and people needing orthotics. Whilst at COPE we were all shocked to find out that Laos is the most bombed place ever, YES ever. Around 30% of these cluster bombs never exploded and people regularly get injured when one of theseunexplodedbombs does explode. The US ran, on average, a bomb run evry 8 minutes for 9 years. That works out to almost 600 000 bombing sorties in Loas. This was because Laos was letting Viet Cong use the Ho Chi Minh trail to get supplies to troops on the front lines.The USA dropped more bombs on Laos than were used in the entire second world war. That is shocking. Still today their bombs are killing innocent people. I have learned so much about the USA that most people dont know and it is sad to know that most people on earth will never find out the truth. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and the evening saw us having sundowners whilst admiring the sun disolving over the far bank of the magnificent Mekong.

The next day we were heading to a place called Vang Vieng. Any person that has heard of this place will know it for its reputation as a hedonists paradise, where you could get high on drugs and as drunk as a skunk while having a whale of a time floating down the river in an old tractor tube. The Laos government has shut down all the pubs along the 4 km tube route because too many tourists were losing their lives on the many slides and zip wires into the river. It was a painless 4 hour bus ride(160km) from the capital. Vang Vieng is a tiny village set against a backdrop of a dramatic limestone mountain range. It is extremely picturesque and sits on the bend of the Song River.

The town is a tourist place between Luang Prabang and Vientianne so everything is geared towards people like us. Souvenir shops, restaurants and bars and then the normal bike hire and tour shops all dotted amongst the many hotels and guest houses. All the restaurants play reruns of Friends or Family Guy non-stop and the pace of life is slower then slow. I timed the one waitress with my beerlao and it took her around 40 seconds to drag my beer a full 30 meters. I challenge anyone to drag their feet like this lady and cover that distance in that time. It is almost impossible to crawl that slowly, but that lady made it look like life was in slow motion. our favorite pub/restaurant was called Other Side and was a great place to watch time elude you as you lazed about the benches overlooking the river.

After our first night we hired bicycles and headed to Tham Phu Kham. This cave is about 7km from town. First up we payed 4000kip to cross the bamboo bridge with a bike, then we made our way with a basic map towards the caves. This was a very scenic ride as we passed rice paddies, streams and villages. We passed cowboys tending their buffalo, kids playing in the roads, farmers harvesting crops of rice all in the shodow of this spectacular mountain range. Once we got to the cave we were greeted by a chrystal clear stream that is turqoise blue and very deep. The first thing I noticed were the branches hanging over the stream, so I promptly climbed to the 5m(roughly) and jumped into the refreshing cool waters. We all had a dip here to cool off before tackling the 200m or so almost vertical climb to the cave. Once at the top we were rewarded with a large dark cave with a reclining buddha inside. Like many caves in SE Asia it ad been turned into a place of worship. The descent down the side of the mountain was much more difficult, especially with wet flip flops. We all had another long swim before heading back to town. The night on the town was spent at Other Side again, but heck it was so nice to sit there and chill.

The next day was tubing day. We payed our cash, grabbed a tube and hopped into a tuk-tuk(jumbo) and enjoyed the ride 4 kms upstream where the guy dropped us off and left us to it. T-shirts stuffed into the dry bag we set off bobbing down the river like giant corks. The river was stronger then it looked. Relaxing on the tubes, we floated past incredible scenery and the remnants of bars, with slides and zip lines that peppered the banks of this river. Apparently the barstaff used to fish tubers out of the river and ply them with free booze. But that part of Vang Vieng doesn't exist anymore because of this. We had avery relaxing few hours on the water and ended off the morning with lunch at our local.After lunch I went to see the cock fighting, which I didnt find all that interesting, but it was one of those things I had to see once in my life. They do not fight to the death and there is a vet on hand to stitch up wounds if any cocks should get injured.

That pretty much sums up our time on the Ho Chi Minh trail. We had an amazing time in an incredible sleepy town. Very memorable indeed, Vang Vieng you will never be forgotten, the 3 days of buses to get to you, your beauty, peacefulness and charm pulled all the right strings, thank you!

Kuching, Borneo - First stop on our whirlwind tour of South East Asia.

