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‹ Previous (11/03/2009) MONTH Next (2009-05-10)› ‹ Previous (2009-05-13 - Cambodja) COUNTRY Next (2009-06-08 - Malaysia)› Thailand Sukhothai (see on map) 10/04/2009:
After 6 hours of train, we reached Phitsanulok, a city without too much touristic interest, apart from of a fabulous market that was raised mid-afternoon and that offered us every type of delicious and economic food (if we do not keep watch we will put on weight going with public transportation through Thailand than with autocaravan). Anyway, Phitsanulok is a good base to visit the relatively near ruins of Sukhothai and we decided to spend two nights, finding another economic and clean hotel, close to another hotel frequented by prostitutes (the first vision that we have had of Thailànds sexual tourism). Today in the morning i woke up early (Alexandra has preferred sleeping again) and I have taken three buses until i arrived to the ruins of the kingdom Sukhothai, the first Thai kingdom predecessor to the kingdom of Ayutaya. The kingdom of Sukhothai bloomed for 150 years, from the 1257 up to 1379, when it was dazzled and assimilated by the kingdom of Ayutaya more in the south. Unlike the ruins of Ayutaya, those of Sukhothai are surrounded by parks and forests and seem more authentic or more romantic, and that is paid, for the three groups of ruins cost about 2 euros each (only for the foreigners). Anyway, wanting to maintain the monthly budget of 150euro per person, I slipped into the three groups of temples without paying, with the bicycle in front of the guards of secondary-entries. In any case, the ruins of Sukhothai seemed to me less attractive than those of Ayutaya, although also interesting to visit. Chiang Mai (see on map) 11/04/2009:
Until now we have travelled by train in Thailand, which different categories or prices according to the rapidity of the train, or as it stops in more or less stations. Yesterday, while I visited the ruins of Sukhothai, Alexandra bought the train thicket towards Chiang Mai and having learned the custom of spending little, she bought the most economic thicket, of about 1,2 euros for 350 kilometres. Anyway, according to the timetable, the train would need 8 hours to do the stretch, although at the time of the truth there have been 10. Anyway, in spite of the seats of plastic and despite stopping an hour in a train station lost in the middle of the mountains, the journey did not bore me. Alexandra was a little bored, although did not grumble too much. I finished reading a novel about India, wrote the diary of the previous days, wrote a little more of my novel, looked at the landscape (which passed from the plains of the south to the green mountains of more in the north), made some photos, meditated, and conversed with a man who started to show interest in my religion and beliefs, not being surprised that I did not believe in God. However, I was surprised that he did not believe in God, for in India and in the previous Islamic countries it was a sacrilege not to believe in God, however it seems to be much more normal to the Buddhist in Thailanda, for in fact it was not wanted by Buda ever to define on the possible existence (or not) of God. Afterwards, the man has explained to me that in Thailanda there are many political problems, and that if the politicians had more Buddhist thoughts there would be many less confrontations. In fact, during this journey, we are reading in the international press that there are many protests in Thailanda among the partisans of the current government and the partisans of the previous one, but we are travelling through the country and we don’t realise, and the people do not seem to want to explain their problems. Neither the man with whom I have talked, has not wanted to explain the conflict to me (or he did not know) and has focused to explain to me that the Buddhism is a religion that preaches the peace between the people and the peace of mind. During a while I have thought that because of the Buddhism, the countries of the area would have suffered less wars and conflicts, but, remembering the Thai history or of the adjacent countries (Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam...) afterwards I have realised that it is not like this some of them having a very bloody past, that they have also suffered wars. Perhaps it happened the same as with the Christianity or the Islam, two religions that preach the peace and love among the people, but that in fact have provoked many wars and hatred against the discordant thoughts. The worst thing of this journey that was so long by train was the arrival. When at last the train stopped in a siding of the station of Chiang Mai, it was already darkening and it drizzled. The taxis in the exit of the station wanted to charge a lot, but for luck, in the street outside they already gave us prices more normal up to the neighbourhood where there are the economic hotels for tourists. But after being searching an hour loaded with the backpacks, we started to realise that the economic rooms all were occupied for many tourists had arrived in the city to celebrate the end of Thai year. But the adjusted budget that we had imposed ourselves made Alexandra push me to keep searching until we found a hotel hidden in an alley, which had some quite good rooms with bath included for only 3 euro. 18/04/2009:
