Backpashing Asia

G'day blokes, sheilas and aspiring lady-boys!

After arriving back at the parched, dustbowl that is Pakse (I've already written a proposal to the Lao Tourist Bureau recommending this dump be renamed Poxy), from the relative calm of the Four Thousand Islands, I remedied my thoroughly exhausted self with some fine coffee from the Bolavens Plateau in the air-conditioned comfort of a bamboo-chaired, palm fanned Polynesian style haven, before kicking back at my hotel to finely dine on (not-another-jolly-bowl-of-) flied-lice and having the pleasure to snoop on a Lao wedding reception.....a seemingly most excellent excuse for copious amounts of Lao Lao (Lao rice whiskey) consumption, very bad get-down-and-boogying-post-inebriation, hideous taffeta frills, an Elvis style winter-white bell-bottomed clad groom, and the cacophonic (of course this is subjective) melange that is Lao-reggae music. Absolutely brilliant craic.

My slumber that night came in hiccups thanks to the constant rhythms of the Lao-reggae-after-wedding discotheque from the hellmouth below, and when I finally dragged my woeful self out of bed the next morning, I was running hideously late for my bus to the Bolavens plateau. Upon arrival at the morning market for my local super-comfortable bus eastwards, with the remnant pulse of the Lao-reggae pounding in my head, my physical incapacitation due to the seering heat, and my respiratory resources on the verge of expiry from inhalation of red dirt, tuk tuk fumes, and malodorous Mekong fish, I decided that I rather fancied laying about on a tropical island for a few days.

Of course, this decision afforded me the opportunitiy to learn that you can actually squeeze 30 adults (and 2 children, as well as half a dozen baby peach-faces, and a mangily coiffured poodle), into the back of a 16-seater tuk tuk! At a roasting 37C, for an hour or so on a heavily pocked road, this made for an exceedingly character-building ride, particularly with my being sandwiched between Mr Elbows, and a girl nursing very manky looking baby-birds that sucked on fermented lady-finger bananas, in between writhing and squawking (sp?) in protest. I also did well to befriend a young Lao man carrying a little excess adipose tissue, who managed to clench my heart after a mere 11km with a touch of old-fashioned enthusiasm, dodgy Aussie-style pick-up lines, his suave slick-backed mullet (all the rage with middle-aged German backpackers!) and a token can of imitation Lao Coca-Cola. My email box has since been inundated with sweet sweet nothings! Bless...

After your average encounter with jaded immigration officials, I re-entered Thailand, where I took another (somewhat less crowded) tuk tuk, followed by a non air-con bus, o'nite train, taxi , air-con bus, boat and tuk tuk, to get to Lonely Beach on Ko Chang, an island on the far east coast of Thailand, near to the Cambodian border. 28hrs all up, including a brief layover on a rather ghosttown-like 6am Khao San Rd - the only signs of life, aside from the saffron-frocked monks on their daily alms-rounds, and the obnoxious tuk tuk drivers touting their girlfriend's half-brother's ex-wife's tailor shop ("velly cheap for you my fliend. I give you special price my fliend"), were of a few somnambulistic farangs, not quite sure where they were, nor why - but still pondering how the heck they made it that far!

I scoured all the travel agencies in Banglamphu (backpacker central) to find one that was open before the 8am bus left, and after finding one at 7.55am, boarded a bus out to Ko Chang, a quite rugged island with thick jungle right across it. Ko Chang provided a perfect chill out place for reading, sleeping and relaxing at the beach, but after 3 days, it got a little boring, so I bussed on back to Bangers, did some 'window' shopping, and booked a flight down south to Krabi!

From Ao Nang town, I jumped on a long-tail boat out to Railay, a beautiful area on the coast that is full of bungalows, al fresco cafes (you can even eat on the mudflats at low tide), climbing schools, monkeys, ridiculously bronzed Swedes using UV rays to cure remnants of Seasonal Affective Disorder, and a colony of stumpy-tailed cats that like to sit on people's laps while they dine.

