On my own on Pulau Perhentian

Erik: A bit of travel advice: keep your passport on you at all times – it's much safer on your body than in your bags. Just as important, though, keep it in something water tight. More on that later...

In Terengganu, I'd looked into heading out to Pulau (island) Redang, which supposedly boasts great diving, but the prices and what seemed to be over development put me off – it was really more of a holiday resort island than a remote island paradise. A few hours north, near the Thai border were the Perhentian islands, the smaller of which had no roads, only a few bungalow resorts, and great diving, so that seemed the better option. T wasn't too interested in staying on a tiny island for any length of time, so as she mentioned before, we decided to split up for a week and do our own thing.

Getting there was easy – 2 ½ hour bus ride and then an hour ferry ride out to the island. Perhentian is actually two islands – the larger and more modern Perhentian Besar, and the smaller, simpler (and cheaper) Perhentian Kecil. I headed for the latter, and wasn't disappointed. I arrived on the Coral Bay side, which is comprised of about 100 meters of narrow sand beach and with 5 or so groupings of beach bungalows, a few restaurants and two dive shops. It was truly the rustic island getaway so many other places try to be – no roads, electricity only at night, and nothing to do but sit on the beach, swim or dive.

The far side of the island (a whopping 10 minute walk away) is Long Beach, with a much larger beach (go figure), and more of a backpacker, party-beach atmosphere. I opted for the beauty and calm of coral bay, as I really was there to relax and dive. Within 30 minutes of arrival I had a place to stay and was booked on an afternoon dive.

That evening after the dive and the shower, it hit me that I was on my own and could do whatever I wanted – a very strange feeling after so much time together. Spending nearly 24/7 together over a long period of time just isn't healthy for a relationship – and after so much time on the road, we're used to it as the norm, and you begin to forget the liberty of being able to make decisions on your own, doing exactly what you feel like doing, when you feel like doing it. Or simply doing nothing! The freedom of being on my own really was quite exhilarating for the first few days.

Speaking of doing what I wanted to do, beer on the island is quite expensive ($3/can), so I opted for the more economical small bottle of vodka and hung out with the dive crew at Steffen's Sea Sports. We shared a few drinks and diving stories, then I wandered over (all of 10 feet over) to the restaurant next store for an amazing fish BBQ. It was pricey ($4 for a huge king fish steak, potato, salad, fruit and banana bread!) , but I was famished and finished every last bit. Once I'd finished eating, though, it hit me – what do I do now? Well, there really was nothing to do, so I wandered back to my bungalow, read my book beneath the mosquito net. It's nice to be able to do whatever you want, as long as there's something you want to do!

Over the next 6 days, I did little more than that. Dive, eat, drink and read. Many of the dives were truly spectacular, and so I was never bored during the day. In the evenings, though, I did miss Talor and would often wish I had someone to share the beautiful sunsets with, etc. I made friends with the dive staff, though – many of them local to the island, or from the neighboring cities on the coast. Some of the other divers would do the same, such as Peter from Sussex and Andy, an American who teaches English in Japan, who we would meet up with later in Cherating as well.

The island is far from perfect – there are lots of mosquitos (one morning I found 8 of them, fat with blood inside my mosquito net!), and the food and drink is very over-priced and mostly mediocre. The diving is cheap and very good, though, which more than made up for it. My little bungalow perched on a rock overlooking the bay and the beach was nearly perfect - albeit very rustic - as well. In the evenings I would sit there, sip vodka listening to BBC World News on shortwave and stare at the stars. It was very beautiful and very relaxing, but after a week I really did miss T and was ready to get back.

Now back to that advice about the passport. I took the 8am ferry back, and as soon as we were loaded in the small, open boat, it started to rain. OK, no problem, there was a small rain/sun guard over the boat. But then the storm really kicked in, and it was dumping buckets – sideways! Everyone on the boat was soaked within minutes, and the ride took a full hour. I thought about my passport in the zip pocket on my trousers, but there was nowhere to move it to (my bags were at the back of the boat.) Besides, passports are sturdy things, right? (Again, more on that in a later post.

