Back home

Well, I'm back home again! 

I didn't want to end this weblog with the accidents in Laos and of course there were some more adventures after that day before flying home, so here's my final post. 

I stayed in Luang Prabang for a couple more days, and in the end I did go to the waterfalls I was planning to visit on a mountainbike. This time I took the tuktuk, though, together with a girl I met in Pai before and that now also had arrived in Luang Prabang. Vincent the Austrian, who did visit the Kouang Si waterfalls after I fell off my bike, had said to me: "I'm really, really sorry to say so, but these waterfalls were amazing! They might be the most beautiful waterfalls I've ever seen. You have to go there if you have the opportunity another time". So I did, and he was right: these waterfalls were indeed gorgeous. We could easily spend our two hours there, and ended the day with a nice Lao massage again. 

With Vincent I have been in one restaurant three days in a row, because they had such amazing food! Really fancy Lao dishes and the best soup I've ever eaten. The manager, a Dutch guy, was also such a nice person and gave us free dessert the last day because we had been there three times in a row :) The restaurant is called 'Tamarind' by the way, so if you ever visit Luang Prabang, go to that restaurant! 

In Luang Prabang we were staying in a nice little guesthouse, owned by an old Lao lady who barely spoke any English. The only problem, though, was that apperently after a certain time at night, the lady would close the gate of the little alley you had to go through, to reach the entrance, so one day when we came home late, we had to climb over the fence to enter. 

The night before my flight from Luang Prabang to Bangkok, I received an e-mail from the guesthouse I had booked in Bangkok, asking for my flight details in order to be up to date with possible delays etc. When I checked the flight details again, I found out that I was flying at 7:40 am in stead of 2 pm what I initially thought. I was so lucky that I found out just before going to bed, otherwise I would have missed my flight. I had to wake up very early though, and when I wanted to leave the guesthouse, I realized that this time I was actually locked in! The old lady was still sleeping and the gate was closed, so I had no choice but to climb over it again, this time with my backpack and all other stuff I had with me (had been doing some souvenir shopping at the night market of Luang Prabang). Luckily no accidents again and I reached the airport in time. Wonder what time the old lady has found out that I actually had left. 

In Bangkok I took the taxi to a nice bed and breakfast that I had booked. My last night in Asia I thought I deserved my private room (useful if you want to (re)pack your backpack before flying) and the room was just what I needed or maybe even more. A super clean spacious room with a huge bed and the most friendly owner who told me what to do in Bangkok. And a very good breakfast the next morning as well. 

My last day in Bangkok I did spend on a bicylce again. A 5 hour bike/ boat tour through many small alleys in Bangkok, a great experience! It is so much different from walking the tourist streets and just visiting the temples (temples really didn't impress me anymore at the end of my trip). Seeing the daily life on the streets: people eating, sleeping, chatting, selling and buying, playing and smiling. At the end of the tour one Dutch guy (there was a 'jaarclub' from Utrecht doing the same tour as I was) fell in the water which was quite hilarious, and I met another Dutchie who I went to the top of the highest tower of Thailand with. My stay there was concluded with a cocktail and a view of Bangkok by night. But then it was time to go. Back to the airport, back to The Netherlands. It really didn't feel like the last day, it didn't feel like I had been traveling for almost three months. It only became real when I saw my parents, sister and boyfriend on the airport in Amsterdam. And of course it was cold and raining, haha. 

I have had a really great time, thanks to all the lovely, friendly, crazy and inspiring people I met during my travels and all the amazing things I've seen and done. Below I have drawn my whole itinerary on some maps, for curious people :) I think I catched the travel bug, I'm already looking forward to the next time traveling, although it will probably not be in the next four years...

The complete itinerary: Japan - Malaysia - Indonesia - Thailand - Laos

Japan:
Tokyo/Saitama - Nikko - Tokyo - Matsumoto - Takayama - Gero - Takayama -
 Kanazawa - Kyoto - Nara - Hiroshima - Osaka

Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur - Melaka - Kuala Lumpur - Langkawi - Penang - Cameron Highlands - Kuala Lumpur

Indonesia: Jakarta - Cianjur - Yogyakarta - Bromo vulcano - Ijen plateau - Denpasar - Ubud - Padangbai -
Gili Trawangan - Padangbai - Denpasar - Bandung/Cianjur - Bandung

Thailand and Laos: Bangkok - Chiang Mai - Pai - Chang Khong - Pakbeng - Luang Prabang - Bangkok