Upon arrival, I promptly headed over to West Railay for a swim and snooze. All afternoon, there was an incessant flow of smiling (but very annoying) beach vendors, trying their hardest to sell pineapples, coconut milk, pastries, sarongs, bracelets etc. Thankfully they weren't as aggressive as the ones in Vietnam, (e.g. the toothless old wench in Hoi An who decided my sarong was a good place to set up shop for half an hour or so), and no tears were induced by my attempts to ward them off (not mentioning any names you big bully!) .

From there, I wound my way around the heavily-fenced off Rayavadee resort (cheapest rooms go for AUD$450 a night in the off-season, most expensive are AUD$4500 - apparently Colin Farrell stayed there last week) to sit down on the spectacular Hat Tham Phra Nang (Princess Cave Beach) and share the view of the sun sinking into the ocean with a stack of monkeys that swing madly from the treetops right on the beach.

After a few rather lax days on the physical front, I decided some exercise was in order, so went to Cliffs Man, one of the major climbing schools in Thailand and hired Tik to teach me to do spiderwoman impressions up 30m high cliff faces overlooking some of the most gobsmackingly beautiful beaches on earth.

Apparently the cliffs around Railay are amongst the top five climbing sites in the world - not only for the challenges they offer in clambering your way up overhangs and stalactites, but for the magnificent views you are afforded over the Andaman coast when you get up high. If you happen to be the first person in the world to scout out and scale a new path up a cliff-face, you are given the opportunity to name the cliff - consequently, if you so wish, you could attempt to climb "Knights in White Satin", "Ladyboy" and "Greed". My instructor was absolutely brilliant in his relentless pursuit of his student's climbing potential. He wouldn't let me get away with giving up when I was a metre or two from the top - even if my arms and legs were on the verge of dropping off from utter exhaustion! By the end of the second day, those imaginary bumps on the wall Tik insisted I put my feet on and clasp with my fingers had become real and valuable foot perches and finger grips.......I suspect this rock-climbing business could be very addictive....

My final night in Thailand was spent at Cliffs Bar, with some friends I´d made at climbing school, on the backpacker strip of East Railay, watching the climbing instructors clamber like monkeys up the outdoor training wall, inebriated Swedish lads making monkeys out of themsleves trying to do the same, young Thai men doing tricks with flaming sticks/ropes (beats flaming galahs!), and laughing at a very bad Michael Jackson impersonator trying to do magic.

Now it's back to Dublin, ready to gear up for St Paddy's Day this Wednesday. I'm just after arriving off the plane (getting back into the Irish grammar!), and ready to keel over at any second from sheer exhaustion, but am trying to make it through til this evening's fireworks.

Oh yeah and I have to work on Monday!

Cheers

Belinda

xox

Greetings (finally I’m back online!)

So I last wrote from Pakse, the provincial capital of Champasak province, and over 700km South of Vientiane. Flying low over the Southern provinces of Laos, I was shocked by the tremendous devastation of Laos’ deforestation. Vast areas of once-forested lands, lay naked and brown beneath me, and the constant haze of dust lingered in the air. About 2/3 of Laos’ export earnings are from logging, and on top of that, there is a large amount of forest area disappearing as a result of illegal loggers from within Lao and nearby Thailand (Thai border is about 40k away).

Upon arrival here, I went in search of (food and then) the allusive Mr Theung (no doubt, one of many), who, I was informed, would be able to provide me with the most up-to-date information on getting down to Si Phan Done (Four Thousand Islands) by slow boat. All I knew was that he owned a coffee shop, near the bridge closest to the port (which isn’t really a port, but more of a spot where a few boats huddle together at the foot of a riverside! See none of the streets in Pakse actually have names! Or if they do, they are numerical, but the numbers don’t make much sense, and nobody seems to know what they are! Of course speaking no Lao, was not much help…. So I never did end up finding Mr Thueng, but I did have a rather dull afternoon in Pakse town, where the most exciting event of the day was the bitumizing of the ‘main’ road – an occasion for every long-fingernailed man to watch in delight (only prosperous men can have long-fingernails ‘cause they don’t have to work in the fields!).