After the boat ride, I waited nearly two hours for a bus back to Terengganu. Luckily Andy was there, too, along with his friend Pat. Finally the bus came, and after boarding, I took out my passport, which was now warping at an alarming angle from the moisture, and many of the stamps were nearly illegible. Still, I didn't think too much of it, and was simply happy to see T waiting for me at the bus station in Terengganu.

Pics from Perhentian:

Pulau Perhentian, Malaysia

Left alone in Kuala Terengganu...

Talor: Who woulda thunk I'd be happy in a dorm room with a shared bath for a whole week? Well... the dorm room at the SanKris Lodge (the only cheap accommodation in town) was clean, had AC, fast wi-fi, a friendly staff, and I had the whole room (6 beds!) to myself! I wasn't exactly roughing it, and all that for the bargain basement price of 20 ringgits (less than $6) per night.

We arrived into Terengganu to explore the islands on the East Coast. Erik had his sights on diving on the Perhentien Islands (north) while I wanted to check out the laid-back Island of Kapas (south). So we decided to take a much needed break and go our separate ways. Said good-bye the next day, and we agreed to stay in touch and meet up in a week. At first, it was a bit disconcerting being on my own after spending each and every day together, but then it slowly sunk in... for the first time in a long time, I could do exactly what I wanted when I wanted! I was completely free!

Kapas was close enough (1 ½ hours away) to do as a day trip so headed out on a Friday around noon... big mistake. Being that the East Coast is mostly Muslim, it meant that Friday is Sunday. The bus dropped me off at the town of Marang from where I would need to take a ferry to Kapas, but it seemed the entire town was shut down for afternoon prayers. And the ferries were actually individual outfits taking passengers back and forth from the island, and they were pretty pricey. So decided it wasn't worth it to go after prayers because there would only be an hour or so before I'd have to return. Plus the marketing materials I picked up from the tourist office made it seem like it was pretty built up now with hi-end resorts, so headed back and gave up on the idea. Instead, I decided to explore Terengganu...

Terengganu is a prosperous town with a nice mix of old and new, and just the right size so that it doesn't overwhelm. It had some interesting sites to see around town, including a developed waterfront with markets and evening performances, a nice beach that was strangely empty when I walked there, a large central market, and of course, a cool little Chinatown. Everything I needed was within walking distance, and the sites that weren't could be visited by taking a comfortable, air-conditioned tourist heritage bus free-of-charge. But best of all, Terengganu has the nicest and the friendliest people around, many who spoke very good English. Every single time I stepped out and into a coffee shop, noodle shop, the market, a bus or whatever, I was guaranteed a conversation, mostly from friendly locals who were curious as to why I was there alone, without my “husband.”

Every morning, I would go to a Kedai Kopi (coffee shop) on a parking lot just around the corner from the Sankris, where the coffeeman made me a nice strong cup of joe. He would repeat everything I said several times because he was learning English, and this would crack up all his friends who were hanging out there. On the long communal tables sat bundles of food wrapped in paper or banana leaves, and it was fun to have the locals explain what each one contained... rice or noodles with chicken, fish or boiled eggs, which made a nice little breakfast. After that I went sightseeing around town, and when I couldn't take the heat anymore, I would stop in at one of the friendly shops in Chinatown for noodles, a fruit shake, and more conversation.

Took a 10-minute ferry ride to the small fishing village island of Duyung and watched traditional craftsmen making boats by hand. Boarded the tourist bus 5k outside of town to the impressive Museum Negara, one of the largest in Malaysia. Also visited the Islamic “Edutainment” Park that is an educational park with no less than 21 mini-replicas of famous mosques from around the world. Then went to see the crown-jewel of the park, the Crystal Mosque, which was larger than life, fully-functioning and truly breath-taking.

