The Blue Lagoon and Phu Kham Cave

One of the days in Vang Vieng, the German, the Kiwi and I decided to search for The Blue Lagoon. We hired motorbikes and went on our way (this was my second time riding a motorcycle and this time, I almost fell off a bridge into a river. I'll get to that later.) The bike shop gave us a hand drawn map that was not drawn to scale. Our first destination was not the Blue Lagoon, but after attempting to go to another cave and bumping into random tolls on dirt roads that didn't seem legit, we decided to seek out The Blue Lagoon.

Tim and I on the bridge, I don't know why we both look so pasty

The ride was amazing. We rode through farmlands, fields of rice patties, mountains, rivers, Lao kids chasing after us, we even saw hot air balloons hovering above us. We were on a dirt road for the whole ride, but despite bumpiness, the views made it worthwhile. When we were lost and checking out the map, a Lao man with really good English starting talking to us. He told us that there were two Blue Lagoons, and one of them was a tourist trap and that it's not that blue. So fellow backpackers, you will reach a fork in the road and there will be a sign to turn right to go to the "Blue Lagoon" but apparently that one is the tourist trap where some people looking for money set up the sign leading tourists to some other water area where they can sell overpriced beer. At least that's what I was told. So do not turn right, go straight when you see that sign in the fork in the road. After about 7km we reached The Blue Lagoon! Make sure you bring some cash because you'll have to pay to enter the area, as well as pay to enter the Phy Kham Cave which is a little beyond the Blue Lagoon.

Those wire cords probably saved my life

The Blue Lagoon is SO BLUE! The water in the stream comes from the mountains, and the water is so clear you could see all the way down to the deep bottom, and all the little fish that swim around your legs. There is a large tree with a rope that you can swing off of, or if you're more daring, you can jump off the tree itself.

Phu Kham Cave is a bit of a trek, so be prepared. To get to the cave itself we had to climb about 100m up the side of a mountain. It's a little steep in some areas and there was a makeshift bamboo ladder that was pretty sketchy. We entered the cave and all the sunlight shining into the cave shone on the reclining Buddha that rests in the center, it was stunning. Luckily, one of us brought a flashlight because besides the sunlight, which was going down, there was no other light in the cave. We explored around the cave a bit, but with one flashlight it was a little hard for all three of us to see. You can hire a tour guide or flashlights outside the cave for a fee, which may be beneficial. Apparently, you can go deep inside the cave into different chambers, but it's easy to get lost so it's be important to have a local guide is you want to go deeper inside.

After sweating so much from climbing to and from the cave, the Blue Lagoon was a nice place to relax and jump into the cool water. It was a nice change of scenery from the drunken debauchery that happens in Vang Vieng.

On the way home, we were crossing over the bridge pictured above, the bike had a flat tire that we must not have noticed, and as we were crossing over to make room for another motorbike, the flat tire didn't make it up the wooden plank (Laos bridges are pretty sketch), and the motorcycle capsized. I fell to the right and almost off the bridge, my arm luckily caught on to a metal wire to save me from toppling off and into the river, and the bike fell on top of Travis's leg. We both were fine, just some cuts and bruises, but with those cuts and bruises I escaped with a new fear of motorcycles, and really gross cut that was infected for the next four days and would change colors from green to orange to yellow and back again. It was a pretty sweet battle wound.

Vang Vieng. Party Central.

Oh Vang Vieng. How I miss thee.

Vang Vieng is sick, in a good way. It's like a young backpackers paradise, but sadly, that's all Vang Vieng is. The city has completely succumbed to backpackers; you don't come here for a cultural experience, or to see beautiful temples, you basically come to Vang Vieng to party. And that I did.

The main street in Vang Vieng

Arriving in Vang Vieng, the kiwi and I wandered around looking for the cheapest place to sleep, and some drunk people approached us and told us where to find a bed, I don't know why we listened to them, but I'm glad we did. We got a room on the very top floor of the Babylon Guesthouse with 2 double beds for 50,000 kip! (50,000 kip is roughly $6.) The next night the German and the Korean were going to join us, so it was even less to stay there. We basically had a penthouse on the top floor with a balcony that overlooked the main street. To be honest, it was pretty grungy, but with that price and the space, I couldn't complain.