Unlucky in Laos

After Chiang Mai I headed to Pai, also in the North of Thailand. This little place is extremely laid back and hippie - like. Everyone walks around in these chilling pants and batik shirts on no one is in a hurry. I loved this place. Most guest houses were just bamboo huts and after sleeping in a dorm a bit outside of town I decided to move a bit closer to town and I got my own bamboo hut, including a hammock on the balcony. It was so lovely and the view was great. In the first hostel I met an American girl and when we were walking the streets we run into to other travelers (guys) and the four of us have been best friends during our stay there. We did a 9 to 9 cooking class (we all cooked 5 delicious Thai dishes during a quite chaotic course with a bit of a crazy but friendly teacher, a great experience), we had some amazing breakfasts and refreshing beers together, and that's about all we did during a couple of days. Oh, not to forget the reggae festival we went to! I was there only the first of three nights and the weather was quite bad, but we were all happily dancing in the rain with our ponchos.

But the second day of the festival I was leaving Pai. Almost at the end of my travels, I still had to see some new places and although I really enjoyed being in Pai, I decided to go somewhere else. I was doubting, either to go to South thailand (and a full moon party) or North Laos (to Luang Prabang with the slow boat). I decided to do the latter. The two day trip with the slow boat on the Mekong river is listed by many travelers in the top 3 of most beautiful thing they've ever seen so I was really excited to do this. On the other hand I had read some negative reviews as well, by people who got really bored on this boat. I can easily enjoy myself without a lot of entertainment so I didn't think this would be really a problem for me.

I booked a package in Pai which included a trip in the minivan to the border, one night accommodation and breakfast, and the two days on the boat. Our minivan trip was crazy again, with a driver who raced through all the curves, killed a snake and almost a dog as well. The girl sitting next to me was so terrified during this trip! But we all were a bit scared. By the way, suddenly there were so many Dutch! I had never seen so many Dutch people at the same time during my trip. We were supposed to arrive at the border town at midnight, but despite of the driver's drive style we only arrived at the accommodation at 3 am, to find out that the accommodation was full. Luckily the driver brought us somewhere else (and I didn't mind since the guesthouse where we were supposed to stay had really bad reviews) and we could still sleep for 4 hours before we had to go again. Crossing the border, getting visa etc took a while, but was fine. But when it was time to get on the slow boat it started to rain. Not just rain, it was pouring like hell! So everyone got soaked before we reached the boat, we had to go through the mud at the river side and were all cold when we entered the boat. The rest of the day the rain didn't stop, in stead we experienced a thunderstorm as well with strong (and cold!) wind. The boat was open but we could close a kind of plastic curtains to protect us against the rain and wind, but because of this we couldn't see the (apparently beautiful) view anymore all day.

So, this wasn't really a success. At the end of the day (it was pitch dark already) we were dropped off in pak beng. We booked accommodation from a guy who promised us tuktuks to bring us there from the harbor, but there were only trucks wanting us to bring to pakbeng for 100 baht each (which is 2,50 euro), way to much if you consider the fact that we were loaded in the back of a truck like cattle with around 12 people, but we had no choice since it turned out that pakbeng was still a couple of kilometers away. We were afraid that the guy who offered us the accommodation had been lying to us (but he seemed so nice!) and that maybe the guesthouse didn't even exist. Luckily this wasn't the case and we found the accommodation and had a really nice hot shower (hot water is not standard here in South East Asia). It turned out that the town of pakbeng itself also had a harbor, from which we would depart the next day, so probably the captain of the boat just dropped us off too early (to force us to pay the tuktuk service from his friends?).

The positive thing of this day was that we were with so many travelers, all having this disappointing experience together, which created a nice bond between us (and now I'm still spending my time in luang prabang with friends from the boat).

We were so happy the next day when it was not raining anymore! It was still cold and cloudy, but at least this day we could keep the curtains open and enjoy the view. It was indeed beautiful, but less beautiful than I thought it would be, although this was probably because of the grey weather. When the boat stopped at a really small pier (well it wasn't even a pier) the whole group off travelers refused to get off. This was not Luang Prabang! We don't want to be forced to take tuktuks again to the city, we bought tickets to Luang Prabang city, not Luang Prabang province. After a lot of discussion (there was one Thai person who could spreek to the Lao people because the language is similar who translated most of it), even as a group, we lost. Apparently since 8 months this was the new harbor (yeah right) and no boats were going to the city anymore. The captain left the boat and we had no choice but to get off and take the tuktuk. I still don't know of the story of the changed harbor was true or not, but I haven't seen a harbor with those slow boats in the city...