Before you knew it, a whole week had gone by, and it was time to go meet Erik at the bus terminal. And when he stepped off the bus, I realized just how much I missed him! But he was sopping wet from the rainstorm, and was just skin and bones. The last thing I told him when he took off by himself to the Perhentiens was “Don't forget to eat!”... well, I guess he forgot. So we dropped off his bags at the Sankris, and I took him to my favorite eateries to fatten him up, including “Sponge Bob burgers” at a burger stand in the street.

In the evening, we took a walk to the hawker food stalls in Chinatown, where locals gather in the evening to eat, drink and socialize. With not much of a nightlife in the Muslim town, except for a couple of dark bars that are called “restorans,” this was definitely the place to be in the evenings. It was funny to see old men gathered to drink beer and watch Chinese soap operas. Then a friendly old man sitting at a table next to us came over and brought us yummy grapes to eat just out of the blue. To return the kindness, Erik bought him a beer, and then from there it escalated into snacks, more rounds of beer, handshakes, hugs and much laughter all around.

The next day we were ready to move on, but I felt really sad to leave...

My many photos of Terengganu...

Terengganu, Malaysia

A very crowded weekend in Melaka, Malaysia

Erik: Melaka is famous for its colonial-era architecture – portugese, dutch and british influences mixed together over hundreds of years. The streets are supposed to be a joy to stroll through, taking in the sites, exploring their unique cuisine, seeing the gentle and friendly mix of so many different cultures living so peacefully together. Well, that's the postcard version, at least.

After a short, very comfortable bus ride (then a subsequent city bus downtown), we arrived in the budget-hotel area of town, which looked like little more than a suburban-sprawl strip-mall in any mid-size city or town. We'd hoped to have left the pricey room-rates of KL behind, but the first few places we looked at were near the high end of our budget, and nothing more than flop pads, with saggy beds, dirty floors, and if we were lucky, a window. Ugh! I let T take a break and watch the bags at a cafe while I spent the better part of two hours looking at dozens of hotels – all more than we wanted to spend and much less than we'd hoped for in regards to comfort. Finally, drenched in sweat, I settled on the Shirah Guesthouse, with adequate rooms at an OK price. The place was run by an Indian-Malay named Steven, who was almost overly friendly, and who really stressed that we were now part of his “family.”

That night Steven took the family (us and a few other guests) to a nice Indian meal of curries, dhal, naan and the like, where we ate with our hands (right hand only!) off of banana leaves. It was good fun, and we enjoyed chatting with our fellow travelers, a group of 3 young Japanese.

Afterwards we explored the old-town, which is now Chinatown. It was nice and impressive, but swarming with thousands of tourists on the main market street. We quickly veered away from the crowds and explored the smaller alleys and streets, all an odd mix of colonial-style buildings done up with chinese decoration. We eventually ended up back at the busy main square, where a large crowd was gathered to watch a main stage where public karaoke was performed, complete with amateur dance crews. It was truly hilarious and good fun, until the singing finally got the better of our ears and we headed back to the guesthouse.

We spent the next few days exploring the sights of Melaka, including a portugese fort, ancient english church on a hill, and of course more of chinatown, which boasted the most interesting colonial buildings, temples and mosques. Unfortunately, getting to these places was a real chore, as there was a huge hill between us and old-town, making what seemed like a short walk on the map into a long, hot trek down narrow, broken sidewalks. We also had to pass through one of the many mega-malls surrounding old-town to get there, which took away from the charm of the colonial sites. (At least they boasted strong AC as we passed through!) I'd been eager to see the famous Straights of Melaka, though as you'd expect, it was just a vast expanse of sea off the industrial waterfront.