Anyway, I decided to take a bus, and the next morning, I hailed a tuk-tuk to take me to the bus station (which turned out to be a market) where I was befriended by a Lao woman who had just returned to Laos, after 25 years living in Paris (of course!). She asked me where I was heading, and invited me to share the tuk-tuk with her family to head down to Champasak. After grabbing some breakfast (a long crusty baguette plastered with margarine and copious amounts of brown sugar!!!!!!), I jumped aboard for the ride down to Champasak, with my new friend, and her companions. Whilst my friend and I chatted away happily in French (or rather, she chatted away, and I occasionally was able to extract a few phrases/words from my left hemisphere in order to reply), her mother munched on a half-formed baby bird egg, and her sister sucked away on a wad of betel nut (which acts as a stimulant and does a great job in discolouring one’s teeth!). After dropping off her family in Champasak town, she continued with me to Wat Phou, where she provided me with a rather detailed description of the Wat and its significance to Lao people (again all in French!). Wat Phou is an Angkorian temple (slightly older than Angkor Wat) set aside a hill (Phou is Lao for mountain), and purported to look like a Linga (Hindu phallus). The main stairway up the Wat is lined with frangipanis and the view from the top was superb.

Whilst looking around the Wat, I befriended a German couple, who had booked a private tour on the internet and had their own mini-van to take them wherever they wanted to go. They offered me a ride down to Don Khong, one of the 4000 islands, and I arrived there quickly and comfortably – and without the help of Mr Theung!

I couldn’t quite afford the US$25/night comfort of my German friends’ somewhat palatial hotel, so opted for the $3/night Mekong Guest House next door. A good choice, it turned out as the guesthouse was run by a lovely Lao/Canadian family who did everything possible to make me feel at home, including nursing me back to health when I came down rather ill (I think a touch of cholera) early the next morning. I told them to rename it the Mekong GuestHouse and Hospital! Can also highly recommend Semalong essential balm and Marley’s (no relation to Bob) egg noodle soup as a remedy for reverse-peristalsis….

Aside from spending time being cared for by my adopted Lao family, I explored Don Khong island, mostly on one of those ricketty gearless Chinese bikes I rode up North. At first I started out with the 16km roundtrip cycle to the other side of the island, before doing the 25km Southern loop, and then yesterday taking on the 40km (maybe a little less) Northern circuit with Becky (friend from Vientiane) and Stefan (a German)…..on a mountain bike in a temperate climate, that’s probably not such a ride, but in the 35degree heat on a dodgy bicycle, it’s hard work!!

The scenery across Don (Lao for island) Khong is both charming and varied, with iridescent green rice paddies (presumably the folk with a bit of money for high-tech Lao irrigation systems) juxtaposed with dried-up straw coloured ones; water-buffalo mulling in the fields, taking a dip in the trenches that line the roadside, or wandering down the roads, clinking their cow-bells as they go; children playing in their front yards, smiling brightly as they gleefully wave to the ‘falangs’ or running out onto the road-side to high-five falangs passing by. Most of the houses are made from bamboo and coconut palm wood, and many contain television and/or stereo systems that could compete with any high-tech 80s model system. On Khong, there are also animals all over the place, including some of the most robust looking chooks and ducks I’ve ever seen, loads of birds, 100kg pigs, and plenty of skanky (“but always beautiful”) cats and dogs.

From Don Khong I took a daytrip to the islands of Don Deth/Don Khone, close to the Cambodian border, where I got to see the spectacular Khone Phapheng waterfalls (claimed to be the ‘widest’ in the world hmmmm), the not-so-spectaular-but-still-quite-nice Li Phi waterfall, the old French railway line and carriage (the French had grand plans to build a railway line that connected Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos with Thailand, and a school of the extremely endangered and rare Irawaddy Dolphins. Aside from the extraordinary opportunity we had to see these rare freshwater dolphins in relatively close proximity, the trip provided us with the chance to cross out of Laos, into Lao-Cambodian no-man’s-land, into Cambodia and back again, without officially dealing with immigration – therefore paying no visa-cost, nor any entry/exit/re-entry bribe to corrupt officials!

