Monthly Archives: February 2016

Day 207 – Vien-tired

French decadence :)

French decadence 🙂

It is really hard to self-diagnose on a trip like this. Health, energy and mental health are pretty close together. Which makes discerning between “I am low” from “I might have the onset of dengue fever” difficult. I am pretty sure that we do not have dengue fever, nor any other of the major tropical diseases we are keeping an eye out for. Then again, they all have pretty much the same early symptoms: Headache, fever, fatigue. So far, we only ever scored mild versions of all three – which coincidentally are also the symptoms for heat exhaustion or just low energy levels. 🙂

So we decided to quit whining and get out there. There was a city to be explored here. The Lonely Planet suggests a 5 km bicycle loop –but we were confident enough to tackle it on foot. Especially since the very first suggested stop was a hearty breakfast at a French style bakery one street over from our guesthouse.

The breakfast held true and was delicious. Fresh orange juice and delightfully fluffy croissants. The only small downside was that it also had almost French prices – still worth it, though.

The inner temple

The inner temple

After such fuelling, we got underway. After a couple of more or less impressive colonial villas, some of which were shielded from view by high walls, we made a stop at Wat Si Saket which turned museum. It was a bit worse for wear, but we both felt it had some charm. At the inner sanctum, restaurateurs were hard at work – under competent German guidance, as a sign assured us.

From here we passed the completely walled in French embassy and made our way to the markets. It was a nice change from Indonesian markets to see that even with the same space limitations and hustle and bustle you CAN organise stalls thematically instead of having horse guts drip over the Barbie dolls. 😉

Fresh fruits...just 10.000kip

Fresh fruits…just 10.000kip

It was nearing noon and we were both feeling worse for wear. After another little accident involving treacherous south-east Asian footpaths, we took a break in a juice bar along the way and calmed down with some lovely fresh fruit juices.

We called it a day then and had a strategic retreat to our room. Nina took a good long nap and I got myself up to date again with the state of affairs in the world. Ok, I mostly watched US late night comedy shows …

The cave of shame was left only once more for lunch. Once again, our first pick had closed down or moved – so we settled for mildly fancy Italian. With the lunch special, the price was actually ok and the pizza was outstanding. Hands down the best pizza since Auckland. It was even enough to eat that we skipped dinner apart from a late night croissant for Nina.

Day 206 – Into city life?

Looking out

Looking out

After two quiet days, we said good-bye to the mountains for now. The next stretch of road will bring us back to the Mekong river and into the Laotian capital, Vientiane. We had heard from other travelers that Vientiane is a rather sleepy little town instead of a pulsating metropolis but the Lonely Planet pimped it for its food so spending a day in a sleepy city was a risk we were prepared to take.

From our lovely guest house in Ban Khoun Kham, it was 270km to go till Vientiane. We had the whole day to cover this stretch so there was no need to rush which made for a relaxed ride. Right in the beginning, we turned a corner to stumble across an amazing view: Mountains behind mountains behind mountains. So we took some time to take it in, enjoy it and take pictures. 🙂

We stopped once at a river for a shade and water break and then again when we tried to sort out lunch. Near one village, a row of food stalls lined the street all selling what looked like cooked corn and rice packed in banana leaves. Unsure whether it was just normal rice or sweet sticky rice (a local dessert), we stopped to find out and buy some. However, I utterly failed in communicating with the local lady despite me using the picture-dictionary. She didn’t confirm when I pointed on the picture of rice but seemed very fascinated by the depictions of cake. Unsure what to do, I called over Flo and in the end, we ended up buying a whole “line” of “rice” parcels instead of four. Somehow, these didn’t look as if you just cut one of the end; they came in a neat bundle of maybe 20. The whole affair cost us $3 so even if we’d end up with a whole lot of plain rice, not a lot was lost. Instead, the lovely lady handed us two of the white roots that you see everywhere for free.

Happy, we rode on until we found a nice resting spot to see and taste what we got. The white root is surprisingly yummy, tasting like turnip cabbage while having the texture of an apple. The rice in banana leaves turned out to be…something else. Flo opened one of them and we were astonished at the amount of leaves used; the content was rather tiny given the size of the packets. After smelling what it might be (smelled fishy), Flo tried it and confirmed that it was some kind of fish sausage made out of raw fish. Yuck. Not lunch at all.