We did find some interesting food, such as the town's famous pineapple tarts (including the world's largest one on display), and malay “steamboat”, which consists of skewers of meat, fish, tofu and vegetables which you cook in a vat of bubbling satay (spicy peanut) sauce built into the center of the table. It was fun to eat, but everything ended up tasting like peanuts and little more.

Again, after a few days, we'd seen pretty much all there was to see. Melaka is a very touristy town, and if you're looking for something more than trinket shops and old colonial buildings, then you'll probably end up a bit bored, as I did. From there, we decided to make a bigger leap to the northern part of the eastern malay peninsula, Kuala Terengganu, which entailed yet another 10-hour overnight bus ride. Woohoo!

Talor: Yes, Melaka was way over-crowded with tourists, and with our usual impeccable timing, we had arrived on a weekend, when the town gets inundated with national as well as international tourists... o well. It was kinda fun walking through the evening weekend market in Chinatown's Jonker street where vendors were lined up selling food, clothes, housewares and other knick-knacks. We got to see new food ideas, such as fried egg ice cream and waffle hotdogs, but it was the pineapple tarts that ruled. Famous in Melaka, these tarts (more like cookies with pineapple preserves on top) were everywhere so we went from stand to stand helping ourselves to the samples that were out.

Chinatown was definitely the most interesting part of town. It is famous for it's Baba-Nonya culture (mix of Malay and early Chinese settlers) with their own special cuisine and strong ties to old clans. There were also cool little artesanal shops and traditional wooden doorways, a gorgeous Chinese temple, one of the oldest in Malaysia, as well as mosques and churches. It's so nice to see different religions co-existing peacefully together. The other sites around town were pretty interesting, like the Dutch colonial architecture in the city square (which was more like a triangle), and we both got a real kick out of the decked-out trishaws, especially at night when they were decorated with glittering lights and blasted really bad pop music. But in the end, it became too draining... the long unpleasant walk there and back, and always having to fight through crowds and traffic. So we decided to move on.

Had a day to kill until we took a night bus to Terengganu on the East Coast so we stopped in at the Museum Complex that housed the People's Museum, which gave the history of the people of Malaysia, the three largest groups being original Malay, Chinese and Indian; a Kite and Tops Museum, which we learned are their national past-times; and most interesting of all, the Museum of Enduring Beauty, which chronicled the history of how people go to great pains to “enhance” or “deform” their bodies (depends on how you look at it) based on what is culturally considered attractive.

Some general observations about Malaysia... although it's cool to see the different cultures and religions playing nice, they generally don't mix. And after traveling through Cambodia and Laos, where we saw poverty on a grand scale, it was surprising to see overweight people again. Malaysia is a country that is more prosperous, so they eat well. And it is more modern with better roads, hi-rises and mega-malls, but the modernity isn't across the board... there are still nasty squat toilets in public bathrooms, the fowl smell of the sewer systems and broken down sidewalks. In fact, walking around in the towns and cities is just plain unpleasant... the sidewalks are taken up with vendors and parked cars and there is garbage and open sewage everywhere. On the other hand, the people are super-friendly and nice, except for when a queue is involved, then they are aggressive and down-right rude. Lots of contradictions and never dull, makes me want to explore more. So onto the East Coast, where there are supposed to be the highest concentration of Muslims, but also much more laid back...

Photos from Melaka:

Melaka, Malaysia

Passing through Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia...

Talor: I was really looking forward to Kuala Lumpur. We had been there before, but only for a couple of days going to and returning from Vietnam. I remembered Chinatown, where we had stayed, to be a fun and lively place with plenty of good cheap eats. That was two years ago when we weren't on a “budget”...

We had a nice comfortable flight on Air Asia, and took a bus to the outskirts of Chinatown. Got off the air-conditioned bus, and we were immediately reminded of how brutally hot and humid it got there. In just the few minutes it took for us to get our bearing, we were already soaked in sweat! And compared to laid-back Laos, the congested streets, the noise, the smells and the traffic was overwhelming, but we needed to find housing so we took a deep breath and walked towards the heart of Chinatown.