The reason Kuching was on our itinerary was because Ken gave me a list of a few of the things he wanted to see and do during our trip. One of them was to see the Orangutans and so we decided on Semonggoh National Park, with Kuching being the place to stay closest to the park.

The Semenggoh Wildlife Centre was established in 1975 to care for wild animals which have either been found injured in the forest, orphaned, or were previously kept as illegal pets. The centre is situated within the boundaries of the Semenggoh Nature Reserve, approximately 24 km from Kuching. When established, the three main aims of the Centre were to rehabilitate wild animals who have been injured, orphaned in the wild or handicapped by prolonged captivity, with the objective of subsequently releasing them back to the wild, to conduct research on wildlife and captive breeding programmes for endangered species and to educate visitors and the general public about the importance of conservation. As a result of its success, Semenggoh’s role has changed and it is nowadays a centre for the study of orangutan biology and behaviour, as well as a safe and natural haven for dozens of semi-wild orangutan, graduates of the rehabilitation programme. It is also home to numerous baby orangutan, born in the wild to rehabilitated mothers, a further testament to the success of the programme.

After hearing lots of feedback and stories on the number of orangutans which had been seen by other travellers, we were excited about our trip to see them. With two hourly feeding times, 9am and 3am, we opted for the morning slot. We got up early on Monday morning, made our way to the bus station and caught the bus just before 7am, getting us to the park very early. After buying our entry ticket we walked 20 minutes through the jungle to get to the rehab centre. At 9am, along with a large crowd of visitors, we were led to the feeding area. We waited, and waited and waited....and waited. Well, unfortunately for us, the orangutans were not hungry that morning and so did not grace us with their presence. Very disappointing! Good for the park, as it means that they are finding their own food, however sad for us, as we had really been looking forward to seeing them. So heavy hearted, we made our way by bus back to Kuching, where we recuperated in the aircon'd room for a while before a trip to the Sarawak Museum. It was a great insight into the local Iban life and the history of Malaysian Borneo.

The highlight of the day / night was dinner - we treated ourselves to dinner at a place called James Brookes Bistro, on the waterfront. Ken had the yummiest butter chicken and I chose the fish curry - amazing! Definitely a treat as we blew our budget that day!

Another early start on Tuesday and another early bus trip. This time is was to Bako National Park. An hour on the bus got us to the park office, where we had to buy day permits to the park. We joined up with a couple from Canada, and bought return boat tickets to the park, as they were also going for the day and so it worked out much cheaper to share the journey. The park is 27 square kilometers, with secluded beaches, mangrove swamps, cliffs, lowland forest and heath forest. After a 20 minute boat ride through the croc infested estuary, we signed in. There are 17 hiking trails in Bako - we opted for a 5.8 km loop, which was estimated to take 3.5 hours. So off we set on our hike in 36 degree Celsius heat, at around 95 % humidity. Well, were we in for a shock. My idea of a hike was on a straight/level/flat surface. Withing 5 minutes of starting we were literally climbing vertically out of the valley. The hike was tough, up and down using tree roots as steps and vines as ropes. But I survived :-) The jungle was alive with lots of noises, but we didn't see too many animals except for the bearded pigs, fiddler crabs and mudskippers at the start of the hike. We also managed to see the macaque monkeys and the famous proboscis monkeys. Ken was in his element in the jungle!

Once back in Kuching, as knackered as we were, we headed to Top Spot for dinner, which was highly rated in all the guide books/online as the place to eat. Top Spot is a food court on top of a multi story car park. Seafood city!! You walk around, checking out the fresh seafood, deciding what to go for. You choose what you want - they cook it for you and bring it to the table. We had huge prawns, cooked in garlic, chilli and spring onions. Yum yum yum! it was an awesome meal - a fitting end to a great few days in Kuching.

While on the plane from Kuching to Penang, just before take off, Ken realised that our camera had grown legs and walked! Yup, our lovely new camera was missing, along with all of the photos from our day at Bako NP. Talk about putting a damper on the day. We were absolutely gutted. After liaising with airport staff and lost property, the camera was never found. Sob sob sob :-)

Bye Bye Borneo...next stop, Penang......