The Plain Of Jars

I finally received my Vietnamese visa on Tuesday afternoon, and so on Wednesday I caught a flight from Ventiane up to Phonsavanh. Hooray! Escape from boring Ventiane! ;-)

The weather's really cleared up in the last couple of days and it's SO GREAT to see some sunshine after an eternity of torrential rains. I got to the sleepy airport and was happy to see a white chick waiting for the same flight. Woohoo! Someone to talk to! Her name was Jessica and she was an American PhD student travelling up to Phonsavanh cause she might be doing her research project on the Plain of Jars. How cool is that!

We ended up sitting together on the plane and chatting all the way to Phonsavanh. She was a really nice girl and it was great to have a really intellectual conversation about an archaeological site that really interests us both. And, unlike my last flight with Lao Airlines, this one was calm and smooth, with nothing but spectcular views of the Laos countryside far below us. My stomach was thankful for that!

Arriving in Phonsavanh in late afternoon, it was a relief to have the change of scene. The city was small, quiet, and had a very 'Wild West' feel to it. There's only one main road through town, huge clouds of dust blow up every time a truck drives through, and the atmosphere is so calm you can almost hear the wind blowing across the plains. And the scenery around the town is really amazing. Big skies, huge green open plains with rolling wind-swept hills in the distance, and only a few small clusters of lonely trees dot the horizon. It feels very much like the foothills of Alberta or Colorado, and the mere fact that we're 1200 metres above sea level means even the air feels much cooler. I like it a lot already!

Jessica and I checked into a really great guesthouse just off the main drag before going to grab some dinner. We then booked our tour to go and see the Jars for the next day and had an early night. Before going to bed we spent a good two hours chatting with other travellers and some of the teenage staff working there who were really friendly and anxious to practice their English. The sky above us was very, very dark and full of a billion bright stars. In the distance, over the hills, flashes of lightning lit up the midnight sky every so often and you could hear the thunder pounding. Very atmospheric.

I was SO EXCITED the next morning to go and see the Plain of Jars. Ever since I first heard about this mysterious place a few years ago, I have developed a fascination with it, and coming here, I knew, was going to be one of my biggest highlights on my trip. Jessica and I, plus four other really nice tourists, spent all day exploring the site with our extremely knowledgeable and friendly Lao guide, Pet.

The Plain of Jars is located in Northeastern Laos and remains one of the most enigmatic archaeological sites in the world today. Because of its remote location the Plain of Jars lay for nearly two millennia unknown to the outside world before being 'discovered' by French explorers/colonial imperialists in the 1930's. A few decades after that, the region was devestated during the Vietnam/American War as this part of Laos was carpet bombed by the American military on their way to fight Vietnamese forces. Those events, combined with the fact that the only highway to this region, until recently, was controlled by hostile rebel forces who occasionally attacked buses travelling to this area, and it's no wonder that few people have even heard about this place, much less travelled here. The Plain of Jars today is finally safe (relatively) and open to the outside world.

The Plain of Jars consists of many wide open fields that are full of large, stone jars scattered throughout the plains. They range in size from less than one to three metres in height, and each of them weigh several tonnes. The great mystery that surrounds this place is that archaeologists - and locals - have no idea when they were made, what they were used for, or how they go to their present location. They don't even know what civilization these jars are from! They estimate that the jars are least two thousand years old, and the latest theory is that they were used for the cremation of family members by ancient Lao tribes (some charcoal human remains have been discovered buried *beneath* the jars at one of the locations.) The jars can be found at 59 different sites scattered throughout the region, but the vast majority of them are found in three clusters, labelled Site 1, 2, and 3. Our tour today took us to all three main sites, where the number of jars at each place range from 90 to nearly 300.

The jars lie in a beautiful but dangerous location. Carpet bombing and land-mine-laying has left huge craters in the landscape, and thousands upon thousands of unexploded ordinances (UXO's) lie hidden across the plains. This has meant that excavation of the site has been extremely slow, as these mines still lie active and can explode when stepped on or picked up by locals, archaeologists - or tourists. This fact has meant that in the last few decades hundreds of local farmers have lost limbs - or their lives - to these landmines. Sites 1-3 have fortunately been cleared of landmines, but even then the 'safe area' is very small and limited. Markers in the ground tell you where it's safe to step and you have to stick to worn paths immediately around the jars. It will probably take many more decades before this area of Laos is free of this deadly danger, and it really is a tragic thing for the locals to be plagued with every day of their lives.

The Plain of Jars exceeded my expectations in terms of sheer beauty and mystery. All three sites are on these incredibly green hillsides, and the jars themselves are fascinating. The giant stone treasures at first seem to be placed randomly, but further examination reveals that many jars lie in topsy-turvy clusters, or in huge sweeping arcs across the field. Archaeologists think they have discovered the rock quarry where these jars were cut (using what tools?) and it remains completely unknown today as to how the jar-makers were able to transport these jars up to 40 km. away from the rock quarry when they weigh several tonnes. It's incredible! We spent all afternoon just wandering through the jars at our leisure, listening to Pet tell us the latest theories about them, and we even had time to just lie in the grass on the hillslopes to gaze out at the jars and the surrounding beautiful countryside. Man, I felt like I coulda just sat there forever trying to take it all in. It truly was an incredible experience, and a day that I'll never forget for as long as I live.