There were no shortage of accommodations, but unfortunately, what we found in our price range was pitiful... tiny windowless cells with shared baths for about $15 and rooms with a window that looked out into a dark alley and a skanky bath for $20... UGH! Even when we decided to up our budget and look at nicer hotels, the rooms were claustrophobic and musty. We finally settled on the Hotel Lok Ann where the gruff old man at the front desk showed us a decent-sized room with a window, a bath and AC for $18. It wasn't pretty by any stretch of the imagination and the plumbing was iffy, but it also had some funny retro furnishings that made it kinda fun.

Went out and visited our favorite noodle shop for a curry laksa (noodle soup in a spicy curry broth with pork, fried tofu and clams), and it was just as good as we remembered it! In fact, Chinatown and, especially Petaling Street with all of its vendors selling knock-off everything, hadn't changed a bit. There was something nice about being in familiar surroundings. We snacked on pork buns, curry puffs and fruit as we walked around in the heat remembering...

From our window, we looked out onto a liquor store/bar right across the street. We had wanted to go have a drink the last time we were in KL, because it seemed like a cool divey old man bar right on the sidewalk, but we didn't get the chance. So when it rained buckets the following night, we ran across, grabbed a couple of seats and ordered a bottle of Chinese rice wine, which was cheaper than beer. Booze is expensive in Malaysia because it's mostly Muslim and gets heavily taxed. Anyway, we settled in and spent a fun evening chatting with some of the shady characters in the joint, and watched the interesting array of kooks, drunks and tranny hookers walking by. The sour owner, who turns out to be a nice old man, was always either throwing someone out or keeping someone from coming into his bar, while his wife rang up the purchases. It was a fun night.

After another day of unbearable heat and torrential rainstorms, we decided to head to the East Coast where it supposedly has beautiful beaches, great diving, a relaxed vibe and a lot less traffic. But first, a quick stop in the town of Melaka, a couple of hours south of KL...

Erik: KL was a bit of a shock to the system. As happy as were to be out of smoky northern Laos, we weren't ready for the noise, heat, traffic and prices in this big city. KL's saving grace is the great variety of cheap street food to be had, and we weren't disappointed on that front. I was quite frustrated at the price of beer, though. It costs about three times the price of a big bowl of noodles for a small bottle of beer! The rice whiskey at the liquor shop/bar was an affordable alternative, and a fun diversion. Definitely some iffy characters in there, though. We spent a good hour chatting and buying alternate rounds with a couple of indian guys who in the end refused to tell us their names – as if that were on a need-to-know basis.

After a couple of days, we were ready to leave, but first we had to brave the gauntlet of Puduraya bus station, where you must dodge and weave through the thousand of fellow travelers and bus hawkers grab you as you search for buses going to your destination, trying to get a commission off of your ticket – and all the while your ears being assaulted by other hawkers screaming out bus destinations at the top of their lungs. We were definitely looking forward to a more quiet and peaceful Melaka.

Photos from KL (part 1):

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Leaving Luang Prabang...

Erik: Nestled high in the Laos mountains, Luang Prabang is a bit of a cultural mecca of Laos. It boasts a huge number of centuries-old wats (temples), it's own unique cuisine, and many indigenous minority hill tribes in the surrounding mountains. We'd read that there's a chance of smoke in the air in March, when the neighboring farm lands are burned to help clear the land for new crops. However, as our bus wound its way up into the hills, we weren't prepared for what we found: miles and miles and miles of burning hillsides. everywhere. We didn't see more than a few trees spared. Sometimes the high flames came right up to the roadside, lapping the bus and filling it with smoke. Oh, the smoke! It was as if we were driving through some alien landscape devastated by fire bombing. you couldn't see farther than a half mile or so because of the smoke, and it grew thicker and thicker as we approached Luang Prabang.