The end of Thai year or the Songkran has been very amusing, but also quite exhausting. These holidays coincide with the hottest months of Thailand (the sun is found vertical at noon) and since time old, are celebrated cooling down the people with water and to the statues of budas with perfumed water. But at present, the Songkran has especially in Chiang Mai degenerated in friendly battles to wet or in indiscriminate attacks to any person who has the slightly dry clothes. So, if you go out ready to get completely soaked, the celebration of the Songkran can be very amusing. The celebrations started in theory on Monday, but on Sunday in the morning it already started the wildness. We got out ready to get wet a little, I loaded the small knapsack with the protection of rain and the camera partially covered up with a plastic bag. As we expected, Alexandra was the first to be sprayed: because she was woman and because she does not carry any valuable object. Immediately Alexandra bought a small bucket of water and joined a small group of tourists and local people that threw water with buckets and pistols to the motorcycles and the tricycles that passed and to 4x4 that loaded youngsters ready to wet and to be wetted. Meanwhile I kept doing photos, getting wet partially, even that inevitably somebody with bad aiming threw a bucket of water on my camera. To prevent problems, I took the battery out and dried a little. Afterwards I left the camera wrapped in a bag and while Alexandra supervised it and rested, I joined with a group of foreigners who had bought a big block of ice to cool the water to shoot the competitors myself. In fact, once I got well soaked, it was nice that they threw you water, for the water used to be hotter than the atmosphere. However, when they threw you cold water or ice, the experience was in a complete way unpleasant, of the same way that was when they threw you water with force against the eyes, the mouth or the ears. But that belonged to the funny side of it all, and everyone did the same: throwing icy water against other groups, against motorcyclists and especially, against the passengers of the taxi-buses that they were protected deep inside, with the intention of passing unnoticed. After a few hours, we both returned to the hotel, tired to be soaked and a little cooled. Anyway, the day after, once the sun started to warm up with force, was more that pleasurable, this time without camera, to be added to the holiday again. The pity was the impossibility to photograph a long group of statues of budhas and believers of different temples that went solemnly through a main street of Chiang Mai while they were sprayed respectfully by the spectators with perfumed water. The following day I rested, going out to visit some temples of the city. But on the fourth day I added myself again to the holiday, this time joining with a group that caught the brownish water of the channel and threw it to the passers-by or to the of the bar of in front, who counter-attacked with pistols of high pressure and frozen water. And on the fifth day there was calm. Even then, when going out to walk I myself had to get wet in a tap because the heat was unbearable. Chiang Mai is an interesting city, with too many tourists but interesting. The former city, with different temples of about 700 years of antiquity, is surrounded by a big square channel that defended it against the burmeses attacks. Most of these temples were quite a lot visited by the Thais due to the Songkran, that painted the budhas of metal with small golden plaques, hanged notes of 20 bats (0,4euros) through the temples, wrote desires that left stuck in a flower, hanged rags of colours and would fold... Anyway, what surprised me more of the temples (and that on the other hand i had already observed in other temples of Thailand) was the veneration of Buddhist monks of wax. Threaded in a pedestal or behind a glass case, and in front of some photos of the monk even in life, almost every temple had an old monk of wax of real measure and meditating with great realism. Chiang Mai also surprised us with some other aspects. In two different points we saw a shop where they sold fried insects of every type: some similar to worms, other similar to flies and, even some of enormous measure, of four or five centimetres of long. On the other hand, the great presence of tourists in Chiang Mai made us realise something commented on in the media, the sexual tourism in Thailand: many young girls accompanied men of average age and many bars had evident signs of being focused on prostitution. I spoke with Ken an English that lives for many years in Thailand, managing the hotel where we were well-off. Ken commented me the people are celebrating the Songkran with so much passion, while in Bangkok some very important demonstrations take place, been a little infuriating: the T-shirts red that they wanted to do to fall to the current president, who they accuse of wanting to change the constitution to give the king and the soldiers more powers. Unfortunately (according to Ken), the demonstration melted