Not wanting to waste it all by simply throwing it away, Flo went to four locals relaxing in the shade and offered it to them. First, they thought he asked for food but when they understood that we were giving food away, one of the ladies especially, was immensely happy. While we put our gear back on, she started handing out the parcels and cut the second white root for the children. A much better solution. 🙂

Still hunting for lunch, we stopped at a baguette vendor where Flo got the usual grub of pate and salad on bread. I was not quite so lucky and also out of energy to try so I had plain baguettes for once. Unfortunately, I had run out of Nutella, otherwise this would have been amazing lunch. 😉

Parking Rocinante in the hallway for the night

Parking Rocinante in the hallway for the night

The afternoon was used for the last 100km. Somehow, while riding smoothly, I got homesick. So we had another break to talk a bit before we finally hit Vientiane. The traffic increased but only to town level. Only about three streets seem to make up the town center which are filled with hostels, cafes and tourists. Not having a plan other than getting to Vientiane, we stopped at a busy street corner, figuring out which hostel still had rooms available and ended up in the least busy of the streets in a small-ish guest house. Prices are back up to $20 a night for a bare room with a bed but at least, we should be able to sleep here considering the noise is less bad than one street over.

Tired, we only got back out for dinner at an Indian place with okay food but delicious naan bread. It finally satisfied my craving for a decent Chai tea as well.

Day 205 – Hordes of the Underdark

Rice fields and mountains in the early morning

Rice fields and mountains in the early morning

This was a neigh perfect day! Gosh, was that day trip amazing. To think that we almost did not go!

I am still on and off with some kind of infection. Never bad enough to need a full rest day, but it is getting annoying none the less. Regardless, after a nice breakfast on this surprising but refreshingly crisp morning, we decided to do what we came here for.

The road to Kong Lor was in itself a highlight. This whole area is a vast fertile plain ringed on all sides by limestone hills jutting out like crystals from the flat expanse. On it, there is not much going on but (mostly rice) farming and some cute villages. Even the high voltage transmission lines from the hydros did not look out of place. To top it all of, the road was sealed and in pretty good condition. Continue reading →

Day 204 – The loop

We were expecting hills, but cliffy limestone is a positive surprise

We were expecting hills, but cliffy limestone is a positive surprise

Staying at the Traveller’s Lodge in Thakhek, you can be pretty sure that everyone had been on the loop or is going to go on the loop. “The loop” is an actual loop from Thakhek back to Thakhek through the mountains which is recommended by the Lonely Planet. However, it seems to be a generally popular route as we have seen a few people with hand-drawn maps from their guest houses. 

The Lonely Planet suggests to take 4-5 days for the loop on a real motorcycle, not a scooter. Luckily, we brought our own real motorcycle so we don’t need to go through the trouble of hiring one but somehow, we didn’t see the point of taking 4-5 days for a 350km loop. Maybe the length of our journey starts to show. Continue reading →

Day 203 – Plains

The guest house's dog took a liking to Flo...but well enough behaved to not follow into the room :)

The guest house’s dog took a liking to Flo…but well enough behaved to not follow into the room 🙂

We got annoyed with ourselves this morning for failing at breakfast. Or maybe it was just that yesterday’s one was so good that it was impossible to live up to it. The cute little community run cafe we wanted to go to had moved out of town a while back and we were a bit headless in finding another place to go. It was pre-coffee time, after all. So we ended up in the cafe of the resident fancy hotel, paying almost NZ prices while getting airport quality food, 🙁

Nonetheless, the day came into its own from here. The main goal was to cross the empty wasteland that is the central Mekong lowland. 300 km of the main highway following the path of the Mekong until Thakhek, where we would stay for the night to leave on another loop off the main road to explore the central east.