As we exited the bus, my eyes began to sting and tear from the smoke, and there were ashes falling on us from the sky. T and I looked at each other and decided that we needed to get out of there as soon as possible. Unfortunately, leaving wasn't as easy as all that. We'd planned to head into Northern Thailand from there, and that involved a very long bus ride from a different bus station on the far side of town. We resigned ourselves to staying the night and trudged out into the haze to find a guesthouse.

That night as we walked teary-eyed through the tourist hoards at the market (oddly, none of them seemed to notice the smoke that much), we asked around about bus tickets to the Thai border, but we got different answers from everyone as to the times of the bus, where it left from, and how much it cost. Finally we gave up and decided that we needed to go to the bus station ourselves.

The next morning, after a delicious noodle soup, we headed out. The station is a good 3-mile walk outside of town, over a rickety narrow bridge high over a river gorge. It was pretty, despite the constant haze (none of our photos are any good because of the smoke...). At the station, we got the bus times, and the price (which was about 30% less than the hacks in town were going to charge us.) The next bus would be the following morning, so we headed back into town to have a look around. Luckily, we decided to check our email on the way back – we'd received a message from a friend-of-a-friend in Chiang Mai (northern Thailand), telling us not to come, as the air quality there was terrible. I guess they burn the hills throughout all of northern South East Asia in March! Ugh, so what to do? Where should we go? (At least we hadn't already purchased our bus tickets.) After much thought and much guidebook reading, we decided to head back to Bangkok, where hopefully the air was a bit clearer. We looked into flights there, as you get a 30-day Thai visa if you fly in, but only 15 days if you do the land crossing. Flights were very expensive, but then we noticed a really cheap fare from Vientiane to Kuala Lumpur, and thought, why not? We could always get back into Thailand via Malaysia anyway. So without thinking things through too much, we booked the flight leaving from Vientiane in 3 days. We had wanted to leave Luang Prabang immediately, and by this time we'd already been there over two days...

Of course, now we needed to get back to Vientiane, which meant another long, hot, smoky walk across town to the other bus station. (We saw a great deal more of the outskirts of Luang Prabang than we did of it's World Heritage city center...). We got the times and the price for the bus, and decided at this point to stay one more day and actually see some of the sights of the city – we had traveled quite a long way to get there after all.

To be honest, though, even the wats and colonial architecture didn't wow us that much. We did find some decent food in the town, though. More delicious noodle soups, pastries, and even an all-you-eat (well, actually, all-you-can-shove-onto-one-plate) vegetarian food stall where we ate most nights. Only 5000 kip ($.60) for an enormous plate of food. They also sold delicious BBQ chicken and fish, so we ate quite well.

So in the end, it took us 3 days to figure out how to leave smokey Luang Prabang...

Talor: Luang Prabang was a disappointment. I was looking forward to settling in, sightseeing and doing tours of the surrounding hills to visit some of the minority villages, but it was just too smoky. Under different circumstances, I think I would have enjoyed exploring it, but when we were there, everything was gray and dull.

But at least we found a nice place to stay at the Chao Pha Sith Guesthouse, a lovely room with a balcony. And, we ate well. The food at the night market was definitely the best deal in town, and it was delicious, especially the bbq chicken breast and fish. Unfortunately, it wasn't worth the headaches, teary eyes and sinus problems.

Plus after a month in Cambodia and close to a month in Laos, all the cities, towns and villages started blending into eachother. Although the two countries are different, they share similarities in food, culture and climate, and so everything was beginning to feel the same, and we were burning out on wats and noodle soups. It was time to move on to somewhere different... Malaysia!

Our gray photos of Luang Prabang...

Luang Prabang, Laos

Foreigners behaving badly in Vang Vieng...

Talor: Wasn't really looking forward to Vang Vieng, a backpacker haven, known as a party town. But, we were heading north, and it was on the way to Luang Prabang, so we decided to stop for a day or two to try the most popular activity, tubing down the Mekong. A 3 ½ hour bus ride later, we arrived, and the scenery was beautiful with karsts (limestone hills) jutting out from the countryside.