Our room was on the top floor with a hammock on the balcony

The first night, Kiwi and I wandered around with Beer lao in hand. We were trying to find "Smile Bar" a bar, that a random foreigner walking down the street recommended to us. We ended up getting lost, finding ourselves on a different island, a quieter one, full of bungalows and guesthouses. Finally we find the right island, THE island where everything was happening. There was Smile Bar, Reggae Bar, and Rock Bar. These places were awesome! I never went into Rock Bar, but Smile and Reggae Bar had bonfires you could hang out around and hammocks you could lounge in. Smile Bar played anything from techno to top 40 to dubstep. Reggae Bar played some reggae and Manu Chao's "Clandestina" every night I was there (which was almost every night I was in Vang Vieng).

Fire Dancing

Reggae Bar was one of my favorite places. The owner was really friendly and chatted everyone up and we basically sat in the hammocks and chilled around the bonfire talking to some very interesting people. I even bumped into a friend I met in Chiang Mai! Next thing I know it's 5 AM and I'm on my way back to our guesthouse riding on a motorcycle for the first time wedged between two other people. Solid first night in Vang Vieng.

Music Monday

I'm obsessed with this song and band. San Cisco is an indie-rock-pop band hailing from Australia. It's no secret that I have a special place in my heart for bands with girls, I think it's my internal feminist. This band has a girl vocalist AND she's the drummer?? Double whammy. As for the rest of the band, the lead singer is as cute as the girl and his lips are chapped which is cool, the guitarist is wearing a denim jacket, and the bassist has really cool hair. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Quadruple whammy for the band.

The song is called "Awkward." It's super catchy, super cute, and has really happy sounding guitar riffs. This song is anything but awkward.

Now let's talk about why I love the music video. Old school Nokie phones. Done and done.

I hope you all enjoy this song, and this band, because they're great.


***** UPDATE (JULY 11, 2012)
As I'm currently listening to the 89.3 The Current live stream, this song is playing. Woo!

From Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng

The ride from Luang Prabang to my final destination in Laos, Vang Vieng was one of the most beautiful (and adventurous) rides I have experienced. It was about six to seven hours long, and the road was very winding and dizzying, but very worth it.

The entire time we were driving through the mountains with the most beautiful views overlooking other mountains. We were also driving through villages just on the side of the road we were riding on, and on the edge of mountains. It was so cool to see the Lao people go about their everyday lives as we drove by, but at the same time it felt a little weird. We saw children playing along the road, people showering from faucets, women lined up at water spouts, men building new homes for their families, and chickens and goats running from our van. It was amazing.

I don't know if our driver was in a hurry, or if he just had some sort of need for speed. We would zoom through the windy roads when it was already pitch black, and twice as we were coming around a turn, another truck would appear out of nowhere and we would swerve to the right. I was positive those moments would be my last. At other times he would zoom through the village and chickens were running across the road, then he would finally hit the brakes which would send us flying forward, and then he would laugh and continue singing to his Lao music. What a trip.

An Almost Awkward Moment with my Evening Class

I just finished my night class, which is probably one of my favorite classes because they love to talk and they love to talk about absolutely anything. Their English isn't that great, but the aren't afraid to try which is amazing. (I believe they are all around 11 to 12 years old).

Brian (the boy loves to talk) and Steven (the other boys call him handsome and tell me that he has 21 girlfriends and then he gets embarrassed and sometimes cries)

Tonight some of the boys were looking through someone's phone and I asked them why they were looking at their phone instead of listening. Steve (they are given English names) replies "Teacher, December 21 we die!" Then Steven pulls a Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone and grabs his face and tells me, "Teacher, I'm scared!" And randomly, Steve tells me something about how there are going to be a lot of babies born in September in 2013. I asked why, and he replied "internet news". I was confused, but I just nodded my head and said "Ahaaa".

I then move the conversation back to Steven and try explaining the ancient Mayan belief and used the Korean word 미신, which translates to 'superstition'. Then I used my best konglish (Korean+English) and told him "some people say we die, many many people say we no die." This seemed to cheer him up as he gave me a big grin with a thumbs up and said "Thank you teacher! I am very happy!"

Steve jumps in again and shows me this picture:

I then started laughing hysterically and choked on my own spit in the process and my class stared back at me with eyes of confusion. Then fear came over me as I realized I may have to explain that a pregnancy is nine months and also explain that people will be doing on the dirty on the day the human race is supposedly coming to an end. I think talking about the birds and bees to my students would be the most horrifyingly amusing experience ever. Thank goodness they got over the fact that I'm probably a crazy waygook and didn't ask me what was so funny.

Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang is a beautiful city heavily influenced by the French, you can tell by the architecture of some of the buildings, and my favorite part, the food.

One of my favorite meals of the trip

To be honest, I didn't do much in Luang Prabang. I was running low on cash and Luang Prabang was more expensive than I anticipated. Don't get me wrong, it was still very cheap, but not as cheap as I anticipated it to be. However, I can almost guarantee that if I go back in 5 years the cost of anything from food to guesthouses to beer will be twice the price of what it is today, maybe even three times as much.

At Kuang Si Falls. I think I was in the process of yelling "Hold the button!"

I spent about three or four nights in Luang Prabang. Each day we pretty much just walked around town, absorbing the sites, smells, and people. At night we would do they same. There's a cool night market that we walked through with lots of crafts, Beerlao t-shirts, and other souvenirs. One of the days I went the Kuang Si Falls with the Korean, the Kiwi, and the Brit. Talk about an international crew! (The German would've came too but he was still feeling sick from the stomach flu.) We bargained with a tuktuk driver who agreed to drive us out to falls and wait for us until we're finished (so much cheaper than going with a guided tour). The falls were beautiful! Kuang Si Falls consisted of cascading falls into different pools that you could swing in, jump in, dive or just sit in (which is what we did with BeerLao). There was also elephant riding and ziplining in the area so every now and then an elephant would walk through the pool below us, but unfortunately no zipliners that day for us to see.

On the boat back to our tuktuk from Kuang Si Falls

The most memorable thing about Luang Prabang was watching the procession of monks collecting alms in early morning. Every morning I set my alarm at 5am to go see it, and on my last day I finally got my butt out of bed and did just that. Luang Prabang is popular for its's large number of Buddhist monasteries and temples, so every morning at around sunrise the monks walk through the streets asking for alms from the local people. They  carried pots where the locals gave them sticky rice and other various treats. This was truly a special moment; the sun just rising, the monks flowing through the streets in a river of orange robes, and it was a very quiet procession. Except for one very big annoyance; the tourists. I'm one too and yes, I stole some shots with my tiny point and shoot, discretely of course. However, those with the giant DSLRs running between monks to get the best shot was rude.

Luang Prabang is considered to be a holy city with about 33 wats in the small area, and this is a pretty special tradition of walking through the city (I think). Regardless, the monks were being treated like a tourist attraction, or like animals in a zoo. I made the mistake by making my perch next to a high-end guesthouse where a loud British kid was yelling about how hungry he was while the monks were walking past. When the procession was finished and I was making my way back to my guesthouse, and the papparazzi was surrounding a girl that the monks were giving some of their sticky rice to. It was really sad, and it ruined the peacefulness of the whole movement. If you ever make it to Luang Prabang, I really recommend seeing this, but be weary of your actions. Here's some advice if you do find yourself there.

Here's some more advice I didn't follow when I started my vacation. ALWAYS bring dollars with you. I wad dumb and only brought Korean won with me, so I had a panic attack on my last day in Luang Prabang when I was out of the Laos kip I exchanged. I stopped at over a dozen currency exchange places and travel agencies that offered such services until I finally found a place that exchanged to Korean won. I also only brought my Korean credit card which was NOT accepted anywhere. I honestly don't know what I would have done if I didn't find a place that accepted Korean won. So always bring dollars or euros. I have learned my lesson. Goodbye Luang Prabang. Helloooooo Vang Vieng!

Lao Style Sandwich AKA my breakfast every morning in Luang Prabang.  Basically a baquette with cucumbers, tomatoes, tofu, eggs, lettuce, sweet chilli sauce, and some other delicious goodness. Noms.

Election Day

Today, April 11, 2012 is Election Day in South Korea. Do you know what this means? NO SCHOOL = NO KIDS = DAY OFF! Yes.

I really don't know anything about this election, but I do think it's a brilliant idea to have school off on Election Day. America, take note. Unfortunately, it was a poopy day outside so I couldn't really do much, but fortunately I downloaded seasons of The League and the Game of Thrones. And I tried going to the grocery store, but it was closed. Day 3 of no cereal. Sigh.

Anyways, here is a nice read about a North Korean detector who is running for South Korea's parliament.
Here is another article about the election that I got to too lazy to read, but something you might find interesting about Korean politics.