Luang Prabang is a lovely place, though. It's quite small, laid back, has some french colonial influences (nice bakeries, and wine served in the restaurants) and enjoyable markets. I don't regret my decision just to stay here before flying back to Bangkok, in stead of traveling south to vang vieng and vientiane (a popular itinerary) in a hurry. We're unlucky with the weather though. It's nice during the day, although a bit chilly, but at night it gets really cold. So cold you can see your breath. You dutchies will probably laugh at me, being used to the winter cold already, but the thing is I don't have proper clothes with me, I don't even have a jacket!

I'm spending my days here with an Austrian boy (again an Austrian, now I get the feeling that all Austrians are really nice) and we have enjoyed our days walking around, eating really good food, renting bicycles and ending up being invited to volunteer at an English school for Lao students (where we indeed taught some English) and at a random party of coworkers of the forestry of luang prabang, of which we don't know what they are celebrating but it involves a lot of beer. With full moon we had to party of course, being in South East Asia, but because all bars here close at midnight, we end up at the only place open after twelve: the bowling club! It was hilarious.

We returned by tuktuk (because the place was in the middle of nowhere) so next morning I had to pick up my bike where I left it. But misfortune strikes again. The bike that I rented got stolen! The bicycle renting place wants me to pay 100 US dollars for the bike, which was in fact quite crappy and old so in no way worth this amount of money, but they have my passport as a deposit so I have no choice but pay. Though, after some bargaining and using the police as translator I paid with "all the money I have" (at least in my wallet, I was smart enough to tuck some of my other cash away earlier) and ended up paying about 50 euro, which is still way too much, but I was happy that I could have a normal conversation with them (with the handsome policeman as a translator) and nobody was getting angry. Within an hour I had my passport back.

But today me and my Austrian friend wanted to see the waterfall about 30 kilometers from here, and decided to rent bikes again to go there. This time, though, we chose proper mountainbikes. I really enjoyed the view on our way and also having some exercise, until on a downhill road going quite fast...

A huge hole in the road which I saw too late. I flew over my bicycle, ended up on the road with the bicycle on top of me. I was bleeding, but from where? It wasn't my arms which had only minor scratches, but it didn't take me long to find out it was my head! Oh my god, what to do next?
We stopped a car driving in the opposite direction and asked the driver to bring me to the hospital in Luang Prabang, and he was nice enough to do so. He couldn't really speak English but spoke a little French so I have been using the few words I still know in French on my way to the hospital.

Don't worry, I'm fine. Got two stitches in my head and some disinfectant on my other wounds, antibiotics to take to prevent my wounds from getting infected, but I'm feeling fine.
All in all, I haven't been so lucky here in Laos. Guess it's about time to go home.

(By the way, I was planning to do a bicycle tour on my last day in Bangkok, but I'm not sure if I'm still willing to.Bicycles don't seem to like me that much over here... )

Water adventures

It has been a while since my last post, so time for an update!

Oh, I loved Bali and I stayed in Ubud longer than planned. This was partly because it is not so easy to travel around in Indonesia with public transport. Often this is lacking or hard to find and you're quite often forced to take tourist tours (such as the Bromo-Ijen one) or tourist buses/ ferries. The other reason was that I didn't really know where to head to next and since I enjoyed Ubud (and its surrounding ricefields: beautiful views!) I extended my stay with a night... and another one... and another one... which really gave me time to relax and read a book as well. I spent some time with the Austrian couple (really nice people) and found a vegetarian restaurant in the street of our accommodation with delicious food and fruit drinks, where I kept going back to.

One of the many galleries in Ubud

Traditional Balinese dance performance

Rice fields around Ubud

I wanted to visit the Gili islands, Lombok (famous for their beaches and diving, and one of the three islands famous for partying as well) and found that the ferries left from Padangbai, at the east coast of Bali, so I decided to spend some days there first to explore a bit more of Bali than just Ubud. Maybe on a motorbike I could ride along the east coast to see that side of the island. Eventually, I didn't end up doing that, but in stead signed up for a diving course in Padangbai. I had been thinking about diving at the Gilis, but from what I heard around me it was actually better to turn it around: beaches at the Gilis and diving in Padangbai. And how I loved it!! My open water course started with reading some theory and one dive in a pool. The next days I had to read more theory, do an exam, and I did four dives in the sea. At the first dives I really felt like I just entered the Finding Nemo movie, haha ;)