These things are the slowest vehicles on the road here. Mostly because they are totally overloaded

These things are the slowest vehicles on the road here. Mostly because they are totally overloaded

The ride was pleasantly uneventful, we found nice lunch and once again arrived at our guesthouse in the early afternoon. We went with the nr. 1 recommendation from the lonely planet a bit out of town. They had a room, albeit a rustic and simple affair with bare concrete floor and a bed which’s springs were covered by not much more than a layer of rice paper (or that is how it felt like). The whole place was packed with high energy, mostly culturally insensitive 20something backpackers. Then again, they have a bonfire every night. 🙂

Dinner in town was a bit of a disaster – but we used that opportunity to have a good talk about changing our food strategy. I am pretty sure we got it back on track with that.

We thought to finish a quick blog post before hitting the bed that night. I had a beer and we popped down in the common area. By chance I had overheard a young German couple talking about going to Cambodia some time later and used my chance to get rid of our last remaining Cambodian Riel. We got talking over that and soon it was clear that we would once again not manage to catch up on the blog. Tabea and Nils were great company and we spend the rest of the night talking about life, travel and the world.

Day 202 – Coffee encounters

Were on the road real early today

Were on the road real early today

Sekong had seemed incredibly sleepy last night…it didn’t get any better in the morning. Despite the fact that Lao people seem to get up at 6am to go about their day during daylight hours, the town looked positively abandoned. Also, there was no breakfast to be had here, at least not of the baguette and jam kind. To increase our chance of yet another French inspired start into the day, we packed everything on Rocinante and left the town at 7am.

Up on the plateau, it was chilly this early in the morning; for the first time in a while, I wished for something to stop the wind from getting through. We had a look for breakfast places along the road but didn’t see anything except for rice porridge. Thus, we needed to drive 80km to Paksong, the next town on the loop. The route was pretty, though. Full of views over small valleys and the opportunity to see waterfalls. So early in the day, we also had the road almost to ourselves. Continue reading →

Day 201 – Southern swing

The light is starting to file through

The light is starting to file through

We paid for a room with sunrise view, so we should better gotten out of bed to see the sunrise – right? Well, we did, actually. Getting out of bed, that is. Concerning the sunrise though, we were mildly out of luck. The cloud cover made it only nice instead of spectacular, but on the other hand we got to observe the Lao people go about their insistently early morning routines.

The fishermen, almost ghost-like and silent on the calm Mekong. The towns people getting up and preparing the little shrines. The monks doing their rounds and collecting alms, giving a blessing in return. The culturally insensitive tourists following the monks way too closely with cameras shoved in their faces … a normal calm morning in this sleepy tourist town.

Laos differs greatly from Cambodia: Much greener, many more rivers and most importantly, mountains

Laos differs greatly from Cambodia: Much greener, many more rivers and most importantly, mountains

A side benefit of getting up so early was that we also got on the road nice and early, while it was still relatively cool. The plan was to do the Southern Swing loop, a motorcycle tour through the Bolaven plateau recommended by the Lonely Planet. Since we found both a SIM card and new shampoo along the way, we skipped going to the regional capital of Pakse and turned off straight for the mountains.

We wavered only briefly whether to follow the advised loop back to Pakse or try to modify the route to come along a different way north. In the end we decided to stick to the suggestion. There will be plenty of opportunity to go off the beaten track further north.

A place to chill and sip organic coffee

A place to chill and sip organic coffee

Not willing to fork over yet another $5 for a waterfall, we skipped the first stop to go and pay Mr. Vieng’s Coffee and Homestay a visit. It was lunch time now and we had the small hope that we might find lunch there as well. Our hope for food was disappointed, but for once we were still quite happy with that. Mr. Vieng’s place was amazing – hitting that super narrow space of feeling authentic while still being spic-and-span in our spoiled western eyes. It was all wood and dirt floor, very calm and super cozy. The coffee was great, only topped by the complimentary home roasted peanuts. We even considered calling it a day right there and stay in the homestay, but food called.

Rocinante gets to see the waterfall as well from this wooden bridge

Rocinante gets to see the waterfall as well from this wooden bridge

The next stop was the natural stopping point for the day, and there were some lovely guesthouses to look out for, according to the Lonely Planet. Unfortunately, all the nice ones already had the signs out telling us that there were no rooms available. The cute restaurants were closed as well. Slightly defeated, we took a meal at the touristy place with a view of the Tat Hang waterfall to consider what to do next. The waterfall was nice, but nothing special. Although it was late for lunch, it was actually still relatively early in the day.