That night Jessica and I had a delicious Indian dinner with two new Aussie friends that we met on our tour, and then sat around our guesthouse with other travellers until late sharing travel stories and enjoying delicious BeerLao. It just may have been the best day yet of my trip, and I feel so lucky to have been able to experience something like this! Once again, I'm the luckiest - and happiest - boy on the planet. :-)

Feeling Down In Ventiane

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

It's Tuesday evening and I'm here on my own in the Laos capital feeling rather down. On Friday I received some really sad news from home, and it's been on my mind ever since. I found out, through email, that a friend of mine back in Vancouver had died. His name is Peter Schaub, and while not a really close friend of mine, is someone who I went to university with and had a lot of great times with him during my school days. Both Peter and I were active members of the Geography Student Union, and, with our tight-knit group of 9 or 10 or so other 'core' members, had many great adventures together. Potluck dinners, camping trips, school fairs, Geography conferences, snowshoeing, and a million and one laughs.

Peter, apparently, had been unpacking his stuff after having moved to Penn State to begin his Masters degree when he just collapsed and died. They think it was a heart attack but at this point don't really know. Even though it's been a year and a half since I last spoke to Peter, I'll miss him greatly. Peter was the kind of guy who you met once and never forgot. He was exceptionally friendly, and had such an infectious enthusiasm for everything that you couldn't help but smile when you were around him. He was everybody's friend, and always made sure that everyone felt included. And he was also, easily, the most brilliant man that I have ever had the priviledge to meet. Peter's intelligence and understanding always blew me away. He was the kind of student that you wished you were, but few ever have that kind of motivation or dedication for their studies. We graduated together in June of 2002, and Peter was given an award for having the highest GPA in the university. He was the kind of guy that you knew was going to go very far in life. Smarts or not, he was a wonderful man with a kind heart and a love of learning, travel, and people. The world is a less brighter place without our Peter. He will be missed greatly by all of us, and his passion for life will remain as bright memories with us for always. I'll never forget you, Peter...

For the first two days, after hearing the news, I was able to not think about it too much as Kristian, Shimrit, and Chen kept me busy and occupied as we toured around Ventiane. We checked out the National Museum, the giant arch that's not unlike Paris' Arc de Triomphe, Buddha Park, and the gold-emblazed National Monument. Ventiane is a pleasant enough city, but you can easily see and do everything here in a day or two. It's actually been named the Most Relaxed Capital in the world, and I can see why. It's rather sleepy here, things shut down early, and well, it certainly ain't no Bangkok or Hong Kong.

On Sunday morning my three friends left for Cambodia, and I've been on my own ever since. I'm stuck here until Wednesday as I'm waiting for my Vietnamese visa to be processed. To be honest I've been bored to tears, and with all of this free time (with nothing really left to see or do) I've been feeling down. Sad about Peter, and really missing my friends. (my travel buddies, and my friends back home.) For the first time on my trip I'm alone...and feeling lonely.

Tomorrow I fly up north to Phonsavanh to go and see the Plain of Jars, and then I'm travelling overland to Hanoi, Vietnam. It's going to be quite the adventure for sure. I'm promising myself not to feel so down starting tomorrow, as visiting the Plain of Jars has been a dream of mine for a long time, and I want to enjoy every minute of it. And besides, Peter, being quite the traveller himself, would never want me to just be sitting around feeling sad.

Life is a fragile and precious and completely unpredictable thing. Enjoy every day as the beautiful present that it is.

Laidback Laos

Sunday, August 21, 2005

Oh how quickly time flies by when you're busy exploring ancient temples and caves, trekking through caves and waterfalls, and enjoying local culinary delights of all flavours. That, and oh yeah, also throwing up on turbulent airplanes, learning to kayak in flood-ravaged rivers, and turning 27. What a week it's been!

In Chiang Mai I met up with my Danish friend Kristian, and said goodbye to Paulo and Carlos who had been my good travel buddies for the last few days. Kristian and I caught an early afternoon flight from Chiang Mai, Thailand to the exotic and the beautiful Luang Prabang, Laos. It was only an hour flight but what a flight it was!

The weather was quite dark and cloudy and also rather windy (foreshadowing for the flooding that was soon to hit Chiang Mai) and that meant a flight full of ups and downs and lefts and rights... Oh brother... Normally I'm quite fine with flying but being on a little tiny airplane going through turbulence felt like being a jelly bean in a can and having some giant toddler shake it like a toy. Not long into the flight I started to feel sick, and not too long after that I started to make damn good use of that handy little barf bag that was tucked very conveniently into my seat's pouch. In Laos the airports (and airplanes) have no navigational equipment so all landings have to be done by sight. This means that when it's cloudy a pilot will have to circle a city endlessly (well, as long as fuel lasts) looking for a hole in the clouds before descending. So as our pilot was busy circling us round and round and round Luang Prabang in a sea of fluffy grey, I was busy blowing chunks and praying to God, Buddha, and Allah that soon we'd be on the ground. Finally, after an eternity, we descended and landed safely on the ground.