Mother Marley (from my guesthouse) was kind enough to organize a ride for Stefan (German friend) and I back North, in what she believed to be the most comfortable mini-bus transport available! She guaranteed us a comfy ride at the local price!! So at 6.30 (Lao time – i.e. anytime after 6.30am but never exactly at 6.30am) we were surprised to be met by an over-crowded covered pick-up truck – think 27 people in the back (rather battery-chicken-like)!! A rather uncomfortable ride of about 3.5 hrs duration, but certainly character building. What was not so character-building, however, was sitting right next to the truck conductor (a charming man with bad body odour and no teeth) and his fat friend Freddy, who took glee in ogling the falang backpacker, who was ever grateful she had decided to go for the neck-ankle-five-sizes-too-big-ensemble………

Anyway, not much else to say. I THINK I’m heading east to the Bolavens plateau tomorrow (it’s possible I end up in Yangon or Krabi!), but for now, some sleep would be nice!

See yas later

Love Belinda

xxoo

After four lovely days in beautiful Luang Prabang, I caught a¨bus down to the small town of Vang Vieng, which is nestled in the midst of craggy limestone hills, and next to the Nom Xong River. Vang Vieng is the main backpacker ghetto in Laos, full of Israelis, and happy food, and cafes which show Leonardo di Caprio films, in between showing the entire Friends series! According to the Aussie Dept. of Foreign Affairs and Trade (which provide an endless source of scary warnings to travellers), you should only take Route 13, the main 'highway' between LP (i.e. the abbreve formerly known as Lonely Planet) and Vientiane, if you absolutely must, as parts of the route have, in the past, been riddled with the odd pack of guerillas wielding the occasionally frightening weapon. But all is grand now....in fact I think the hairily winding roads (let alone the oncoming traffic - think cows, pick-up trucks and people), proved more of a risk than anything else! That aside, the scenery was marvellous, and though long, the journey was splendid.

Upon arrival at Vang Vieng (think James Bond "The man with the Golden Gun" scenery on the riverside), I took a tuk-tuk a little way upstream, and leisurely floated back down river to Vang Vieng town in an inner tube. Lazy, peaceful, and beautiful... until I roused from my semi-slumber and gazed over at a herd of water buffalo, bathing in the river, 3-4metres away!! And of course yer Pommie lad on the banks of the river, decides that this is a good time to remind me that water buffaloes are the biggest killers in SE-Asia! Excellent moment though. As I attempted to hasten my paddle downstream, one of the larger ones slowly turned his head around, looked me square in the eyes, and submerged himself under the water..... well thankfully he didn't, but it would have been something good to write home about hey? After arriving back in town, and wandering through the chaotic markets, I went and perched myself beside the river to watch the sun set over the smokey hills, along with the rest of the 'falang' population in town.

The next morning, I cycled across some ricketty bamboo bridges to check out some of the caves surrounding the town (B's tip for the day - don't hire dodgy gearless Chinese bicycles to ride along dirt roads and through rice paddies, no matter how cheap cheap they are!), before taking a bus down to the capital, Vientiane.

Vientiane, is quite the mellowed down SE Asian capital, with a relatively small population (200,000), and no problems for a pedestrian who wishes to cross the road without being annihilated by motos! I hired a bicycle (of course it was a dodgy gearless Chinese bicycle - but VTE is flat so no worries), to ride out to That Luang, the most holy Buddhist monument in Laos - it is purported to have at one stage, contained the breastbone of Buddha, though it's since disappeared.

Essentially That Luang is a gilded stupa surrounded by a square cloister, where the monks hang out. It is flanked by two wats, which appeared to be gearing up for some sort of festivity. They were both filled with families (and their dogs!), sitting on straw mats, dining on sticky rice, and enjoying the craic of each other's company. The wats were adorned with gilded plastic bodhi trees, chains of fake money, loads of flowers, and the occasional popcorn necklace!

