Thailand & Laos

Bangkok is a wonderful city, a strange cocktail of West and East. I think it has all the ingredients of a place I would enjoy living in… (Nee paps, da’s geen serieuze overweging! Trouwens, ik hoop dat ze u nog goed in de watten hebben gelegd op uw verjaardag!)

It is funny to see how clever the Thai people are in adapting to tourism: “Diesel” trousers are fashionable in the West? Well, we offer you an exact copy for 1/4th of the price, and if you bargain, for even less. Dreadlocks and tattoos are what the backpackers want these days? Take your pick on Khao San Road!

One of the many boutiques on Khao San Road

On the other hand, it has a very authentic, traditional Asian flair to it. In the language for example: whereas in India, all the signs are always (also) in English, and the people speak at least a few words, here that is not the case at all. Even in our guesthouse, where they receive many foreigners, I ended up on hands and knees saying “MOO” and imitated milking a cow in order to get a coffee with milk for breakfast! And Bangkok is HUGE!! Since tuck-tucks are quite expensive because of the hellish traffic and 20-minutes long traffic lights, we tried to go everywhere by public transport. Yeah, splendid idea… One afternoon, while LluÌs wanted to go to Chinatown to take pictures, I decided to participate in an aerobics class in the Lumphini Park. Later we would meet up in the restaurant “Eat me”, which was described in the guide as a little more expensive, but one of Bangkok’s best fusion restaurants. So, we left the hotel around 17h. By the time I got to the ferry, I was soaking wet because of a heavy rainfall. Then I got on the subway, and when I finally arrived at the Lumphini Park (after a 10-minutes walk from the metro to the correct exit), it was 19h and already dark. A little disappointed, I headed straight to the restaurant, which turned out to be a superchic place with a 20-pages menu only for drinks and dishes far above the prices mentioned in the guide. To give you an idea, the only affordable dishes were the side dishes! After 1000 apologies and explanations to the waiter, I left this gastronomic temple, silently baptising it as “Eat me and I’ll eat your week’s budget”. I treated myself to a Bacardi Breezer from 7- eleven and waited for LluÌs at a corner street restaurant. We.. euh… had some very nice noodles with meatballs for dinner. LluÌs’ adventure didn’t turn out to be any more successful. He had had to return to the hotel before even having reached Chinatown, in order to avoid a broken nose due to his slippery sandals or a cold because of his wet T-shirt. Then he took a taxi to get to the restaurant where he arrived half an hour late, because the taxi ride had taken him an hour… So much for public transport…

Bangkok just before the heavy rainfall

Of course, we also had to see Patpong 1 and 2. These are the streets where most of the “sex action” takes place and named after the owner of most of the clubs there. This action is now reduced to all kinds of shows, which you can pick from a menu and they are all called “pussy something”. The most famous one is the pussy pingpong show. I hoped to watch my first sex show, yes, at my age, but it didn’t happen, since LluÌs refused to be the spectator of such a denigrating activity for women. Apart from not going in, I received a lecture… How could I, a woman, want to see such a show, etc etc. Yes, I am deeply ashamed… Euh, anyone fancy going to Bagdad CafÈ with me one day? Anyway, in the name of tourism, all these clubs are now a little hidden behind the enormous market in the middle of the street, full of exact copies of whatever big names you can imagine: G-star trousers, Montblanc pens, Louis Vuitton bags, etc. What we did experience, was the famous Thai massage, a kind of pressure point massage. It was nice, but nothing world shocking. At least, you know, we can say: “been there, bought the badge and the T-shirt…”

Our last day in Bangkok, we went for a boat trip (and convinced 3 German girls to share the fare with us... who’s not rich, has to be creative…) along the khlong, which is a series of canals along which we saw beautiful teak houses on stilts, typical Thai style, with plenty of greenery and relaxing gardens. Then we went to pick up our luggage and headed for our VIP bus (=better category than the Indian super-de-luxe buses) which would take us to Nongkhai, last village before the Lao border. Somewhere during the night we both fell fast asleep and we woke up because the driver patted me gently on the shoulder to warn us we had arrived. We found the whole bus was empty and our suitcases on the street. We thanked God we were in Asia and not in Barcelona, where we would have had to continue our journey without our stuff… Still half asleep, we ignored the tuk-tuk drivers offering us their services, and took straight to the closest bar for a strong coffee (they make them terribly strong here, and only use condensated milk). In spite of the sign that said: “The bus will not wait for passengers that do not have a VISA”, we convinced the ticket lady and the driver to let us on the bus (there is only 2 of us, we will be really quick,…). At the border, we did indeed make it, quickly got our VISA, quickly paid the fee, 35USD (for LluÌs) and 30USD (for me, cause I have more charm…) , quickly got through the Thai border check-out, quickly paid the entrance fee to Lao, quickly passed the Lao border check-in, and quickly got back on the bus! And then we quietly sat down to wait for the rest of the passengers… Finally, we arrived to our very nice guesthouse in Vientiane, which is a village-like city, not at all what you would expect from a capital. There is not too much to see, but it was a relaxing change after the crazy traffic in Bangkok and we had some delicious meals in some of the numerous restaurants along the Mekong riverside. We visited the Buddha Park nearby, went to the morning market and spent the last day at the swimming pool of a 4- or 5-star hotel sunbathing and bathing in a posh environment, surrounded by palm trees and uniformed staff.

The Buddha Park...and the omnipresent photographer...

who took some impressive pictures here!The Mekong riverside is excellent for a melon juice in the afternoon...

... or a Lao beer at sunset!
No, this is no brochure, the man on the sunbed is actually Lluis!

And then we were off again, to the South of Lao this time. Nightbus to Pakse, local bus to Tadlo, and tuk-tuk to a guesthouse near one of the waterfalls in this area. We actually did a trekking, almost without realizing. We left in the morning under a clouded sky, in order to go along the river, see the waterfalls and a minority village in the neighbourhood. We ended up walking for almost 5 hours, during which it had rained, dried up, rained again, then we got a bit lost and during the last hour we had the full sun on our heads. Of course, we had forgotten to bring sun cream, and ran out of water as well. When we finally arrived to a restaurant, we had a first-class sunburn, soar feet, were dehydrated and hungry. After some liters of water, some barbecued chicken with chips and a long siesta afterwards, we were for 90% recovered. I hope my skin will recover from the sunburn soon…

Waiting for the nightbus to Pakse...
Oh yes, the motorbike goes on the bus too!One of the beautiful waterfalls in this incredible jungle-like landscape

And this morning we made another "trekking", but a little easier. We rented a motorbike and made a tour around some little villages in the neighbourhood. And tomorrow, we're heading further South...