The hellish flight turned out to be worth the 'food consumption reversal' experience as Luang Prabang is a truly beautiful city. The city is believed to be the best-preserved city in all of Southeast Asia, and because of its unique collection of Lao temples and French colonial buildings, the entire town has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Luang Prabang has always had a romantic calling of its own, and to illustrate the hypnoticism this city puts its visitors under, here's how a French woman described it nearly a century ago in 1909:

"Oh! What a delightful paradise of idleness this country protects, by the fierce barrier of the stream, against progress and ambition for which it has no need! Will Luang Prabang be, in our century of exact sciences, of quick profits, of victory by money, the refuge of the last dreamers, the last lovers, the last tourbadours?"

The description still holds true. It really is hard to imagine a more peaceful corner of the globe than Luang Prabang. Surrounded on three sides by water, LP really is a small place that you can easily walk from end to end in only a few minutes, surrounded by enormous green hills cloaked in lush jungle and shrouded by silvery clouds of mist, and nestled along the banks of the mighty Mekong, an enormous and powerful river whose milk chocolate brown colour would make Cadbury jealous. It's also no wonder that people who planned on spending only a few days here often end up staying much longer.

You can't help but feel relaxed and chilled-out in Laos. Everything here moves at a lovely molasses speed and nobody seems hurried or stressed. Kristian and I had met two really nice girls from Israel - Shimrit and Chen - and spent the next week exploring Laos together. In Luang Prabang we checked our several of the city's many wats (temples), went swimming in some waterfall pools in the jungle, took a boat ride on the Mekong to explore the Pak Ou caves which are full of 2000 Buddha statues, and wandered through some traditional Lao villages where the locals live in these bamboo and thatch huts built up on stilts.

After four days in Luang Prabang we caught a seven-hour bus ride to Vang Vieng. The route linking the two cities in a narrow, twisting road that climbs up and over those giant hills that keep Luang Prabang removed from the outside world, and make for a very dizzying experience. It was easily the most harrowing bus ride of my life - switchbacks that cling to muddy hillsides hundreds of feet above the valley floor - but also the most beautiful ride you could imagine. I don't think I've ever been to a more scenic country than Laos.

Or a more rainy one! It had been raining every single day since we had left Thailand (thankfully we managed to miss the disastrous floods there by only a day or two) and the rain showed no signs of slowing down when we reached Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng is a hole of a town, but is famous for its spectacular karst terrain. Unfortunately we rarely saw the town's majestic mountains as we were too busy getting drowned out by the 24-hour torrential downpours. Seriously, I'd wake up every morning expecting to look out the window and see Noah's Ark floating by...

We did manage to do a few activities, including some bike riding, some exploring of local caves, and kayaking on the river. I was nervous about the latter, as I had never kayaked before, and the river was completely swollen with the rain and actually had pieces of trees floating in it. Still, our guide felt confident we'd be fine, and sure enough the three of us survived our river kayaking experience. It was actually a lot of fun and quite calm, and given the fact that all three of us were in one large kayak, I didn't actually have to paddle, so I just go to sit back and enjoy the scenery. Nice!

In the evenings the four of us would hang out at these large open-air restaurants where they show nothing but Friends episodes, one after another, all day long. They actually have several of these places in Vang Vieng, and often from where you sit you can see (and hear) two or more other restaurants either playing Friends or a movie of some sort. Kinda strange, but cool. We'd just plop ourselves down in a seat full of cushions, order some dinner or snacks, and then watch a ridiculous amount of TV. It was sooooo relaxing, and fun to just hang out with my friends and laugh at the antics of Joey, Monica, Chandler, Rachel, Ross, and Phoebe.

We arrived in Ventiane on August 18th, my birthday, after a four-hour long cramped bus ride through the rainy countryside of Laos. We checked into this great little guesthouse that's not far from the Mekong that even came with a balcony and TV. We went out to a Mexican restaurant for my birthday dinner and then for a long walk around the sleepy capital. How odd it is (but cool) to be spending your birthday in Ventiane, Laos! There was no partying for me that night, as we were all feeling pretty tired and decided to opt for a good night's sleep instead. God, I really am getting old, aren't I? ;-)

Attacked By Monkeys!

So I'm up in Chaing Mai now, recovering slowly from my near-death experience after having been attacked by savage primate beasts in Northern Thailand. Okay okay, I'm exaggerating...but I do have quite the story to tell you!

I left Bangkok Monday morning and boarded a bus to take me to Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya is one of the former capitals of the Thai Kingdom and as a result is home to dozens of ancient temple ruins. They're all part of a historical park that is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and being the history buff that I am, I was really excited to check them out.

An hour and a half out of Bangkok I arrived in town, found my hostel, checked in, and had rented a bike. I spent the afternoon biking between the ruins and loved the beauty of every crumbling chupa, chedi, wat, shrine, pillar, and Buddha statue that I came across. The weather wasn't exactly cooperating but I pushed onwards still, determined to see as many ruins as I could in my afternoon there.

