AngeLog

Siem Reap – Day 1

Arriving in Siem Reap, where the famous Angkor Wat is situated, pointed out just how cheap and tourist free the trip had so far been. Suddenly we’d arrived in a place where a trip from the airport was $5 and a beer was $2.

After bargaining with a tuk-tuk driver to get a daily price of $13 we were off to the temples. Once Angkor Wat crept into sight whatever expense suddenly became worthwhile. As the first temple one approaches from the city it is an amazing site. We decided to work up to a thorough investigation of the site and instead headed across an amazing bridge and through an arch not much wider than our vehicle.

The Bayon is the main temple of Angkor Thom and a perfect introduction to the temples of the area. It’s large, it’s tall and all of it can be climbed over. There seems to be a theme of not roping off areas of national significance occurring in Laos and Cambodia. So we walked over under and through the place, stopping to take photos whenever there was a tourist free spot.

Baphuon, Terrace of the Elephants and Terrace of the Leper King were all in walking distance from eachother. After seeing all of these the heat of the midday sun bearing down on the stone became too much so we escaped to a nearby tent for some excellent Asian food and a cold coconut with a straw in it.

After lunch we managed to find our driver in amongst the mess of tuk-tuks parked under the biggest tree. I don’t know how he managed to wear a jumper all day, but I suppose it was winter for him so maybe it was a bit of a novelty.

Asking for Prah Khan as our next destination gained us a nod from our driver. We welcomed the cool air of the tuk-tuk ride after standing on hot and dusty stones.

The Angkor Guide tells me that almost 100 000 people were servants there, and a thousand of those just as dancers. From Lonely Planet I get the impression that this place was probably Party Central in its day.

Neak Pean, a giant fountain surrounded by four square pools would’ve been amazing in its intended state. Of course it was still amazing, but my imagination couldn’t see the deep symmetrical pools and fed by fountains on each corner when it was actually four holes of dry and crunchy grass. Maybe I was just in need of a waterslide to cool off and get my imagination into gear.

Not far from Neak Pean is Ta Som. More fallen stones and more magnificent architecture making it hard to believe 800 years have past since their construction. The lack of other tourists at this place made the atmosphere of the area overcome the detail of a certain engraving or the height of a certain set of steps. Instead I was able to appreciate just how complicated building such a structure would’ve been. The forrest surrounding the area was thick and the trees were impeding on the temple itself, oblivious to the stone they were casting roots over.

Having still not checked into the guesthouse because we arrived so early, we decided it was time to call it a day and head to The Borann to unpack and go for a swim.

Vientiane – Buddha Park

Where else in the world would have a theme park where the main attraction is an obscure three storey head that one can climb through? Vientiane in Laos of course! I’m using the term “theme park” pretty broadly here. While Buddha Park is based on the theme of buddhas, there isn’t a gravitron or ferris wheel in sight.

Climbing through the obscure head is supposed to represent hell, earth and heaven. Don’t know what the branch-like sculpture on top is supposed to mean.

Buddha Park really was a lot of fun. There was cupid and his arrow rising high in the sky as well as the 20 metre long reclining Buddha. For a city with few tourist attractions the place was surprisingly empty.

Catching the local bus back to the city certainly was amusing. It was more a mini-bus than a usual sized public bus, and everyone seemed to want to squash up next to the driver. We must’ve been doing something pretty funny because the locals on the bus found us most amusing. So what if we hailed the bus from the wrong side of the road? And who cares if we had our money out when we got on board, even though it wasn’t required until we got off. An hour later the 20km trip was over. Most people on the bus nervously watched us to see our next move as we got off the bus, but I think we pulled it off without insulting the Lao people.

Vientiane – First bit

A warm city. Finally. We checked into the Orchid Guesthouse which we’d already booked. It’s down on the water, but it’s dodgy bathroom and lack of blankets made it not nearly good enough for the $15 we were paying.

We spent a chunk of the afternoon looking for somewhere else to stay. Our options were limited when we decided a pool was needed so we ended up spending big on a place called The Royal Dokmaideng Hotel near the markets. Staff clearly outnumbered guests. There was always someone to open the door for us, there were at least five people to supervise the making of our breakfast cup of tea and three girls in the fitness centre and sauna. When near the (freezing cold) pool, I didn’t dare move my towel from the banana chair and into the sun for fear someone would follow me with a banana chair over their head!

The hotel was also just down from the Victory Monument. We realised this when coming out of a side street searching for a hotel: “Oh, that must be that Arc de Triumph-like thing.” It’s quite a beautiful wide street with lamposts either side leading to the monument, but something about the monument makes it look like an Arabic version of the Arc de Triumph. Maybe it was the lights strung onto it.

There’s a lot to like about the capital of Laos. It’s easy enough to walk around, the people are nice and there’s plenty of good food.

