Starting the last leg of our tour...Boo!

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Pictures for this post can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96693629@N00/
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Another couple of days have come and gone, and there have been more new, unbelievable experiences than I can count on all my fingers. It’s been a pretty exciting last 72 hrs, to say the least. It all started on a train heading to Sapa, and concluded here in Luang Prabang, Laos.

If you have never taken an overnight train, you really can’t truly appreciate the sights and sounds on it. And taking one in Asia is so much different that those in Europe.

Here in Asia, they are broken into 3 classes; the first is obviously the first class…The upper echelon of train travelers, with teak lined cabins, and comfortable sleeping compartments, made for the fortunate of Asia, and those travelers wishing to dole out the extra $15 a piece. 2nd class is where we lie (no pun intended). These are just your average cabins, built to ‘store’ 4 people for the night. Nothing special, but still including AC, and a blanket to cover yourself when the chill hits in the middle of the night. Lastly, 3rd class is made for the average Vietnamese person…People are piled into the car, as many people as the tickets they sell. The whole car reeks of cigarette smoke, and bodies are stored and strewn everywhere. People are sleeping on top of one another, under the wood plank benches. It’s really a sight that is unforgettable, but somehow the idea of pulling out the camera and snapping shots would just be an insult to these common people of the area. Instead I am the spectacle as I walk through the maze of bodies. Most of the people on these cars have only seen the white devil a handful of times in their life, let alone one that carries a spare tire around his waist at all times. I could feel the icy glare of all eyes in my direction, from the youth, the elderly, and everyone else in between. It’s not rare to catch an Asian staring in my direction, but all of them at once was a little, well, surreal.

Before we even had the opportunity to board our train, we had a difficulty navigating through the human maze on the platform made up of one train’s inhabitants leaving, and another 2 trains future dwellers attempting to make their way on board. A platform made for possibly 6 across was crammed 10-12 across. It was a human traffic jam the proportions of which I had never been privy to. The entire crowd made me a little nervous, enough so that I refused to take my hand of my wallet that was deep within my pocket. Who knows what these little poverty stricken devils would do to get their hand on my mastercard.

In our cozy 2nd class cabin laid our heroes: Michele, Trevor and I. The fourth person to share our night quarters was a young Vietnamese man, probably about 20 years old, who by the way did not speak a lick of English. Just as the train was about to leave its platform, a middle aged women entered our cabin, and began unloading her goods, including a young infant. An argument broke out between our cabin-compadre and the aggressive woman. The three of us had no idea what was taking place, but we knew we were the only ones that spoke English…So Trevor and I started to use our imagination on what was going on. First thing we had to do was create nicknames for the characters involved in the altercation. ‘Homeboy’ was our bunkmate. ‘Junior’ was he child that was seemingly a pawn in the whole scheme of things, and ‘Biznitch’ would be the loudmouth, pushy woman that seemed to have all the answers. What we could figure out was that Biznitch knew Homeboy had a 2nd class cabin for the night, and didn’t want Junior spending the night among the riff-raff in the 3rd class car. Homeboy denied Biznitch the trade of bunks, knowing that he had paid more for the ticket just to get a comfortable sleep. Many arguments ensued, and in the end (about 30 minutes after the whole disagreement began), Biznitch angrily dragged Junior and her 4 pieces of luggage out of the car and placed a curse on Homeboy. That is how we saw it, anyway. To us, it was a solid 30 minutes of entertainment, and something that you just don’t experience outside of Asia.

We arrived in Sapa at 5:30am, ready to see what the day had in store for us. All we knew is that we were to be trekking in Sapa, which is an area of Vietnam wildly known for their rice terraces, and breathtaking scenery. After a quick stop in a hotel to prepare, we met the rest of our group (9 people in all), and our tour guide, a 19 year old named Sue, who’s house we would be staying at, along with her husband and 8 month old son named Hi.

Like I mentioned about the train, these people rarely see a man of my size trekking down the side of a mountain, so as usual with my times in Asia, it turned into an ongoing joke about me being the ‘Buddha’ of the group. Many jokes were made by Sue (who was about 4-foot-4, 85 lbs) about how I needed to eat the skinny foods of the valley. I kept telling her that I have been eating the skinny foods of all of Asia: Beer.

All said, Sue was an absolute sweetheart as she lead our way thorough the vividly green mountains of the region.

I should mention that it was our group that made this one of the most enjoyable treks of my life. After the 3 of us, there was another Canadian, Hannah from Victoria. There was also 3 Japanese travelers, Ko (who was the comic relief of the trip, and an awesome guy), Chack, and Yoshi. There was Louise, a 17 year old Belgium who was living the dream of traveling at a young age, and 2 Russian women, Tanya and Paulina. Together, the 2 days was filled with many hearty laughs, and even more memories.

The terrain itself lived up to expectations. Imagine mountains like the interior of BC all covered with rice terraces, extending as far as the eye could see. Every kilometer or 2 you would run across a water buffalo playing in the water of the paddy’s, or even a local merchant selling her goods.