The next morning I went to the train station and bought a ticket to my next destination - Lopburi. Lopburi used to be a capital as well, at one time, and like Ayutthaya is also full of beautiful ruins scattered throughout the city. However, it's not the ruins that most tourists come to Lopburi to see... Instead it's the resident colony of monkeys that have besieged this small city. Apparently a long time ago a nearby colony of monkeys split into two, and the rogue faction that broke off moved out of the forest and into the city. They spend most of their time hanging out in the temple ruins, but also spend a good part of the day wandering through the city where they climb up buildings and into people's homes, steal food and clothing and personal possessions and really just about anything they can get their hands on, damage cars and break things, and throw poop at people and windows when they get really angry. Cool!

At the train station in Ayutthaya I met a really friendly couple from Florida and we decided to hang out and travel together in Lopburi. The train ride there was magical. It was just over an hour long, and we rode in third class where all the windows are wide open, and you sit and stare out at the lush green Thai countryside with the warm breeze blowing through your hair. Now *this* is a great way to travel!

We checked out a couple ruins in Lopburi before finding the home of the monkey colony. There we were shocked to see how many monkeys there were! There must've been a good 200 or so of them climbing all over the ruins, sleeping, grooming each other, feeding each other fruit, jumping and playing together...it was all so cute! We were really excited to see the monkeys up close and take some photos. They're used to seeing people and are not afraid of tourists (this turned out to be a bad thing, as I later learned the hard way...) and I was getting some truly incredible photographs of the primate families interacting together. (I've got my submissions for National Geographic all ready to send off now.)

Well I was crouched down on the temple grounds taking a photo of some monkeys walking in the grass, when all of a sudden one of them sneaked up behind me and JUMPED onto my backpack! Now I had been careful in watching the monkeys all this time because they're notoriously smart and sneaky and will do almost anything to steal your possessions, but this guy I didn't see coming at all. I jumped up and spun around really quickly to try and get him off my backpack, but the little bugger just held on tightly and was trying desperately to get into my backpack. My spinning and yelling didn't seem to deter him, and at this point he called in for back-up. One of his buddies, who I didn't see coming either, ran up and jumped on to MY LEG! OMG!

At this point I realized "Holy Fuck! I've got not one, BUT TWO, monkeys on me!" and it wasn't so fun anymore. I began to yell and flail even more, and the two of them jumped off and ran away, but not before the second one gave me a bite/scratch on the leg. We left the temple and honestly I totally forgot about the incident. Later that evening we got a train up to Phitsanulok and went straight to bed since we got in quite late. In the morning I looked at my leg and saw a small bruise on my thigh and what looked like two small teeth marks! Oh boy! Knowing that monkeys can sometimes have diseases I thought it best to go and get it checked by a doctor.

So off we went and I had my first foreign hospital experience. The Thai hospital was really quite clean and modern and the staff there were extremely friendly and helpful. I spoke with a doctor and after examining my leg, he decided that I didn't need any shots. The 'wound' showed no characteristics of a monkey bite and because the skin hadn't been broken and no blood shed, I was at no risk for disease. He determined that it was most likely just a scratch from the monkey's claw, or simply a bruise from before. I was relieved to hear this, cause nothing ends a vacation quicker than contracting rabies and foaming at the mouth! What was also great was that my visit didn't cost me a penny. I don't know why, but they didn't charge me for anything, which was great.

Carlos, Paulo, and I spent the day visiting two more UNESCO parks full of ruins and they were even more beautiful than Ayutthaya's or Lopburi's! We visited Sukhothai Historical Park, and Si Satchanalai Historical Park, and both of them are home to many, many crumbling ruins of ancient Thai capitals. What was more enjoyable with these two was the beautiful, serene, natural surroundings. The ruins are surrounded by parkland and jungle, and especially at Si Satchanalai, they're less restored and feel a lot more 'authentic.' Wandering through these ruins, climbing up their steps, and exploring all the toppled towers and crumbling pillars, you can't help but feel like you're Indiana Jones and have just discovered some Lost City that's been swallowed up by the jungle for centuries. I loved it!

We had a long, full day of exploring these two parks, and then that evening we caught a sleeper train to Chaing Mai up in the north. I'm off to a cooking class tonight, then to check out the Night Bazaar, and then tomorrow I've got a flight to catch to Laos. I'm excited about my next destination, and am looking forward to more adventures - with or without monkeys! ;-)

All Roads Lead To Bangkok

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Forget Rome! It's official now...all roads lead to Bangkok!

My three days in Bangkok were an absolute blast and I've encountered a new city that just may rival Hong Kong for "coolest place in Asia." And I also adopted the new assertion that yes, at some point, everyone really does come to/pass through Bangkok while travelling. It's like the meeting place of the planet! More on that later...

Michael and I checked into the Royal Benja Hotel and oh man what a sight for sore eyes that hotel was. We had a great room way up high on the 25th floor overlooking the city, with two giant beds, a TV, and a huge bathroom with a bathtub and separate shower! Add that to the pool, sauna, and free daily breakfast and you can understand why I felt like I had died and gone to heaven. After so much travelling in the last 72 hours it was absolutely wonderful to have a few nights of calm and peace in a familiar-style hotel. What a treat! (And all of that for only about $30 a night! What a steal!)