From here I rode to look at the Revolutionary Monument, and zipped down Vientiane's answer to the Champs Elysees, to venture up the Monument Anousavari (an Oriental-style Arc de Triomphe). Then on to the banks of the (quite-dried-up) Mekong, where you can sit and look over the sandbars to Thailand - sitting at picnic-set tables adorned with fresh-roses and a roll of toilet paper (makeshift serviettes). The sandbars are full of activity with teenagers kicking around a soccer/football, kids flying kites and remote-controlled aeroplanes, and young couples taking a romantic sunset stroll.

Sometime after 5pm each day, you can also kick back and watch Lao ballroom dancing and Aerobics Lao-Style, under an open-air garage.....it's mostly young health-conscious females that come along for the sessions, but you also get the odd (both rare and funny) ex-pat joining in, and a tubby old fellow who completely lacks co-ordination (think Forrest Gump on speed), but provides plenty of enthusiastic entertainment for the 'falang' audience. Yesterday, I caught him doing a little ballroom dancing with an equally enthusiastic chick in a SWAT-team shirt....bizarre. And of course all the music is old Western music (I will follow you, to wherever you may go, there isn't a river too deep....etc etc...).

The next day, we (Bec from LP, Becky [a Canuck] and I), hired motorbikes and road east past the Thai-Laos Friendship Bridge (built with aid of Australian government - Paul Keating is consequently very popular in Laos) to Xieng Khuan, the Garden of the Buddhas. It's a quite bizarre outdoor sculpture garden, full of Buddhist and Hindu sculptuers of Vishnu, Shiva, Buddha and the occasional Brahma. Here, I met a whole stack of locals, who wanted me to pose with them, their children, and parents for family photos - perhaps the whole blonde falang eccentricity! Trippy.......but it was good fun, and provided a lot of laughs.

Some of my adopted family invited us over to join them for a picnic of sticky rice, papaya salad and Beer Lao.......papaya salad is typically on the spicy side, though this particular one was on the anyone-fancy-burning-out-their-mouth-with-pure-acid, side of things.....think tears streaming from eyes, runny nose, beetroot-coloured cheeks.....and of course the sticky rice, had been cooked with some unidentifiable meat (maybe pig's intestines), which gave it a most dubious flavour.....mmmmm mmmmmm.

I spent yesterday visiting the morning and evening markets (clothes, produce, cosmetics, watches, sunnies, lacquerware, and plenty of kitsch), Wat Sisaket (which has a shrill echo of bats in its rooves), Wat Phra Kaeo (temple of the emerald buddha - abducted by the Thais a couple hundred years ago), and the national museum, which tells much of the wicked imperialist impact on Laos (during the war in Vietnam, the US had attempted to block off the flow of weaponry down the corridor of Eastern Laos by the North Vietnamese(?) - and hoped to achieve this by dropping a couple of bombs on what is known as the Ho Chi Minh trail - when I say a couple, think 2million+, or the equivalent of "a plane load of bombs every 8 minutes around the clock for 9 years" according to LP).

And finally, this morning I braved This morning I braved Lao Aviation to take a flight down south to Pakse, a large (by Laos standards) town at the junction of the Mekong and Xe Don rivers.

Upon arrival at Pakse International Airport, I bummed a ride into town with some Aussies who used to live in Laos, before scouring the town for a guesthouse. For the first time I was referred to as a "Backpasher", a nice change on the "Falang", "Honey honey", "Sweetie", "Miss" deal....

From here it's off to Si Phan Don (the Four Thousand Islands), for a couple days. I'm offline for a few days now as no electricity down south.

Gotta head off - found a restaurant that serves "spicy sour virgin pork uterus"...miam miam!!

Take care all

Ciao

Belinda
xox

Saibadee from beautiful Luang Prabang, a stunning town by the Mekong river in the North of Laos.

