Pakse

Global Traveller Blog Posted on November 7, 2017 by

Today was a day of ups and downs. I was really sorry to leave Champasak this morning, particularly as the day started off with such a beautiful tableau of monks receiving alms from the villagers. I especially liked that the dogs were there first, waiting for the monks to appear. Right outside my window!

I got a minivan at 8:45 which took me directly to the Hotel Pakse in Pakse.

It was a pleasure just walking into the hotel, graced with a spacious and stylish Art Deco Lobby.

I was also pleased with my room with a view.

Finding something interesting to do in Pakse however, turned out to be a challenge.

Since the hotel was next to the river, I headed down there first thinking that there would be a walk or something to see but no luck. There was nothing there.

Buy now of course it was getting hot so I decided to take a tuk-tuk to go to the Don Huang Market.

Compared to busy town such as Phnom Penh or Siem Reap, Pakse is relatively quiet. It was an important port town during the French Colonial period And there are a number of crumbling colonial buildings and wide boulevards. Even the newer buildings are often built in French colonial style.

The market was a vast place but I got there too late to catch all of the morning activity. Still there was enough to keep me busy for an hour or so.

I was a little disappointed with the shopping. I thought there would be more to buy but in fact the colorful skirts that Laotian women wear are quite expensive when they are made with good raw silk.

In fact Laotian women dress with a remarkable uniformity of style. Pretty much the same style skirt is everywhere.

This usually means that they are clinging to Traditional Values as well. Cambodian women were typically dressed in a more modern way with mini skirts and shorts Etc.

After the market I walked back along the river which fortunately is in the process of being redeveloped to include a Promenade. If ever a town needed a Promenade this is the one. It was really a shame that it was just dirt and road next to such a beautiful River.

One is not overburdened with things to do in this town. I reflected on whether I should accept the hotels idea that I should hire it tuk-tuk and go to the Bolaven plateau tomorrow. The problem was that it was quite a distance and the trip would necessarily be rushed one because I had to be at the airport at 3 p.m. for my flight to Luang Prabang. I was just not feeling it. So I decided against it.

The best part of the day was the rooftop restaurant cafe in this hotel. It was really an extraordinary view over town and they have a happy hour that offered two drinks for the price of one between five and six pm. Great!

Watching the sunset from the rooftop Terrace is really one of the high points of staying in Pakse and certainly at this hotel.

The other high point of the day was the wonderful meal they served in the hotel rooftop restaurant. I had a Thai spicy chicken dish that had fresh green peppercorns which I’ve never tasted before. Basically it looks like a black fusilli on the plate and then you bite into it and it’s crispy like a nut and then it explodes with green peppercorn flavor. Wow!

I have to say that I was extraordinarily pleased with the service level of the hotel. There was a lot of staff and they couldn’t be friendlier or more helpful. The breakfast was also terrific. It was a breakfast buffet.

Champasak

Global Traveller Blog Posted on November 6, 2017 by

Today I was able to fully appreciate what a magical place Champasak is. In the morning I took a tuk-tuk to the temple Vat Phou, spectacularly situated against the backdrop of high mountains.

The Vat Phou Temple is older than Angkor Wat. In fact it was the earliest of the Khmer temples and was dedicated to the god Shiva. As noted by UNESCO: Wat Phu “was shaped to express the Hindu vision of the relationship between nature and humanity, using an axis from mountain top to river bank to lay out a geometric pattern of temples, shrines and waterworks extending over some 10 km.”

The setting is extraordinary. The crumbling stone structures are tucked between the mountain and a vast plain that stretches off to the horizon.

There were far fewer tourists than Angkor Wat but I would not say that it was deserted.

It was a steep climb to get to the inner sanctuary. The steps were narrow and high. This is the easy part:

Everyone was huffing and puffing, plus it was sunny and hot. I’m glad that I did not follow the hotel’s advice which was to take a bike for the 10 km. I would not have had any legs left for the climb! Before reaching the sanctuary, there are the remains of a palace. Probably a palace. Its function remains uncertain.

In addition to the finely sculpted figures from Hindu mythology, there was also a spring and outlines of three elephants carved into a rock.