So I'll unabashedly admit at this point that while in Bangkok for those three days I didn't do a single touristy thing. I didn't visit any temples, didn't go and see the Golden Palace or Emerald Buddha, didn't go for any boat rides on the river or canals... All we did for that time was shop, shop, and SHOP. You see, if Bangkok isn't the meeting place for all of travelling humanity, then it definitely without a doubt is The Shopping Mecca! The shopping in Bangkok is unrivalled by any other city that I've ever been to in my entire life. Picture gigantic markets FULL of all sorts of clothes that are not only RIDICULOUSLY CHEAP, but are cool, trendy, and really fun. I was in heaven! After being denied access to cool clothes in Korea (the styles there are awful) for a year and a half, I went wild. Michael, Kristian, and I spent over five hours at the Weekend Market and during that time I bought five t-shirts and two collared shirts, and plus the night before at a mall I had bought two pairs of fake designer jeans. This may not seem like a lot, but it's more clothes than I've bought for myself than in the last two years, and I got it ALL for less than $75! I-N-C-R-E-D-I-B-L-E!

Both Michael and Kristian bought a lot of clothes too and we were finding all kinds of steals. Designer jeans for $7! Stylish Converse sneakers for $5! Funky shirts for $2! Diesel belts (imitation of course) for $0.70! WOWSERS! After three days we had shopped up a storm (to match the daily torrential downpours that Bangkok seems to be perpetually plagued with) and yet hardly put a dent in our wallets. I'm so happy that I'm passing through Bangkok two more times during this trip, so I can perfrom repeat shopping sessions!

If you don't come to Bangkok for the shopping, then you come for the cuisine. Thai food, I think, is the most delicious food to be found on the planet. The flavours! The spices! The fresh ingredients! The combinations! All amazing and exciting, each and every meal. And, once again, like everything else in this great city, it's cheap cheap CHEAP. Michael and I had quite a few very delicious meals, many-a-times only costing us about fifty cents each. I could definitely get used to this kind of eating!

The best surprise of the weekend was when I had my own "Bangkok Crossroads" experience. Michael's been to Bangkok five times before this trip, and each and every time he's run into someone that he knows from somewhere else in the world. Well it just so happens that the same weekend that I was in Bangkok was the same Saturday night that Katie and Kara were passing through town on their way back to Korea from Krabi. What are the odds!!?? I was thrilled to bits when I found this out and so the four of us met up on that fateful evening for our own little reunion in the Thai capital. It was SO EXCITING to see the girls and hang out for a night, doing a little shopping, having a couple of drinks, and sharing our stories. I didn't expect to see Kara again until December, and Katie not until sometime in 2006, so it was so wonderful to see them again, even if it was just for one night.

By the end of the weekend we had all gone off in our own directions: the girls back to Korea, Kristian up to Chaing Mai for a 3-day trek, Michael down to Southern Thailand for a week or so before he moves off to Indonesia, and me on to Ayutthaya and beyond to check out some ruins. A lot of goodbyes, but leaving behind a lot of good memories, and I'll see each of those dear people sometime in the next few months.

"Bangkok - Bringing The World Together One Happy Unexpected Reunion At A Time!" :-)

Hello Immigration!

Monday, August 8, 2005

Our next few days consisted of going through a ridiculous amount of immigration, as we passed in and out of customs skipping our way through those two former European outposts of Hong Kong and Macau. By the end of the week Michael and I will have passed through customs a grand total of eight times! Phew! My passport's getting a workout here!

Our "luxury" sleeper bus from Yangshuo to Hong Kong turned out to be our least comfortable ride yet. We left Yangshuo around 9:30pm at night and boarded a large coach full of not seats, but three rows of bunk beds. Thinking these beds were going to be "luxurious" claimed to be a wish made on false promises. The beds were TINY ,and with me being quite tall there was no way I could fit in the bed no matter which way I turned or crunched up. And the weird thing is that the beds are not flat - they're curved in some sort of aerodynamic/sado-masochist way that only allows you to lie down and not sit up no matter how hard you try. Basically, you're forced to be on your back the entire time. Take that and add the fact that the roads were extremely bumpy and windy, our driver careened all over the place like he was high on a death wish, and streetlights pierced the darkness every nine seconds making it really, really hard to fall asleep. Needless to say the three of us (Ryan was with us too) didn't get much sleep at all on this ride.

My cramped-up legs were *so happy* when we reached the border at Shenzen, China and we soon sailed through customs and were admitted into Hong Kong. I was thrilled to be back in this city. I have a special bond with Hong Kong, and returning to this city is like seeing a good friend again after a long time apart. I spent five days hanging out here almost a year ago and was captivated by what is easily one of the coolest cities on the planet. Hong Kong is what every city in Asia wishes it could be. It's a unique hybrid of the East and the West, offering the visitor the best of both worlds. You've got chaotic markets and gleaming shopping malls, quaint temples and soaring skyscrapers, man-powered rickshaws and speedy subway trains. Being in Hong Kong is like playing your favourite Asian video game, but getting all the cheat codes, too. You've got all the exoticness of the Far East, but with efficient transit, foreign foods and products, and the fact that everybody speaks English. It's great!