After 2 days in crazy Bangkok, getting my visa organised for Laos, catching up with a mate (bumped into a guy I met in Singapore in a second hand book shop on KSR - small small world), eating, sleeping, eating some more, reading, and visiting a couple of temples, I have finally made it to Laos - "the kingdom of a thousand elephants", as it is historically known (waiting for the elephants to appear though!). By the way, in case you're not sure, Laos (pop. approx 6mill) is that elongated country that is wedged between Vietnam. Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and China.

After catching a boat across the Mekong into Laos (a grand 50 metres), I stopped overnight in the tiny little town of Huay Xai, in the heart of the Golden Triangle, before taking a slow boat for two days down the Mekong to Luang Prabang, including a stop o'night in the quiant lil town of Pak Beng where we amused ourselves by playing charades and spoof. There was precious little to do on the slow boat but watch the gorgeous scenery pass by and chat with fellow travellers (Saibadee to Simon, Bec, Carolyn and Debs!). There was a good mix of people on the boat -some retirees backpacking the world, a family or two with their ankle biters, and many young folk like myself, going to Laos just for the craic The pleasant but bottom-numbing journey came to a grand total of about 175,000 kip!

Crazy money situation here....officially the Lao government only allow transactions to take place in kip, but the USD and Thai baht are used everywhere anyway and you can, in practice, pay your bills in all three currencies, and also receive your change the same way! I seem to have it all down pat by now....10 000 kip = USD$1 = AUD$1.33 = 40Thai Baht. And all the money in my bank at the moment is in Euro!! Nightmares! So i really should be converting into Euro too but it's all too much.....arrrrgghh I could have taken a speed boat in about 6 hrs all the way to Luang Prabang, but apparently the fatality rate is approaching a deathwish so bailed on that option......

Luang Prabang ("The great city of the big Buddha) is a groovy little town in the North of Laos where the Mekong meets up with the Nam Ou (at least I think i've got this right). It only has a population of about 10,000 and is super-chilled out. The riverside is particularly quaint, lined with tall palms, a few fisherfolk draping out their nets, and with cargo boats and long boats resting ashored, waiting to ferry people across the river or out of town. And because of the time of the year (i.e. burn-off season), there is a constant haze of smoke in the air, which coupled with the dust churned up from trucks, tuk-tuks, and motos plying the dirt roads that skirt the town, creates havoc with my contacts.....grrrrr.

Local kids in Luang Prabang entertain themselves by playing this funny little game by throwing thongs (aka flip-flops/slip-slops/jandals) and a deck of small cards across the road, or by kicking around a takraew ball (hacky-sack). Others amuse themselves by running along the road with a home-made kite or by wheeling an old bicycle tyre around the grounds of a temple. Stray dogs and skanky (but as always beautiful) cats trot about, chickens (probably infested with avian flu) pecker about everywhere, motos zip up and down the streets, droning constantly. And at night, the main street is lined with ladies selling clothes, bags, and handicrafts. Without even bargaining, the ubiquitos Beer Lao-t-shirts sell for about USD$1.80 each!!

On my first morning in LP I took a bike to slowly cruise about town, exploring many many temples (was even given a personally guided tour by Monk Khousi!), and having a quick look at the Royal Palace before kicking back at a riverside Wat, where I met some local kiddies who crowded round the funny falang (c'est moi!) to check out what she was up to.....we kinda couldn't get past the Hello, how are you, what's your names business, so i whipped out my photo album for them to peruse.....they were a little taken aback by the number of "darlings" i had in my album. Any guys who happened to be in my photos were either presumed to be boyfriends or brothers......greetz to all! In the late arvo, I (along with the whole foreign entourage) climbed Mt Phousi (the local sacred mountain in the centre of town) to watch the sun go down over the rather hazy town below.