Speaking of the local merchants, I should mention a little about how they operate…

As our group gathered at the hotel, preparing to leave on our journey, we noticed a crowd of Vietnamese mountain women gathering outside the door, all dressed in the traditional mountain garb: dyed dark blue dresses, hair done up to the nines, black leg warmers, etc. After spending the last 2 weeks in Cambodia and Vietnam, the last thing we wanted to see was more women peddling their useless goods in our face, claiming a ‘good price’, or a ‘good product’. But little did we know that these women would be joining us on our trek, asking all of the important questions: ‘What is your name?’, ‘Where are you from’, ‘Do you have any brothers or sisters’, ‘How long have you been in Sapa?’. These women, ranging in age from 10 to 45, some even carrying babies as young as 4 months on their back, ended up being a massive source of entertainment, and amazing women, to boot. Not one of them I talked to have ever…EVER left the area of Sapa, let alone Vietnam in general. I did not talk to one that had even taken the train to Ha Noi for a weekend away. These people were born in their village, and were bred into a simple lifestyle of rice harvesting and clothe making.

Their life was truly as simple as it gets.

Back to the trek, Sue led us down the mountain, through villages that seemed to be nearly 100 years behind the times of Canada. Running water was a real privilege, and an electricity drop into the house meant they would have a treat of lights at night, possibly even a TV for the more fortunate families. It made me think that this is the way things were in Justice, Manitoba at the turn of the 19th century…Farmers doing their best to make ends meet with what they had been blessed with. A year of bad crops, or a real shitty winter mean the livestock was going to die, and the people as a whole would suffer as a community.

Finally we arrived at our destination for the night, Sue’s house in the village of Lao Chai. She and her husband had added on a guesthouse to their dirt floor home that would house the 9 of us for the night.

We spent the early evening playing with the children of the town. Michele, smart enough to plan in advance, pulled out some super balls, which I don’t believe had ever been seen in this village. We had a group of about 15 children gathered around as we bounced the ball from child to child. The group laughed joyously as the ball would go bouncing down the dirt street. At times, it would take an errant bounce into a rice paddy (or even into a piece of ‘Buffalo Chocolate’) where one of the girls would peel off her leg warmers off, and jump in, eager to have the next toss. It was an amazing site to see the village children having so much fun.

The evening was spent eating a home cooked meal made by Sue, and her extended family who all lived in the same house. After the round of Rice Wine that was used to wash things down, the cards came out, and we taught everyone the game of ‘Shit Head’. The Japanese took to it immediately, while others had a little trouble picking it up. In the end, it really didn’t matter as we were all winners knowing that we were experiencing something that our friends back home would have idea how cool it really was.

Bed time came, and we each got our own mattress, neatly dressed with mosquito netting to keep us from being drained of blood. Yes, Malaria is a problem up here, and I understood why when I killed a mosquito on my leg that was the size of a hummingbird. This thing put the bastards in northern Manitoba to shame.

Morning came early on day 2. You see, roosters really do like to welcome the morning by doing their thing over and over again, and when you have a village full of the little peckers, it becomes very difficult to sleep.

Breakfast was downed, and we were on our way to discover more of what the area had in store for us. First up was a pretty neat waterfall that made a great backdrop for group photos, and even the odd facebook profile picture. A few hours more trekking through the rice paddy’s, lunch, and eventually to a minibus that would take us back to the town of Sapa, giving us plenty of time to shower, email, eat supper, and be on our way back to Ha Noi on another overnight train.

For those of you keeping score at home, that means that the last 4 nights, I have slept on a boat, a train, a village in sapa, and another train. Damn, its time for a proper bed!

The morning in Ha Noi was pretty uneventful, other than the fact we had the locals attempt to rip us off 3 times in an hour. We would have nothing of it, and got to the airport unscathed.

By 11am, we arrived in Laung Prabang, ready to start the last leg of our tour. Laos!

We picked up a new 4th for our party…this time a New Yorker named Julia. Once we found a place to stay, we new our time in this quaint town was limited, so we got right into tourist mode. First thing first: The Tian Koung Si Waterfalls.

I know I keep saying this over and over again, but I really mean it this time: Pictures just cannot do it justice. These cascading falls started at the top of the mountain, and created turquoise pools all the way down the mountains, some of which were big enough to swim in, and many even deep enough to dive into. With a little off road searching you could find pools off the beaten path only accessible by walking UP a goddamned waterfall.

I can’t even start to tell you how amazing our time at the falls was. More pictures were snapped here than in Ha Long bay. It also made me wonder what this place will be like 5 years down the road…I assume it will be inundated with tourists, all looking for their own little slice of paradise. I am very thankful to have seen this site before that time hits, and its only a matter of years before that happens. Something this good is not kept hidden for this long.

Just take a look at some of the shots, and I hope you can appreciate just what Laos has in store for the world.

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With just over 7 days of travel left, our options are limited. We can either rush through the quiet mountain country of Laos, seeing and doing what we can, or extend our trip by another couple weeks. I voted for the extension, or even just escaping to the Chinese side of the boarder that was only 30km from Sapa, falling off the grid, and staying for an extended period of time. Reality got the best of me, though, and we are being forced to see a country in 7 days that I think I could spend another 6 weeks in alone.

7 days. Wow. That sucks. It really blows ass. This is really the life I love to live. I need to figure out how to do this more often. Sorry Dad. This might not be the last trip!