Lunch took forever to arrive – not for the first time in Cambodia and Laos, which gave us ample of time to come up with a plan. We decided to go on for a bit more and go to Sekong, the next town on the southern swing, where very reasonably priced guesthouses were available via Agoda.

Rocinante parked at our guest house where we stayed despite the Agoda scam

Rocinante parked at our guest house where we stayed despite the Agoda scam

Just an hour later, we were in for our final surprise for the day. The guest house we booked was nowhere to be found at the given coordinates. Some probing led us about 2km further, where the guest house from the photos could be found. There, they denied any association with Agoda and asked to be payed in cash. The place was nice enough, so we did it and started to sort out a refund for the weird scam from Agoda. The room was massive and the night was calm – everything else could be sorted out … tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

Day 200 – Mekong’s different faces

Looking out of the guest house first thing in the morning...we had cow visitors on the other side of the road

Looking out of the guest house first thing in the morning…we had cow visitors on the other side of the road

We got up early, packed all our things in a way that would let us get to passports and carnet easily at the border and went off in search for breakfast. The same restaurant where we’ve had lunch yesterday was open so we had more baguette and muesli. 🙂 The other two tables were filled with employees of an NGO and their kids who talked to us about motorcycle travels and the like. In the end, they were even able to give us direction to a printing place so we could print something off that we needed for the Iranian visa.

Having done that, we made sure to have exactly the right amount of US dollars before heading north. From Stung Treng, it is another 60km to the border. The Lonely Planet warns that it is in the middle of nowhere but we hadn’t expected that much nowhere to be honest. First of all, it was the worst road we have been on in Cambodia. Big chunks of it are missing, at stretches the seal has created mountains in the middle of the road and there was literally NOTHING around so we even stopped and checked if this was really the road or if we had taken a wrong turn without noticing. Nope, this was the road. Leading to the only border crossing between Cambodia and Laos. Continue reading →

Day 199 – The far East

Newly sealed, great views, literally no traffic

Newly sealed, great views, literally no traffic

There was only a brief debate, but the rustic charms of our “shack” had worn off and I did not feel like needing another full day to recuperate. Thus, we hit the road again. Baring due north. Until very recently, there was no road, let alone a sealed one, connecting the eastern regional capitals of Sen Monorom and Ban Lung directly. Travelers would genuinely get lost trying to navigate a vast maze of cart and oxen tracks and some payed a handsome “thank you”-fee to a local guide getting them out again.

Huge areas have been transformed to palm plantations made possible and accessible by the new road

Huge areas have been transformed to palm plantations made possible and accessible by the new road

None of this anymore – a fully sealed road winds gently down the plateau and through the Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary connecting the provinces of Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri. But other than this one black strip of tarmac and some trappings that come with such infrastructure, there was still not much else out here. Especially now in the dry, it all is one long savanna / light forest as far as the eye can see. During the whole 150 km journey, we encountered maybe 30 other vehicles. It reminded us at times of the Australian outback. Only the 110cc bikes and rice tractors underscored that is was not that.

Crossing one of many tributaries to the Mekong

Crossing one of many tributaries to the Mekong

We enjoyed the ride, the solitude and the encounters with the hardy Cambodians living out here. We also made immensely good pace – so good that we hit the turn off to Ban Lung a good time before lunch time. With only 100 km to go and such easy riding, we decided to skip Ban Lung and go directly to Strung Treng. Another provincial capital of the province baring the same name, the Mekong town of Strung Treng is the launch pad for early border crossings into Laos.

One of many fires we've seen in Cambodia

One of many fires we’ve seen in Cambodia

We booked into a brand new Chinese (as in ethnicity, not nationality) owned guest house a kilometer out of the town center. It was cheap and we could book via Agoda. The room was lovely, clean and, best of all, motel-style on the ground floor with direct motorcycle access! The only downside really was the lack of a restaurant, but the ride to town was short enough.

We went to town that night to a forgettable Chinese restaurant and headed home early to get everything in order for the border crossing tomorrow. We even found a post office to drop off Nina’s next batch of post cards.