We found a great bar that basically only catered to foriegners. KhopChaiDeu wouldn’t have been out of place in Bondi, except that the drinks were only $1. There was a place across the road which also would’ve been right at home in Bondi with its nice beach chairs and good crepes.

Oh and there was also the great French restaurant where we ate steak for $4.

The second bit of our Vientiane visit was even more exciting!

Vang Vieng

We had a “VIP” bus taking us to Vang Vieng. It was a little more comfortable and even came with a tv playing bad Asian pop music video clips. I had to turn my discman up REALLY loud to drown it out.

When the bus finally pulled up in Vang Vieng we almost missed our stop in what looked like just another dusty village. But when we crossed the huge asphalt square we realised it was a dusty village with lots of touristy shops and cafes.

We found a nice bugalow place by the river to stay in and then went adventuring on the other side of the river. After seeing the mountains and river we realised why people are attracted to the place. We found a rickety looking bridge to cross the river on. Well, it can’t have beeen that rickety because motorbikes somehow drove over it too. Halfway along we were met by a lady collecting a 2000 kip (20 cent) bridge toll. That’s nothing once you’re used to Sydney tolls!

On the other side there was a bungalow and bar playing terrible trance music for some reason. We keep walking through rice paddies and eventually came to the cave only to find it was closing for the day. On the way back over the bridge (another toll), we noticed a man washing his car in the river. Only in Laos.

Vang Vieng has a reputation for backpackers spending extended amounts of time there eating “happy pizzas” and watching reruns of Friends. While we did notice some bars playing Friends, no one seemed to care much for the pizzas.

We went to the Organic Cafe for dinner (much like everyone else in town). There’s a farm slightly out of town that’s associated with the place.

And that was basically all there was to see and do in Vang Vieng in a day. Of course, if we had more time we could’ve drifted down the river in a tube or even kayaked to Vientane.

Instead we took a minibus.

Phonsavan

We arrived in Phonsavan and it was absolutely freezing. Fair enough, it was winter and we were in the mountains, but do you think we actually thought of that?

We made our way to the Maly Guesthouse and after reading about the great food this place has, I was too ill to actually eat that night. Damn those anti-malaria tablets taken without food on a windy bus trip! But Nicole did and it seemed to be good.

What wasn’t good was our room being the same temperature as outside. We slept in about five layers of clothing and two blankets after getting an extra one from the front desk! There was hot water, but even that’s only so pleasant when there’s cold air to confront afterwards.

The next day we went on a tour of the Plain of Jars. This was our only reason (well, this and the duck recommendation) for spending 8 hours on a bus so we were hoping it was good.

A black Russian jeep left over from the war pulled up out front and our guide introduced himself as Suen. By the end of the day he’d tell us the three stories of how the jars may have come into existence, as well as the fact he was born in a cave and his grandfather was once governor of the area.

The jeep was way more authentic than any Pajero so we were freezing all day because the air just came through all the gaps in the material roof. The first site was quite close and had the largest jar of them all. All around were huge craters made from bombs dropped during the Vietnam war. The area was one of the most bombed place during the war even though the war wasn’t supposed to be happening there.

Suen told us the three jar stories in the Russian jeep because it was even too cold for him to stay out any longer. I’ll summarise them for you. One is a Lao story that says the jars were used to making rice wine (lots of jars because they needed lots of wine). Another is that the jars were used as part of the burial ceremony. And then third… hm, if only I could remember.

Next we stopped by a village where the driver’s girlfriend lived. They were making rice noodles by cooking white liquid over a drum and then leaving them out on bamboo racks to dry. Nicole and I had a go but really weren’t very successful. They made some sauce for us to dip the hot fried mixture into and then we were back on the road. Suen told us that they leave at 4:30 every morning to go to the markets to sell their noodles. I couldn’t help but think of how very cold it would be at that hour.

The cold must’ve been affecting my memory because the second site has blurred into the first and third.

We stopped for some duck noodle soup at the third site before looking at the jars. To get to the jars we first crossed a bouncy (and fun) bamboo bridge, then wandered through some rice fields. While we looked around the jars we noticed some smoke coming from one of them – it was our guide and another guide starting a little fire to keep warm. Surely in no other country could one have so much freedom around such an important site! We joined them at the fire and I asked why there were no blocks marking the areas which had been cleared of mines as there were at sites one and two. The square blocks are white and magenta. The white side means there are definitely no mines, while the red site means someone has checked with their eyes for a distance of five meters. Anyway, turns out they haven’t got around to doing that at the third site, but no probs, just don’t go digging, says Suen.

On the way back to the guesthouse we stopped at the two markets in town – the dry and the wet. The wet market was full of all sorts of exciting produce, most of which we only wanted to photograph but not eat. Frogs anyone?

That night we had dinner with an English and American backpacker and then watched The Raven at the suggestion of the wife of the owner. The doco was all about a group of American soldiers coming back to Laos to relive their time in the war. Oh, and the guesthouse owner happened to be their tour guide and featured prominently in the film.