I spent about two and a half hours there and then headed back to the hotel for lunch in a rest. The road that led to the temple passed villages and a number of interesting sites that I decided to explore later by bike.

 

The bike ride at the end of the afternoon was simply enchanting. I had a better bike today, without a flat tire that is to say, so biking was a lot easier. I passed the typical Laotian houses which are In wood and on stilts. Underneath the living quarters is always a large space between the stilts, which is where locals live when it gets too hot. There are often tables, wooden platforms that could be used as beds, hammocks. People smiled at me and said hello as I bite down the road which did get some trucks rolling through but traffic was light enough that they were long quiet stretches. The houses were interspersed with rice patties, fields where water buffalo and cows were grazing, plus temples. Every so often I caught a whiff of incense or the sweet perfume of a Frangipani tree.

There was a school outside of which was perhaps the most beautiful and soulful tree I’ve ever seen; its branches spread for at least 50m end to end.

There were a few spots to contemplate the Mekong River but not too many.

In a way, life here is both too easy and too hard. It’s easy in the sense that there is plentiful food and water. The villagers can grow their own rice, pick fruit from the trees, keep flocks of chicken and eat their eggs, keep cattle for meat. You have pretty much everything you need to live but the problem is that there is little to no health care. Children are short, and you see very few old people. I don’t know what the life expectancy is here but I suspect that it’s not very high.

It was just beautiful biking at the end of the afternoon when the heat of the day had passed and people were busying themselves with tending to their stalls and their shops,gathering rice, grilling meat, children playing.The road was quiet with only an occasional motorcycle.

It’s amazing  the kind of things that can go wrong in a developing country. Way back in Siem Reap last week I returned to my room and discovered that my key had broken off in the door. You can say it was a very cheap and thin key. Then just a few days ago I was taking a shower in Don Khone and the shower head simply broke off. I told the manager about it but then let it go. So today I inadvertently shut the door and locked the key in the room which you would not think would be a problem. It turns out that was a problem because the wife of this husband-wife team couldn’t find the key. She wound up getting into the room using a long knife which was sensible and afterwards made very clear that was her husband’s fault. “He’s always taking keys”, she says “and he puts it in his pocket or puts it any old place and then I can’t find the keys.  I’m on my own here! I run the place and he needs to do things to make it easier for me!” I couldn’t agree more. The husband is a big Belgian guy that was probably good looking in a very Nick Nolte way when he was younger. He swoops in from time to time and is very charming with the guests and very solicitous. He’s very interested in knowing how things are going: did I like the meal (the meals here are absolutely fabulous by the way), what am I doing next,  can he help etc. But his Laotian wife clearly seems to run the place or at least thinks she does! It’s quite funny.

Except tonight when I went down at about 8:30 to have a bite to eat and a beer and found that the entire place was shut up completely. All was dark, the garden was fenced off and it was not even possible to get out because the outer gate was locked.

I finally found Jack was relaxing in his quarters watching TV, and politely asked him to please open the gate so I could stroll down the road and find a place to eat.

It worked out well because it was a beautiful walk with hardly any cars or motorcycles on the road.  It was breezy and cool, there was a full moon and all was quiet. The only place open was the appropriately named Riverside Restaurant where I got a plate of noodles and a beer as I watched the stars over the Mekong River.

From Don Khone to Champasak

Global Traveller Blog Posted on November 5, 2017 by

It poured rain in buckets last night and the streets were still wet today. The skies were grey and overcast with a dubious forecast so I decided to pack up and leave. Janna, my Danish neighbor raved about the beauties of Champasak.”So nice”, she kept saying. Why not check it out?

The Laotian Way?

I bought a ticket that was to take me straight through to Champasak. The plan was to board a boat to go to Nakasong whereupon a minibus would take us to Muang whereupon we would board another small boat that would take us to Champasak.

Things started off well. The boat ride along the Mekong was gorgeous and lasted for a good half-hour which gave us time to appreciate the lush greenery of the 4000 or so islands and islets.

 

Nakasong

When we got to Nakasong, a ramshackle village on the river, there was some confusion and negotiation about the minivans. We waited for it all to be sorted out and I was placed into one minivan that already had some people in it while the rest of the small group was placed in another.