The town itself is nothing to write home about with main street lined with guesthouses and restaurants catering to backpackers. Most of the guesthouses had basic non-descript rooms with absolutely no personality to distinguish one from another. And most of the restaurants had exactly the same “western” menu similar to what we had seen in other small towns in Laos. Not only that, the restaurants had these raised platforms with cushions and pillows where backpackers would get stoned, lay there and watch endless re-runs of “Friends” (the American sit-com). I couldn't believe it... it was exactly as they described it in the guidebook! We both thought, “UGH!, Let's get the hell outta here!” Unfortunately, we had to wait until the next day.

Spent the night in a tiny room at the Villa Lane Zeng, woke up in the morning, and noticed that it was much cooler than Vientiane. We thought “hmmm... this is not so bad...” So we switched to a much larger room at the Nana Guesthouse, away from the main drag, and decided to stay a couple days to try some of the activities on offer: caving, kayaking tubing, etc. Near the guesthouse, we found great street food and a nice little noodle shop where men gather to play petanque.

We thought tubing would be a good way to cool off so after lunch, headed to the central tubing place where we rented a tube, and took a tuk-tuk to the starting point, about 3km away. What a scene! There are bars all along the river where tubers can float/paddle to to stop and have a drink. Well, there was a party in full swing going on at the first bar where kids were just hanging out getting drunk and stoned at 2:00 in the afternoon. Twenty, or even ten years ago, I probably would have joined in, but it just didn't appeal to me. So we got in the water and started paddling downriver. As we went further downstream, there were less bars and it was much more tranquil. And I found myself relaxing and wholly enjoying the experience... floating in a cool river at the hottest time of the day, lazily paddling while taking in the gorgeous scenery. Took us three hours to finish, and we capped it off with drinks while watching the sunset.

The next day we took an all-day caving, trekking and kayaking tour with Green Discovery, an outfit known for responsible eco-tourism. We had a fun day checking out several caves outside of town, had lunch, then trekked (more like walked) on dirt roads through a minority village before kayaking on the same part of the Mekong we had tubed the day before. The group was pretty cool, a young American couple and an older Canadian couple, and it was nice chatting with them. Yong, our Guide, spoke pretty good English and had a great bubbly personality. He would crack jokes and laugh really loud which would make us laugh too. We stopped a couple of times while kayaking... first, to have a drink at a bar that was actually in the water, and second, so that Erik could swing off a tall platform and splash into the water. It was a fun, active day and we were exhausted at the end of it.

Though we had a nicer time than I thought I would, there wasn't much else to keep us there so on to Luang Prabang, a UNESCO World Heritage City and the crown jewel of Laos.

Erik: The activities were really fun. We explored gigantic caves full of stalactites and stalagmites. Another cave we actually had to tube through on an underground river with headlamps for light. Pulling our kayaks up to a bar table in the middle of the river was an excellent break. Sipping a big Beer Laos with your feet actually on the rocky river bottom is a wonderful experience.

The real downside of Vang Vieng, though, were the young backpackers behaving badly. It's quite sad to see them laying like zombies watching the TV all day. I'd rather shoot myself than watch “Friends” re-runs all day long. Drugs are illegal in Laos, but I guess that's just ignored, and you can order “happy” shakes at these TV bars - made with marijuana, magic mushrooms or opium. All over town there were informational posters telling foreigners how to behave so as not to offend the locals; don't do drugs in public, don't point bare feet towards people when sitting, don't wear bathing suits, etc. These posters were everywhere. The tubing shop had 3 huge signs painted saying please don't walk through town in bathing suits – but few of the tourists paid any heed at all, and pretty much did everything they warned you not to do. Perhaps I'm becoming a prude as I get older, but I found the disregard for local customs offensive to me as well. After just a couple of days we were ready to move on to Luang Prabang.