The next day, Bec, Simon (mates from the slow boat trip) and I got up at the crack of dawn to saunter into town to watch the monks from all the different Wats in LP, collecting alms. Of course the dodgemeister of LP, a whacky old man, was out on the town, dressed in his old (very 1977 dark-poo-brown) military garb, holding a gun, and smiling his toothless grin as he asked for some dough (as in money)....dodgy.....(sorry mum, I'm meant to omit all these giblets of info!!) Anyway, back to the alms-collecting....At least a couple hundred monks, in off the shoulder saffron robes (gowns?), wander down the main street of LP, collecting alms from Lao people and travellers alike. We kinda thought the trad banana-leaf wrapped goodies and sticky rice was the standard food, but when Bec noticed some of the young monks (they look maybe 7 or 8, but it's really hard to tell) with chocolate bars in their baskets (?!?!?!), added a few goodies to the stash (e.g. a chocolate bar, originally named, "Tourist Bar"!).

After this, we hired motorbikes to head out to the Pak Ou cave, about 25km out of LP. The caves are set in beautiful limestone cliffs which drop down over the edge of the Mekong and are full of (4000 - give or a take a couple hundred) Buddhas, and the journey there by motorbike was a hoot. We drove through some quaint little villages, passed some delightful countryside, waved to plenty of super-smiley kiddies, stopped or veered around to dodge the odd cow, chook or pedestrian etc etc. At one point our bike ran out of fuel (we had one of those brilliant fuel gauges that still tells you the tank is half full when it's really empty).....a great opportunity for us to meet the local kids riding their bikes home from school. They were tres amused to see two falangs sitting by the roadside, and delighted when Simon whipped out his digi-cam to film them, and subsequently show them the footage he shot. I had my first ever motorbike lesson on the way back to town (I actually thought I'd stuffed up the bike with my dodgy driving when the engine petered out) with only one near tip.....going over a bridge where the main plankage was no more than 3ft wide.....oops...hey it was great fun! Been a while between moto-rides!

Yesterday morning we tuk-tukked out to the Khouang Sy waterfalls, about 30km out of town. They are exquisitely beautiful and the pools of water that rest at each tier are filled with lovely turquoise waters....In the afternoon, we visited a local school, just up the road from our guesthouse. Bec had met a teacher and cop at a little soup stall in town, and had been invited along to the teacher's grade 3 (?) class to do a little English teaching. Great fun - Bec tried to teach the kids the hokey-pokey out on the quadrangle, and later we had a go working through their reader with them, as well as a few other basic concepts such as colours, prepositions etc.

Today I cycled a little out of town to the Wat Phone Phao (Wat of Paho tree forest hill), which is modelled on the Shwee (spelling?!?!) Pagoda in Myanmar/Burma. From a distance it looks as though it is heavily gilded, but up close it's not so shimmery....the Wat was surrounded by "kutis" (not cooties), which are little meditation cells, but either the monks were still asleep, collecting alms or on holidays, as not a soul was to be seen. From there I road down to a weaving village nearby, where the women spend much of their time whipping up shawls and Laos sarongs. After downing copious amounts of fluid all day, and a whopping big breakfast/lunch, i went in search of the blood bank, to see if I could donate some blood....no luck finding the place though and after 2 hrs riding round in search of it (stoppng to ask people every 10mins), I was dehydrated... so gave it a miss. Still, I got my exercise for the day, and got to see practically every street in and around town! Of course when I finally made it back into the centre of town, I was greeted by yer man in the poo-brown-military garb (sans gun), cycling about in an S-bend loop, smiling as wildly as ever.

Heading south to Vang Vieng (think pretty pretty caves, loads of backpackers, the occasional crazy man) tomorrow, before a few days in Vientiane, and then flying south.....

Ciao for now

Belinda xoxo

So after one last night in Dublin, I jetted across to sunny Singapore - a balmy 29C on arrival at 4.30ish! Lovely!