We only spent three days in Hong Kong and took it pretty easy while there. There's not a lot of exciting sights, per se, to see in Hong Kong. The thrill is just *being there*, feeling the energy and the pulse of a major world city and surrounded by a hundred different languages. The most spectacular sight is, without a doubt, the Hong Kong skyline at night. Whether viewed from the lookout perched atop The Peak of Hong Kong Island, or from across the narrow harbour at Kowloon, the view never, ever disappoints. Soaring buildings that truly pierce the sky all lit up aglow by lights of every colour of the rainbow. Buildings whose entire facades glitter and sparkle with an electric glow. A kaleidoscope of neon that soar fifty sixty seventy eighty stories into the sky, and then change completely right before your eyes. Picture Las Vegas, but fed with nothing but steroids and dim sum, and that's the Hong Kong skyline.

I was able to revisit a lot of the places that I had checked out last year, and enjoyed them equally as much the second time around. Victoria Peak, the beach at Stanley, and the Hong Kong Infrastructure Hall were all included this trip around. And this time I didn't have to stay at those nasty guesthouses in the infamous Chungking Mansions! Michael and I stayed at the Wang Fat Hostel in Causeway Bay right on Hong Kong Island and it was a helluva lot nicer - and actually cheaper!

At this point in the trip some major changes to Project Wanderlust had been announced. Not only will I be in Thailand by the end of the week, but after the weekend I'll be travelling solo. I've decided to change my itinerary, but will still be visiting all the same places,(just in a different order.) I'm going to be in Bangkok as of the weekend, and then will be travelling through Northern Thailand, then on to Laos, and then on to Vietnam and Cambodia. Vietnam was supposed to be next on the list but I've decided to switch things up a bit. It allows me to visit my friend Kristian who'll be in Bangkok the same time, I'll get to arrive in Vietnam *after* the rainy season has finished, and I'll actually save money on airfare.

The bigger change is that Michael and I won't be travelling together anymore...at least not until October. I've realized that I'm better off travelling on my own, and Michael's realized that stability really is important in his life. So......after a last weekend together in Bangkok I'll be going up north on my own, and he's actually going to go down to Yogjakarta in Indonesia to study Indonesian language and cooking. We'll continue our travels together again come mid-October or so when I roll through Indonesia. I guess the lesson here is 'expect the unexpected' when it comes to Project Wanderlust!

On Thursday morning we checked out of our hostel and caught a high-speed catamaran ferry to Macau. Now at this point I imagine many of you saying "Now what the hell is Macau, boy?" Well let me fill you in! Macau is Hong Kong's Portugeuse cousin - a former European colony that, like HK, was recently returned back to China (1997 for HK, and 1999 for Macau.) The two cities are only an hour apart by ferry, and both may have European roots, but are not at all alike. Besides having different histories (China was forced to give Hong Kong to the British after a series of Unequal Treaties left the empire in an awkward position with England, whereas Macau was given to Portugal as a reward for helping China get rid of pirates in those waters,) the two cities look nothing alike.

Macau consists of a small peninsula and two islands, and unlike sea-of-skyscrapers Hong Kong, it has retained most of its colonial architecture. In fact, wandering through the main piazza in central Macau, and gazing at the bubbling fountain, stately colonial buildings painted with bright pastel colours, and marble cobblestone public square and alleyways, you would *swear* that you were in Portugal, not in China. It's unbelievable! It was a hot hot HOT day and we spent the afternoon walking all over the city. We visited the ruins of St. Paul's Church, where only the facade remains, climbed up to hilltop Monte Fort for a view of the city below, and spent some time wandering through the Old Protestant Cemetery. A cemetery may seem like an odd tourist site, but the tombs and graves in this one are filled with interesting descriptions of early settlers' and sailors' lives. Walking amongst all the graves and reading about the people buried below your feet really gives you a feel for what Macau must have been like back in its trading post heyday.

We also got to enjoy two delicious Mecanese meals! Our dinner was especially scrumptious, as we enjoyed baked stuffed crab and a famous local dish called Afrikan Chicken. It was incredible! After dinner we were both pretty tired from our all-day walk so we decided to check out a movie (Fantastic Four) before heading to the airport.

AirAsia is a ridiculously cheap discount airline here in this part of the world, and we had booked ourselves two seats on its 2:45am flight out of Macau. Not the most ideal departure time, but the only one available. We left Macau and flew on to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where we had to unfortunately go through customs - again - to get our tickets for the second leg of our trip to Bangkok. By the time we arrived in Bangkok at 10:30am we were both really exhausted. We had had such a busy day traipsing all around Macau, only to get virtually no sleep on our red-eye flights to Bangkok, and were pretty tired of going through Immigration over and over. Out of Hong Kong, into Macau. Out of Macau, into Malaysia. Out of Malaysia, into Thailand. Stamps, stamps, and more stamps!