We traveled along for about an hour and a half and then the minivan stopped on the main road. The driver pointed to me and told me to get out. He took out my luggage and that was it. I said where is the boat? He pointed to a road that stretched into the distance and said it’s at the end of that road. I said how long is it? He said about one kilometer. I started trudging along and after about a hundred meters realized that this was going to be a bit more than one kilometer because the road was stretching as far as I could see.

Uh-oh. There were no tuk-tuks in sight and I didn’t see how I and my luggage would fit onto one of the few motorcycles parked here and there.

A SUV cruised up behind me and I flagged it down. I said where is the boat to Champasak? He pointed in the complete other direction. Just then another minivan stopped and said no that it was at the end of the road. I said about how many kilometers. He said about 4. I said well you’re going to take me there. He said no I’m full. I said well I’m not going to walk 4 kilometers so you’ll have to take me. So he agreed and I jumped in and saw that it was the other small group that had left with me this morning. Clearly they had oversold the minivan trip and stuck me on some local minivan. Boy was I angry. I’m taking it up with my hotel there and of course TripAdvisor.

We hopped on yet another small boat which took us across the river to a muddy embankment. Fortunately someone showed up and I told him that I was going to the Nakorn Guesthouse. He called them and then offered to take me on his motorcycle Then just up the road we saw that there was a tuk-tuk which did take me to the guest house.

All’s well that ends well.

The Nakorn Cafe and Guesthouse

Although this guesthouse offered a transfer they did not get my arrival info because the internet was out.

The Nakorn Guesthouse is quite an estate, with gardens and terraces, a restaurant- cafe and beautifully outfitted rooms.

As in other places, the quality of wood in the rooms is just outstanding. It’s all hardwood on the walls and floors, clearly cut from local trees. I know that Cambodia is famous for the quality of it’s wood and I suppose Laos is the same. Basically they are cutting down their forests to make gorgeous wood for guest houses.

My room faced a temple.

After an excellent lunch of Thai chicken with cashews, I took a rest and set out to explore the town. The bike was a little bit better than the one in Don Khone but not by much. It’s still quite tiring to ride as the bike is heavy, has no gears and is exceedingly uncomfortable. I wondered why this guest house which invested so much money in elaborate rooms and careful landscaping could not invest in some better bikes.

It’s an example of a rather strange lack of business sense. For example, in Don Krone they were selling a pile of those exceedingly practical conical straw hats that are typical of Southeast Asia. The problem is that they had no chin strap to attach them to your head. So they were completely unusable.

In the little of that I saw of Champasak, I could see why Janna and whoever wrote the Guide Routard fell in love with a place. The road is paved and lined with a variety of houses from crumbling Colonial mansions to more typical Laotian structures on stilts. There were local shops selling a variety of household items, glittering temples, a few shops catering to tourists, and food sellers grilling chicken or meat by the side of the road.

And of course the majestic Mekong River glimpsed just beyond the buildings and thick tropical foliage.

 

There was also a very obviously upscale shop selling silk and woven goods from all over Laos. It was run by a French woman who I discovered had relatives on the French Riviera. I didn’t get the impression that she really needed to make a lot of money from her rather expensive scarves and stuff. In another odd business choice, all of her fabric was neatly folded but you couldn’t really tell what it was from looking at it. Scarves? Shawls?Tablecloths? You had to unfold something to find out what it was. Odd.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to exploring the temple tomorrow and perhaps taking a long walk or bike ride. I hope the weather holds out. I also hope that the Wi-Fi connection is reestablished. Apparently the signal was lost after the storm last night.

Don Khone

Global Traveller Blog Posted on November 4, 2017 by

How wonderful it was to wake up and amble out onto the balcony of Pan’s Guesthouse.

I took a look around “town”.

It was a lovely day today not in the sense of beautiful sunny weather but in the sense of cool weather that made it easy and comfortable to pedal around the island. I headed out of the little village, pedalling slowly and enjoying the panorama. It was a rough road and on either side were banana trees, bamboo trees, frangipani trees, chickens, water buffalo, rice paddies, and all manner of thick tropical vegetation. It was gorgeous and tranquil: laid back Laos at its best.