Aside from its Singapore Slings and shopping (and it is still very very fine), Singapore seems to be renowned for its hardline laws on, well, just about everything, and is consequently known as "fine city". When you receive your immigration card, you are warned that if you traffic drugs, you will be executed...so fair enough, no different to anywhere else in Asia. But then you have some more: S$500 for smoking in public places; S$50 for jaywalking (everyone seems to ignore this one though); S$1000 for littering as well as being issued a Corrective Work Order (where apparently you have to do litter-picking up duty whilst wearing lairy clothes which let everyone know you are a litterbug - public shaming, dear oh dear) - the list goes on to include things like urinating in elevators; chewing gum anywhere at all; and not flushing a public toilet! The flushing one seems a little silly considering how many self-flushing dunnies there are around town.

On my first morning in town I headed out to Changi Prison, where Allied Prisoners were held by the Japanese in a POW camp. The prison is still in use today (full of a mixture of litterbugs, thieves, extortionists and trafickers waiting to be hung) so you are unable to visit it, however the museum next door provides, in quite vivid detail (esp. of the torture methods used - e.g. ripping out of fingernails), accounts of everyday life in the prison, as well as an historical account of the Japanese movement across SE Asia. From there I headed over to the Colonial Quarter where I sussed out Raffles' landing site, the Empress Palace Building (currently housing Asian Civilization Museum), the gorgeous Victoria Concert Hall, Parliament House, St Andrew's Cathedral, Padang (home to the exclusive Singapore Cricket Club), CHIJMES (formerly a convent, but now a stunning shopping complex), and finally Raffles City - a stack of shops attached to Raffles Hotel.

The next day was essentially spent shopping down Orchard Road... well it's Singapore! One MUST go shopping when here. On my last night in Singapore, instead of heading to Raffles hotel for a Singapore Sling (a mix of gin, brandy, Cointreau, Benedictine, pineapple juice, lime juice, grenadine and bitters, with a slice of pineapple and a glace cherry on top) for a ludicrous USD$15 (!!) a sling, I headed off to the Night Zoo with a guy from the hostel, and an old college friend of his who lives in Singapore. Fabulous zoo - nearly as cool as Taronga Zoo!

After having lived in not-so-sunny Ireland for 6mths I decided a few days of R&R on the beaches of Langkawi Island would be lovely, though I was unable to get a cheap flight direct to the North Coast so bit the bullet and travelled 27hrs to get there!! It took a taxi, 2 trains (and a four hour lay-over in KL where my Austrian friend, Edith and I decided to hit the Petronas twin towers - at present, the tallest TWIN towers in the world - extremely "grandiose" and in addition to all the MNCs and Petronas offices, home to some fantastic shops!), 2 ferries (one complete with Westlife karaoke!) and another taxi to get there....but it was lovely to stay at a beachside bungalow on a tropical island with all the coconut shakes, banana pancakes, motorbikes and geckos running around bungalow walls one could hope for

Next I headed to Penang (Georgetown). There I visited Fort Cornwallis (the spot where the Pommie fleet first set up their barracks), the Kuan Yin Teng Temple (dedicated to the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, and full of locals offering gifts of food, flowers etc and waving heavily incensed joss sticks), the Sri Mariamman Temple (a wonderfully colourful Hindu Temple), Chinatown, and generally wandered all over town in the exhausting heat. I stayed at the most budget hostel I could find(AUD$6 - a tad overpriced too!), right near the biggest mosque in town, which was fine, except for that they started up at dawn each day calling the local Muslims to the mosque over the loudspeaker which must have been audible from a km away!! Thank goodness for building site OHS approved ear plugs! (Ta Ken!).

From Penang, I took a flight back down to Singapore, where I met a motley crowd of travellers at the Inn Crowd hostel - possibly one of the coolest backpackers I have stayed at. They have a mascot kitten there, and the guys that run the place organize activities every night and pretty much everyone goes along. So, after a day at the beach with a fellow Ozzy and an Irish girl, a mob of us headed to the Raffles hotel, for that Singapore Sling ($18!!), before venturing up the tower of the Swiss Hotel to the discotheque.

It´s been fun..but time to leave now. I´m heading to Melbourne next for my sister's wedding, before going to Tassie for a road trip. I hit Sydney on Australia Day and should be on the move again Feb 8....

Adios

Love Belinda x