Tubing and other photos...

Vang Vieng, Laos

Millionaires in Vientiane, Laos...

Talor: Arrived into Vientiane in the early morning and took a “jumbo” (a large tuk-tuk) to the city center. Had coffee at the Scandinavian Bakery where the coffee was pricey, but the free refills more than made up for it. Then we set out to look for housing. As we wandered around the streets going from guesthouse to guesthouse, we bumped into our friend, Veronique, who we met in Lago Atitlan, Guatemala, back in March. Small world! It was her last day in Vientiane so we spent the afternoon with her before she boarded a 25-hour bus bound for Vietnam. Yikes!

Later in the day we hit an ATM that allowed us to take out 2 million kip! Woo hoo! We were millionaires! Didn't matter that it was only a few days budget, we felt rich! Let the birthday celebrations continue...

Checked into the lovely Lao Heritage Hotel then spent a week indulging in international cuisine we had been missing... French (steak au poivre, prime rib), Vietnamese (bbq meatballs), Indian (veggies with naan), Chinese (dumplings), Italian (thin-crust pizza) and American (bbq ribs that had us licking our fingers). We also sampled high-end Lao food at Makphet, and street food at both the morning market and the night market. And breakfast was always yummy and filling at our favorite noodle shop where they serve a heaping bowl of sticky noodle soup for 5,000 kip (63 cents). Felt like I gained another 20 lbs!

We also sampled some of the nightlife, but being that Laos has a midnight curfew when businesses must shut down, it was all pretty tame. We often found ourselves the only patrons at the bars we walked into. At first we thought we were too early or maybe too early in the week, but it was like that on a Saturday night too. We went out to On The Rock, a live music venue where we had fun chatting with the owner and his friend, but when the band started up with Bee Gees cover tunes, we felt the need to move on. Headed to the cabaret club at the Anou Hotel where we danced with restraint, as everyone else did, to popular Lao tunes... watching was more fun than the dancing

Sightseeing was tough because it was soooo hot! But when we did get up the energy, we visited Patuxay, the Lao version of the Parisian Arc de Triomphe. The US donated the cement for an airport runway, but they decided an arc was a better idea. The Pha That Luang, Vientiane's most important monument, is a giant golden stupa which supposedly houses the Buddha's breastbone. It is quite the sight from a distance to see a shimmering golden monument on the horizon. But up close, it was a bit rundown and unimpressive. More impressive were the beautiful wats surrounding it. Then there was the Buddha Park, which was built by a man who tried to meld a variety of religions and the result is a collection of strange and kooky, but very cool looking statues.

All in all, we had a good week in Vientiane, but we both agreed it is the strangest capital we've been in. It seemed more like a small town than a capital city, where everyone is laid back and not much goes on. So onwards and upwards...

Erik: Yes, Vientiane is a strange, strange city. It feels very provincial for a nation's capital, and with a slow, lazy pace of life. We did see a few hummers driving around, so there are definitely some fat cats around, but for the most part it seemed that we were in a mid-size town rather than a capital city. T and I would go running (ok, “jogging”) in the morning in the Laos National Stadium, which was tiny and crumbling – more like a high school football stadium in the mid-west rather than a national soccer arena. Vientiane will be hosting the South East Asia (SEA) games later in the year, so workers were sprucing up the arena a bit, but hopefully no more than a few hundred spectators will show up, as the stadium can't hold much more than that.

It was very nice being able to choose from such a variety of food. After a couple of months of eating nothing but rice and noodles, we pigged out on everything we could get our hands on, though the breakfast noodle soup was still a staple for us. The heat was really unbearable, and we would only venture out for a few hours each day before running back to our lush AC room. T's birthday was a great excuse for us to spoil ourselves a little.

Our photos of Vientiane...

Vientiane, Laos