Homeless and Lost in Bangkok

The ride from Vang Vieng, Laos back to Bangkok was a long one. I left Vang Vieng at about one in the afternoon, we stopped once at Vientiene (the capital) to change buses, then again at the border to deal with immigration, then we finally arrived in Bangkok at five in the morning. I was still in a daze, and had no where to go, so I just wandered around walking between Khao San Road and Rambuttri Road with my packs in tow. My flight wasn't until 1 am the next morning so I had about 18 hours to kill.

Statue at Wat Pho

My backpack was killing me so I found a random place to sit in front a food stand, where I met Jasper, a girl from California, with the biggest book I had ever seen a backpacker carry. It looked like an encyclopedia. We roamed around Rambuttri Road and found ourselves at a river where we watched a very flexible man partake in his own yoga session, and a group of older Thai people doing very cute aerobics. We eventually parted ways and then I was on my own again.

Awkward picture with the reclining Buddha. (You can still see the star on my arm from Vang Vieng)

To quickly summarize the last day of my trip (and because I am quite sick of blogging about it 6 months later) here is a quick recap: checked my bags into a storage, wandered around Rambuttri Road, and Khao San Road, found myself in a local market, wandered more, went to the National Museum, found a park next to a river, fell asleep in the park, security guard woke me up, I exited the park embarrassed, found myself in a wat, wandered more, then I found myself at Wat Pho, full name is Wat Phra Chettuphon Wimon Mangkhlaram Ratchaworamahawihan (try saying that ten times real fast), home of the 43 meter long reclining buddha. I took more awkward pictures alone, wandered more, then I officially found myself lost and alone in Bangkok.

Statues at the fountain

I took out my map, was approached by a Thai man who was trying to help me, then calls over a tuk-tuk and tries to explain to me where I'm going to go, then next thing I know I'm being escorted into a tuk-tuk, then driven away. I had no idea what just happened. I had no idea where I was going and was certain I was going to get robbed and shoved into some sort of sex trade business.

Thirsty cat at the fountain

Tubing in Vang Vieng!

Finally! The post I'm sure most of you have been waiting for, and what I was most excited for during my trip... TUBING IN VANG VIENG! I didn't go tubing until my last day in Vang Vieng which was unfortunate because after going once, I wanted to go the next day (and the next, and probably the day after). Although, it may have actually been a blessing in disguise because I could have been one of those people who get trapped into the awesomeness of Vang Vieng and end up staying there for months.

Here we go!

The rules of tubing are simple: rent a tube for about 55,000 kip (about $7 USD), leave a deposit of about 60,000 kip, and that all includes a tuk-tuk ride down to the beginning of the river. Be sure to return your tube on time, otherwise you will not get your full deposit back. Unfortunately, I was 30 minutes late.

The tubing gang.

There are bars along the river where you can buy Beerlao, cocktails, and the deliciously dangerous buckets. At most bars, there are ziplines, ropes, swings, and slides that you can go off into the river. The bars are full with (attractive) people from all over the world, cheap beer, buckets, shots, great music, and dancing. Each bar usually has some sort of free shot or drink to get tubers to go to their bar. Some bars will even give you a free woven bracelet for every shot you take; some people have bracelets running up their arms after being sucked into the Vang Vieng Vortex. Or they just took advantage of the free shots of Lao-Lao whiskey.  After many buckets and beer, it gets pretty hard to get where you want on the river, the bars have a genius solution for that: Lao guys throw ropes with big plastic soda bottles attached, you grab hold, and they pull you in. Easy peasy.

The first bar on the river. This was still early.

The party starts at the first bar, luckily we got there early to find a nice spot to chill. Within hours the bar was packed. We made friends quickly and even bumped into some friends that we met on the slow boat from Thailand to Luang Prabang, a guy from Switzerland and three girls from Austria. We moseyed down the river stopping at whatever bar we wanted, or basically whatever shouted that they offer free drinks. You meet so many cool people at the different bars along the river. Granted, these are drunk conversations and you might holler at each other later at Smile Bar or Bucket Bar, but true temporary friendships are made on the Nam Song River.

Nina, from Austria

Tubing down the river is dangerous. People die, and actually the day before I went, an Australian guy died. I found that out on the tuk-tuk ride down to the river. Cool. You can still drink and have fun while tubing with a few easy steps. Don't do drugs on the river. Don't go down slides when people are still at the bottom. Don't go on zip-lines with more than one person. Don't do flips and jumps in shallow waters. These steps can save your life. Essentially, you don't really need to get completely intoxicated and black out drunk to have fun in the river. The river IS the fun. Heck, you could even try going sober and I bet it would still be a hoot.

Nina, Tim, and Magdalena

After tubing we continued the fun, watching episodes of Family Guy at a bar while enjoying Beerlao, ate Lao sandwiches, made new friends, wandered over to Bucket Bar, Smile Bar, and of course Reggae Bar. Then sadly, I had to catch the bus back to Bangkok the next morning.

Tubing was definitely an experience and I'm stoked to say I did it, and proud to cross it off my bucket list. I hope to make it back to Vang Vieng for more tubing fun, and cross your fingers I don't get sucked into the Vang Vieng Vortex.

This blog post concludes my Laos trip.

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 have returned from the adventurous journey from Thailand to Laos and back to South Korea, and want to commemorate my amazing jaunt in Southeast Asia with a song. In Vang Vieng, Laos I spent a lot of time at a bar called Reggae Bar. I stopped there three of the four nights I was in Vang Vieng and every night they played the Clandestino album by Manu Chao. Amazing artist, and this song bring me back to amazing times. This song is one of my (many) favorites.

I will have many more posts with pictures about my trip, so stay tuned my friends...