Thank god we had decided to splurge and treat ourselves to a 'real hotel' in Bangkok - one with big comfortable beds, a high-rise view, and a pool! Look out Bangkok - ready or not, here we come! :-)

Paradise In China

So our long 28-hour train ride from Shanghai to Guilin turned out to be even longer than expected! About 3/4 of the way through our trip I was informed by a new Chinese friend I met on the train (a student named Jeff studying at Nanjing University who was really friendly) that the train was delayed by two to three hours. Oh good heavens! Haven't we suffered enough on this train already! LOL. Actually this train ride went by surprisingly quick, and the scenery was quite beautiful as we rolled along. The only thing that kinda sucked is that both Michael and I were stuck with top bunks, meaning that we're so close to the roof that we can't even sit up straight. You start to feel pretty cramped and more than a little claustophobic after a full day of this. The chairs in the aisle are okay, but too small for our big Western butts (and we're two skinny boys!) Anyway, hearing that the train was delayed definitely brought out some groans from us.

What was cool was that on the train we also met another traveller - a guy named Ryan from Victoria, BC. He'd actually been to Yangshuo before and it was nice to be travelling with someone who knows this part of China. We rolled into Guilin just after 11pm (about two hours late) and then immediately boarded a bus for our real destination - Yangshuo. We got into Yangshuo just after midnight and we were all eager to check into a place and sleep in a real, full-size, non-moving bed.

Yangshuo is a small city in southeastern China inbetween Guilin and Hong Kong. It's located in what just may be the most striking, other-wordly terrain that I've ever seen - and is also a backpacker's mecca. Yanghsuo lies peacefully on the Li River and is surrounded by hundreds - no, thousands - of limestone karst pinnacles. These giant shear-cliffed rocky peaks are cloaked in lush green forest and soar up high out of the sea of rice paddies. It's honestly a very alien-looking terrain but it's so spectacular that you really can't take your eyes off of it. No wonder the Chinese consider this area to be the most beautiful in all of their country!

We spent five days here just hanging out, and after being in the big cities for so long it was great to slow things down and really take it easy. Our hostel was the Bamboo Inn & Cafe and it was a great place to stay. We had a fabulous room - two beds (I got the big one!), air-conditioning, 24-hour hot water, a balcony, and a DVD player. Right on!

We spent the first two days just biking around the beautiful countryside on our own, exploring roads, trails, and rice-paddies galore. It was one of the best parts of our trip, thanks to the warm sunshine, clear blue skies, and unbelievable scenery that made your jaw drop every time you turned around another corner. Biking through rural China is the ultimate Asian experience revealing the kind of landscape that's exactly how you'd expect Asia to look - flooded, terraced rice paddies where workers in conical hats tend to their crops, farmers leading water buffalo across rivers and through fields, chickens and dogs running scattering around your feet, and bright-eyed children racing out to yello "Hello!" to you in every little village. It's as romantic and atmospheric a scene as you can imagine. We even went for a swim in one of the local deep green rivers, surrounded by the limestone peaks. Amazing!

Another day we went to these famous caves where you can hike through to check out all the stalagmites, stalacties, and other strange rock shapes, and take a dip in the POOLS OF MUD hidden deep in the long and narrow cave. It was great fun to plunge into the thick brown goo, and for some unknown reason the buoyancy of the mud makes you float to the surface so it's near impossible to sink all that deep into it when swimming through the sludge. They even had a mud slide you could slither down! Way fun! Thankfully there was also some fresh water streams later on to clean us off, cause lemme tell you we were Dirty with a capital D!

We also went to a cooking class with two friendly Aussie girls that we met at our hostel. There we all cooked up five sensational Chinese dishes on our own - stuffed tofu balls and pumpkin flowers, chicken and cashew nuts, beer fish, garlic and ginger eggplant, and steamed spinach with fermented tofu. And the miracle of all miracles occurred - despite the fact that I'm helpless when it comes to cooking, and generally an all-around disaster in the kitchen, I managed to cook everything the way that it was supposed to be, AND not poison myself! Hooray! In fact, everything was *DELICOUS!* Hmmm...maybe I do have a secret culinary side to me, buried deep deep down?

We had one Lazy Day in Yanghsuo where we did absolutely nothing but sit in our room, pig out on food from the hostel's kitchen, and watch DVD's. It was actually a lot of fun, and we made it into a bit of a party as we had Ryan, Nhiari, and Dheni with us all day. The fact that we were all feeling so tired and lazy *may* have to do with the fact that the five of us drank way too much at a bar the night before....hehe... Besides the communal lethargy it was a good day actually, and the fact that both Aussie girls are really sweet and a lot of fun certainly added to the all-around good times. It's so great to make new friends while travelling!

On our last day Michael and I went rafting. Actually it was a lot more like 'bumper boats.' You get put on this little dingy (only two to a boat) where there's no guide and no oars - only handles - and then shoved into the raging river where you hold on for dear life and you bump and float your way downstream. They've built several small dams on this river to help keep the water level high, but you can only get past them by going down these WATERFALLS off each dam and it was really fricken' scary at times!!! You honestly screamed in horror as much as you laughed in joy on this 'ride.' Also, because there's so many other boats on the river at the same time, you're constantly colliding with other rafters, hence the 'bumper boats' nickname. It was a lot of fun but quite scary at times and definitely painful as the river is rather shallow and you feel *every* rock and boulder that you go over. I really did enjoy the rafting, even though it took forever and a day to get up to the rafting centre, and then back to town, as the Chinese seem to really embody the "hurry up and wait" philosophy. Patience is definitely a virtue while travelling through schedule-free Asia.