after different days, afterwards the army took part and of which two demonstrators died. Ken did not appear too optimistic, opining that the current king (of which there are banners, photos and calendars everywhere) is quite interventionist. Later, looking some of these photos, I thought that this king seemed a little weak man and without too much energy, a man that would probably not have dominated at all his environment if he had not been born with blue blood, and he would have managed a lot less to accumulate the fortune that has, then according to the forbes magazine, the king of Thailanda is the member of the royalty more rich in the world. Yesterday - paying attention to a suggestion of Ken - we rented a motorcycle for 1,6 euros (more 1,4euros of gasoline) to visit different points of the city. Was amusing, but also exhausting, its been almost twenty years that I did not drive a motorcycle and Alexandra did not stop moving behind scared and hysterical. On the other hand, we would have saved more taking public transportation, but not too much. We visited the pretty temple of Doi Suthep, threaded in a mountain where the legend says that a white elephant that loaded the worshiped relics of a Budha and died there. In the afternoon, we went to Bo Sang,a village famous for manufacturing umbrella of paper, but in the village there were only shops of souvenirs and I stayed resting in a bar, while Alexandra did her research and purchases. Laos Luang Prabang (see on map) 21/04/2009:
After a week of wildness and of rest in Chiang Mai, we took a bus North, towards the border of Laos, crossing some mountains covered of tropical vegetation or forest, and crossing some plains cut in innumerable lots prepared to be cultivated with rice. As I have read, Thailand is the first world exporter of rice (6,5 million annual tons), with 55% of its cultivable area dedicated to this crop. More quickly of what we thought, we arrived at noon to Chiang Kong, to the edge of the Mekong river, that in this region acts as border between Thailand and Laos. After conversing with some travellers that some weeks ago were caught psychologically in Chiang Kong ( a village with no attraction), passed the formalities of immigration of Thailand and we cross Mekong with a barge up to the village in front, Huay Xai, where was found the immigration of Laos. In the immigration we payed the 35 necessary dollars for every visa and next we looked for a hotel, which finally we found to a price similar to those of Thailand. Anyway, what was not comparable was the price of the food, that in some products it seemed to be the double of expensive that in Thailand. Perhaps, on a part, it was logical, absolutely for all the packed products were imported from the adjacent country. But what did not seem logical to me so much was the price of the local products. Even then, after we observed that the local people also paid the prices that we were asked to pay (and did not trick us), we convinced to ourselves that the cost of the life was higher in Laos and that in this country it would be more difficult for us to adjust to the budget of 5euros/day for person. Also the transport seemed much more expensive than in Thailand, at least for the journey of two days with barge to arrive to Luang Prabang (20€/person) (the bus was totally inadvisable for the bad state of the roads). Anyway, the prices would be more normal if we were not foreign, for they applied the double of price to the tourists. We bought the ticket for the same night, and embarked on the big canoe, together with another 70 tourists, the day after. Did a lot of time that did not see so many occidentals joint in the same space and did not stop being a surprise, in a certain nice way, for it allowed us to converse with many other travellers, the majority in holidays of four weeks and with budgets much higher than ours (for example they were not deprived of drinking different beers that cost 2 euros each). In the barge I also conversed a while with a Thai professor of English, which was dedicating some holidays to know Laos, according to him (and looking sideways at the driver of the barge) to discover how it was Thailand 30 years behind, before the economic bum. Next, this same professor explained the difficult political situation of Thailand. Mid-afternoon on the first day of journey through the Mekong river, we arrived to the village of Pakbeng, lost in the middle of the forest and dominating the Mekong river, full of restaurants and of hotels to house the tens of tourists who every day see themselves obliged to pass the night in the way from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang. Anyway, there was quite a lot of competence and we still found an economic hotel. On the other hand, on the following day well early in the morning (today), I have discovered a market where I have been able to do an idea of how it should be the atmosphere of the village before the arrival of tourism. Even, in this market there was a woman that had not been corrupted yet and that sold her products to the prices of the forest, from whom i have buyed a big papaya of about three kilos for only one euro. In the second stage of the journey, they have loaded us in another barge