I first went to see the Li Phi waterfalls around which was a park and viewing station. I found it comical that they were in the process of constructing a rotunda which evidently was going to house cafes and maybe a souvenir shop but to access the waterfall viewing station there was only a narrow plank slapped down across a ditch.

The Mekong was browner that I expected but, as it was the end of rainy season, the swollen river gushed frantically over the rocks.

A path followed the river downstream for a bit.

I got back on the trail and biked down to the beach which was actually sandy and right along the Mekong River. Then it started to rain. So I hung out in a cafe which was on stilts along the beach.

Pretty soon a couple came along and we fell into conversation over a pretty good lunch of fried noodles. He turned out to be an American aid worker with his Cambodian wife, living in Phnom Penh and over here on a break.

They had a lot to say about the political scene in Cambodia all of which was bleak. The extravagantly corrupt Hun Sen and his cronies pillaged the country and have recently consolidated their power by banning the opposition party. It was a bold step and one that probably would not have happened under the Obama administration, according to my companions. Knowing that our current government can barely deal with North Korea and chew gum at the same time, Hun Sen seized the moment and turned Cambodia  into an openly authoritarian state. “I have no hope now whatsoever”, David (not his real name) said.

I remarked on the extraordinary thinness of the Cambodians. They have a peculiar attitude towards food, his wife pointed out. It’s just not important to them. Many will go hungry in order to save money to buy a house. Their children are poorly nourished, not necessarily because they parents can’t afford to feed them but because they don’t see the importance of feeding them well. They know little about nutrition and care less. Hence, growth is stunted. Cambodians are short and extremely thin.

After a while I got back on my bike and pedalled down to the extreme southern part of the island. Somehow I wound up getting off the track and onto a narrow, rocky little path through the jungle, ducking under banana trees and bouncing over pits.

By late afternoon I reached the southern part of the island which the French had turned into a giant engineering scheme.

Intending to bypass the Li Phi waterfalls, they devised a plan to disassemble steamboats at this particular harbor and transport them by train across the island where they would be reassembled and put back into service on the Mekong River. It sounds wacky but transporting goods through Indochina was central to their colonial project.

By late afternoon I headed back . The bicycle was starting to become quite uncomfortable and I was glad to reach town. I had cocktails and dinner with an extremely interesting Danish woman who is staying next door to me. It started to rain in earnest at night but I couldn’t complain. It had been a very relaxing day.

From Siem Reap to Don Khone

Global Traveller Blog Posted on November 3, 2017 by

The tuk tuk driver showed up promptly at 7:30 a.m. We went to the head office of Asia Van Transfer where a Spanish hippie explained  exactly how it was going to work getting across the border to Laos. He had a binder with photos of the border crossing, the minivans, the rest stop and explained the process in excruciating detail. So much the better.

I piled into a minivan with about 8 other people all backpackers and we set forth to the Laotian border. The road was good but it was crowded. I prefer a bus to a minivan, I decided.

We  made a rest stop after 3 hours and after another 2 hours stopped for lunch in Stung Treng.

Despite the morning briefing, no one remembered every detail of the plan but together we pieced it all together and remained absurdly confident it would all work out.

Back in the Day

Once upon a time, backpacking was a more convivial experience where you swapped stories shared tips and bragged about how cheap your last hostel was. No more. Now everyone is lost in there own digital world, their heads buried in their smartphones, not talking or interacting with other people on the trip.

The Border Crossing

After about an hour we left for the Laotian border packed into another minivan with even less space. We bounced along for about another hour over a road that was not so good at all. Then it took about another hour to exit Thailand and enter into Laos with a lot of formalities stamping of passports and extra fees that were clearly not official. The Spanish hippy had warned us about this though.

The embarkment point for the boats to the 4000 islands was a dusty disorganized strip of riverfront. We finally got it sorted out which boat I should be on I climbed into the boat.

Sunset on the Mekong

Gliding down the Mekong River at sunset surrounded by innumerable lush islets and islands was unforgettable. It made the whole uncomfortable day more than worth it.

Night had just fallen when we docked in Don Khone. I was happy that a local stepped up to call the guesthouse as it would have been tough to wheel my suitcase on a rough road. I remembered the advantages of a backpack.