All in all, Yangshuo is the kind of destination that a backpacker dreams of travelling to. It's incredibly beautiful, reallly quite cheap, and full of friendly travellers, clean good-value hostels, and more restaurants serving up delicious Chinese and Western cuisine than you could possibly eat at in a month. It's the kind of place you go back to again and again cause you know you're always guaranteed a good time, and the scenery never lets you down. (Just wait til you see my photos - you'll be blown away too!)

Time to move on again... It was goodbye to our new good friends Dheni and Nize, and then we boarded our "luxury" sleeper bus to Hong Kong. Our time in China has come to an end...

Postcards, Anyone?

So hey there everyone!

I've got a big stack of way-cool postcards from Shanghai that are looking for a home, but, alas, I left all of my addresses back in Korea. Silly me!

If anyone would like a postcard (now, or at anytime in the future) please send me your address. You can either just post your address here on the site as a comment, or you can email it to me at s2hworldtour@gmail.com

So send me your addresses and then check your mailboxes! ;-)

City Of The Future

Tuesday, August 2, 2005

Sorry everyone for the long delay in blogging! China's been keeping me a busy boy and I haven't been round to check my email and write in here as often as I would like. I've got a lot of catching up to do...

Michael and I spent five days hanging out in Shanghai and we had an absolute blast. It turned out, actually, to be one of the coolest cities that I've ever been to, and next to Hong Kong, I would place it as one of my most favourite cities in Asia.

I think you'd be hard-pressed to find two cities in the world (in the same country) that are more dissimilar than Beijing and Shanghai. Beijing is all about The Old, The Government, and The Control. Shanghai is like a city of the future where crazy skyscrapers rise high into the air, high-speed maglev trains zoom across the city at over 400 km/hr, and all the doors are wide, wide open for business. Goodbye stifling communist iron-fisting, hello capitalism and consumerism en masse! Wandering through the streets of Shanghai, you can't help but think that all the inspiration the city's urban planners used in creating the cityscape must have come from watching Hollywood movies about how cities in the future will look. Just the shapes and the colours and the designs, and the fact that everything is up, up, UP! It's so cool!

On our first day we went and checked out the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall, and I was like a kid in a candy store there. Given the fact that I studied urban planning in university, and that I already am in love with this city, I was as giddy as can be while exploring the massive museum devoted to the city's past - and more importantly - its future. The prize jewel in the crown of this hall was the GIANT model of the city that they have in the centre. It's an absolute massive model displaying almost all of central Shanghai, complete with all the landmark towers (past and future ones they hope to build), rivers with boats, thousands of apartment towers, and LRT lines criss-crossing the city. Man, I wish I had one of these in my house!

One of the greatest surprises in Shanghai is The Bund. The Bund is a street and promenade along the river where all the old historical colonial structures have been preserved. Constructed during the 1930's when Shanghai was in its trading-post-to-Europe heyday, this long curving row of truly magnificent and grandiose buildings stand humbly in a stark juxtaposition to the forest of super-skyscrapers glaring down at them from across the river in Pudong. For a city that's hell-bent on being in the centre stage of the world in the (near) future, it's amazing that this piece of history has been saved from the wrecking ball. The Bund is now one of Shanghai's premier attractions, and when lit up at night, makes for a particularly awe-inspiring evening jaunt.

Unfortunately in the middle of my time here in Shanghai I suffered from extreme stomach cramps that left me tied to my bed (and not in a good way.) The pain was honestly so bad that I didn't want to eat anything or even move that far, so I lost a whole day and a half just lying around the hostel while Michael went off exploring. This is the second time in less than a month that I've had these extreme stomach cramps, and I'm beginning to think they're linked to my malaria medication... Hmmm....

Some other sights that we checked out while in Shanghai included the inspirational Shanghai Museum, the neck-craning-inducing neighbourhood of Pudong, and a great afternoon strolling through the French Concession (another pocket of beautiful European colonial architecture that somehow has made it to 2005.) We both did a little shopping, ate some great food at various restaurants (1221 was especially delicious!) and met some really friendly people in our hostel.

Speaking of meeting people, I also got to spend some time hanging out with my good buddy Ryan Bird! Ryan's an English Teacher in Taiwan but happened to be on vacation too and in Shanghai the same weekend we were. It was great to meet up with him and spend time hanging out and catching up. Ryan's a great guy and makes for marvellous company - he's witty and intelligent, charming and humorous, good-natured and a helluva lot of fun to just be around. (Sorry ladies, he's already got a girlfriend!) What's especially cool is that everytime we've ever hung out together, it's been in a different country. We've never spent any time together in the same country more than once! How crazy is that? Either way, I was really happy that I got to meet up with my friend and see him again. Good luck with the rest of your travels, Ryan! :-)

We left Shanghai on a Monday evening and braced ourselves for another long, long train ride. It's 28 hours down to Guilin and this should be our last marathon train ride of the trip. Here we go! :-)