smaller and just as uncomfortable as the first, wooden banks that left you square bottom, in spite of the pillows that there were, have been accommodated in some straits. Even then, the conversations with the other travellers have continued distracting us, besides keeping marvelling with the landscape (pretty but also monotonous) of the wide Mekong river going by above a stony bed and below a small valley covered of vegetation and some homes occasionally. Some few times, the emotion of the stretch increased, when the river was tensed slightly in the middle of whirlpools, although the barge always remained very stable. On the other hand, as on the first day, I have also isolated myself a good while, showing my second personality of autist, and have lain down between two banks with the computer opened on the lap to keep writing my novel, that slowly advances towards the end. 24/04/2009:
Laos, before being bombarded massively by the United States and of definitely falling in the hands of the communists, had been a French colony, and in Luang Prabang it is evident with its European architecture and the baguettes that they are bandaged through the calm streets. Really, Luang Prabang is a little town that enchants, in spite of the hundreds of tourists who strolled for our side sharing the same feelings and in spite of the prosperous business of hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, coffees of Internet and outdoor shops. For luck, many tourists are locked up in the bars to drink beer or hire excursions to some caves and cascades and have still been able to walk with relative calmness through Luang Prabang. from the 14th century to the XVI, Luang Prabang was the capital of the Kingdom of the Million Elefants (Lan Xang), converting later in the main religious centre of the kingdom. Proof of that are the crowd of Buddhist temples that spread out through the town, some of which I visited (those that were not of payment), with an architecture and decoration simpler than the Thai temples, but with some reliefs and interesting paints in the entries. In one of these temples, resting under the shadow of a flowery tree I found a youngster who studied English with a dictionary. Immediately he established conversation with me, explaining to me that for many youngsters, to enter a Buddhist monastery was the best way of studying, for the economic easiness and for the few distractions that they had. In any case, as he explained me, many monks give up the habits once the studies finished, even if they always preserve the spiritual calmness thanks to the innumerable hours of meditation carried out. It was this young monk in the temple that informed me about an interesting attraction in Luang Prabang, although there were no tourists because it was happening at 6 of the dawn. It was also difficult for me to wake up, but it was worthed. Before going out the sun (and after some hours of meditation) the monks of all the temples come out in a row walking in silence through the streets. The people of the town wait them seated in the pavements and provided with pots of food (in general rice), that go distributing solemnly in the containers that carry the monks. The ceremony is fast but captivating. The people, it seems to worship the monks as if they were saint, without touching them in any moment, while they walk to long walks and in meditative state. It was well to wake me up early because after the ceremony, I ran into a traditional market that they only set up in the morning (to the night they set up another market exclusively for tourists, with many shops with exquisite craftsmanship). This traditional market was impressive for the variety of unimaginable products that could be sold, apart from the plants: amulets, larvae and insects, lizards, eggs, snakes... Anyway, the most extraordinary animal that I saw was coming out of the market: two enormous fish from the river, similar to tuna, that weighed 30 kilos each. On the other hand, the previous journey of two days for Mekong and the great presence of tourists in Luang Prabang, did allow us to know some Spanish that travelled for little time and a very nice Argentine to whom we committed ourselves to visiting when we will travel through his country. It was a good occasion to share some beers with them, a drink that we did not try since some months ago. On the other hand it seemed impossible to avoid this cool drink due to the heat that it makes and due to the tens of tourists that they walk through your surroundings all the day with the bottle in the hand, disregarded for the money spent, because their journey will not last beyond a few weeks, before submerging themselves again to the stress of the work world. Vang Vieng (see on map) 27/04/2009:
The journey from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng lasted about eight hours in bus, circulating through a road of continuous curves, that was winding up and down through different mountains. The mountainous landscape was pretty, although it would have been much more if it had not been hidden in the mist. On the other hand, it also damaged the sight to observe on many occasions, the pending of the mountains completely deforested and peeled, probably to market with the wood, but also, in some cases, to cultivate coffee. On the other hand, most of the houses of the small villages that we crossed were made of wood and straw. Really, the life in Laos had not changed too much in the last century apart from the villages considered touristic. It should be interesting to visit some villages lost in the north of Laos, but we have (only 5 months through southeast asia) little time and so we have stopped in another village full of tourists: Vam Vieng. Anyway, unlike Luang Prabang, Vam Vieng is a horrible place, full of hotels of low category, travel agencies , coffee shops ,Internet and restaurants. The restaurants are a show, for the majority have a big television turned on broadcasting series of Friends or Simpsons, with tens of tourists dumbfounded in front of the screen. For luck, the touristic incentive is not in the village, but in the landscape and in some caves that are found close. Anyway, most of the tourists do not seem too interested in the landscape, instead of walking through the surroundings, prefer doing tubing. The tubing is a sport that the tourist agencies promote , in which the tourist are left on the side of a calm river with a camera inflated from a lorry tyre and generally with beer at hand. Without interest for doing tubing (I admit that the price was not too attractive for me), I decided to dedicate these two days in Vam Vieng to lose myself on the other side of the river, where there were some meadows and behind different mountains of rocks and vegetation that were raised vertically, offering a landscape that reminded me of some postcards of Asia. At the foot of these mountains there were different caves that were indicated with a wavy rag in a stick and with children who charged a minimum entry. I was also offered to get one of them as guide, with a higher price that I did not accept. But it was a good decision, because the emotions of entering in a deep cave are unforgettable. The first cave that I visited, called Phadeng, basically was a passage (sometimes of a metre of height) that introduced you about five hundred meters in the mountain, with different wooden stairs to get down and to raise differences and footbridges to cross fissures. In the end, the corridor finished in a small pool of brownish water, where in theory you could bathe and where in theory there were some big fish. That of the fish I did not finish believing it myself, anyway, it was also incredible to observe at the bottom of the cave some insects with antennas of about twenty centimetres. When returning, after having been all the time worried about the reliability of my torch, I decided to lose the fear and to turn it off. I had entered with a stick, and as if i was blind I was knocking the ground, rocks and ceiling to keep advancing without danger to fall. I advanced about fifty meters in the total darkness and feeling my surroundings with the stick, until I was in an incomprehensible environment and turned the light on, frightful of falling in a crack. The second cave, that of Goldjar, was much bigger, with different stalactites that resounded when knocking them softly. All the white walls of the cave were full of drawings made with mud by the different cavemen who had visited the cave the last years, and deep down there was a statue of budha with some offerings. When i was visiting a corner, I heard some tourists entering. I turned off the torch not to frighten them, and immediately after i realised this would frighten them more, but now i already had it dull and I waited, until it was unavoidable that their torches discovered me, and turned on mine, causing them a good fright, naturally. The day after, today, I have left towards the mountains more in the south ready to visit other caves, walking a small road with cobwebs and snakes that hid when passing. But as i arrived at the first cave, I realised a man and a boy of suspicious pints, with dirty cloths and with a dagger had followed me. Alexandra had told me that in the caves thefts took place, so i situated myself in a high point in the entry and I started to make tip in the stick with my knife. The man and the boy stayed in the entry, talking between them and without daring to approach, while I kept making tip to my stick as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Until the man and the boy decided to leave without showing interest of entering the cave. But I did, encouraged by my experiences of Indiana Jones, even then I did arrive too far, because in some wooden stairs along the cave I found a small spider that was concealed, and when lowering myself to observe it and to take a photo i found an enormous spider, of about ten centimetres, that made me lose all the desires of continuing with my adventures. Vientiane (see on map) 05/05/2009:
Vientiane, the capital of Laos, is a very calm city only of half a million people without too much of appeal (or without any appeal, said our hosts Michel and Christine). Anyway, it has an avenue parallel to the Mekong river, with some simple restaurants, a much more modern and more expensive centre and a couple of monuments to which taking a glance is worth. Good, in fact, the Patuxai is ever the most horrible monument designing, a triumphal arch built in 1969 with cement given by the United States stationed in the construction of an airport. However, the stupa of Pha That Luang, started to build in 1566, was quite more seductive, with a high dome painted of golden colour, symbol of the Buddhist religion and of the sovereignty of Laos. One or two days would have been sufficient to know Vientiane, however, we have passed a fabulous week. For the first time (travelling without autocaravan) we have been hosted by a couple of Couchsurfing, Michel and Christine, which have presented us with a hospitality comparable to the Iranian or Egyptian. Michel and Christine are a Canadian couple that work in Laos as teachers for an international school (where the children of ambassadors, directors of ONGs and members of the government go). Anyway, 3 years before they worked in Nepal, and three more in Laos, they now start to pack to change continent, and to initiate a new adventure in Tunis. Michel and Christine were quite a lot tied up and stressed out with the end of course of the school and left us most of the time alone (even left three days to Vam Vieng to relaxed), insisting to take anything that we wanted from the fridge, offering us their bicycles to move through the city or to go to the embassies of Thailand and Vietnam to make the visas. Alexandra immediately felt at home, laughing thrilled while she walked the magnificent house and appropriating the command of the telly and the best sofa. Meanwhile, I made use of the calmness to keep writing my novel, that I finished about three days ago(i only have to revise it). Anyway, yesterday and today, we have also had more time to share and to converse with Michel and Christine, which have arrived more relaxed from Vam Vieng. We have been conversing a lot on education, on their next journey to Turkey, on the religions, and much more. It has been very interesting to know them and really we expect some day them to be able to do a visit to Barcelona to us to return them part of the hospitality. Si Phan Don (see on map) 10/05/2009:
In Laos, the public transportation seems quite expensive, therefore, inevitably we see ourselves obliged to copy the rest of the tourists and buy the tickets through travel agencies. Likewise, we made it to Si Phan Don to move from Vientiane, buying a night bus ticket. We thought that it would be a bus with the adjustable seats, but instead of that we were surprised in seeing that it was a bus with beds with capacity of about 30 people. It does not have to be said that the space of the beds was not so wide, even so the journey was nice, especially because the roads were straight and well asphalted. Very near to the border of Cambodia, Si Phan Don (translated as 4000 islands) is a marvel of the nature formed in the course of the Mekong river, when this is diverged bordering on crowd of islands, many of them existing only during the dry period, when Mekong is lower. I do not know whether really there are 4000 islands; what yes there is, its an island Don, where most of the tourists go. In spite of everything, the island preserves a rural and traditional air that i had not observed in any other touristic point of Laos yet. We occupy a bungalow big and clean (there were prettier other ones next to the river but Alexandra preferred this) and immediately start to make friendship with other tourists who lived in other next bungalows. While we made the journey with autocaravan, i often thought that without the car we would be nearer to the cultures and knowing more local people, but in Laos it is really not like this: we travel with tourists and live with tourists. Possibly, it is not our fault, for often we hear say that the Asian cultures are usually quite a lot closed and hermetic. Anyway, it does not stop being nice to relate to other travellers or people of the same tribe as us. On the other hand, travelling without autocaravan we visit less places but we entertain ourselves more in every place, having more opportunities of relaxing and more time to write. And it does not have to be said that, travelling with autocaravan, we would possibly not have visited Si Phan Don, or only have made it during a day. At the same time, already does weeks that we do not have the stress of having an accident, of being waken during the night, of finding the adhesives torn... Apart from the calmness of Don Det, one of these days we have done an excursion with bicycle to the adjacent island, Don Khon , where there are the attractive cascades of Somphamit to see. Both islands are connected by an old bridge of stone built by the Frenchmen and for where passed a small train that maintained the fluvial trade (and mining) interrupted by the cascades. After visiting the cascades, we direct more in the south of the island, passing of long small tropical forests, small fields and some isolated wooden homes, until arriving to a beach where I had swim and from where a small boat could be caught to observe some dolphins in the river, but the passage was too costly, and after the bath we returned to Don Det. ‹ Previous (11/03/2009) MONTH Next (2009-05-10)› ‹ Previous (2009-05-13 - Cambodja) COUNTRY Next (2009-06-08 - Malaysia)› |
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