The dive school was situated at a restaurant, where I spent some evenings as well with the other divers. At the end of the three days when I got my licence, they said "welcome to the family" and it really felt a bit like that. Also because it was the last night of a girl who had been there for months, there was a little party that night, and also for me it was a goodbye, since next day I took the fastboat to Gili Trawangan (also Gili T).
Gili T is the largest of the three Gili islands, but you can still cycle around the island in less than one hour (which I actually never did), and is considered the party island. Since the last days in Padangbai it had been raining a lot, I figured it was better to go to an island where there's actually something to do if it rains as well, which I actually didn't need because the weather there was great! I met some couchsurfing people, also met the Austrian couple again and watched some sunsets with them, went snorkeling one afternoon and got quite a bad sunburn (just today I noticed that the skin on my back is coming off), and also did one dive again, to see some big turtles and also white tip reef sharks.

Gili Trawangan

Gili Trawangan

Gili Trawangan

I was doubting again where to go to next (I was a bit indecisive these days..), either to Lombok or back to Bali. The main attraction in Lombok is mount Rinjani, but since the rainy season had started, circumstances for trekking this mountain were probably not ideal anymore. The other thing Lombok is famous for, is beaches, but I already was staying at an island with beautiful beaches. Back to Bali then, where I had already been? What did I really want to do? There was just one answer actually: more diving. So that is what I decided to do, and I immediately knew that if I wanted to go diving again, I wanted to go back to the same dive school in Padangbai, and maybe this time I could see the east coast of Bali on a motorbike as well.
Again, I didn't. I ended up doing two fun dives, the advanced diving course and on my last day, why not, two other fun dives. And I don't regret not seeing the east coast of Bali, because I saw such a beautiful world in stead underwater! But after another five days of two morning dives, afternoon chilling at the restaurant and evenings drinking beer and all these things while being surrounded by the nicest people, it was time to say goodbye. But there are no last dives, so I'd say: "till next time, beautiful Padangbai". My body and my bank account might have been happy that I left, though.

After-diving afternoon entertainment ;)

For the people who don't have facebook, here a video of one of my dives:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNvEeh9ZcmA
Oh, and one of the days on the boat heading to our dive site I was so surprised! Who did I see there? A post-doc from the lab where I did my last internship at the NKI! What a small world... (she didn't even recognize me at first, since I'm blond again and while doing my internship I was a brunette :p)

Padangbai

I flew from Bali to Bandung, because from there I had my flight to Thailand, but I planned two days in between those flights to say hi again to Yudi and Hendri in Cianjur. Had a nice (but short) time there again which made me realize even more that the downside of traveling is having to say goodbye too many times to all the nice people you meet. But I was ready for new adventures. After a brief stop at the airport of Singapore, I arrived in Bangkok, Thailand.

Thailand, however, welcomed me with a food poisoning with the unfortunate timing of being on the night train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, so I didn't really have a good night. The first day in Chiang Mai I spent in bed with a book and luckily next day I was already feeling better, ready to jump from a 15m high cliff into the water. I'm staying at this typical backpacker hostel, where almost every day activities are organized for the guests staying here and they really try to convince you to join. For me it is a little bit too much about getting drunk every night, but well, whatever you like.

Chiang Mai is really full of temples, of which I saw a couple, and then decided it was time to taste some real thai food and have some vitamins again, so I was lucky to find a place that served both. A delicious fruit juice and a thai green curry which was actually a bit too spicy for me, but still good. Happy to notice I was getting hungry again, because even though I was feeling alright, the days before I didn't really eat. And I needed to be better as well, because I was going to trek for three days, in the jungle around Chiang Mai. The tour I booked was a little touristy and included an elephant camp as well, where you could ride on an elephant (I felt bad for these animals, though), but it was nice to have a good workout on our hikes, and of course beautiful views. We slept in really basic bamboo huts up in the mountains and could see thousands of stars at night. Unbelievable that people are actually really living there this way.

Temple in Chiang Mai

Temple in Chiang Mai

Our guides were the craziest tour guides that I have ever seen. The first thing they did when we arrived at the village where we were going to stay, was taking their bong and smoke some weed. The next thing was trying to convince everyone to try some of their magic mushrooms that night. And the next evening they called over the 'doctor' of the village, for some opium. Haha, is this representative for a Thai life style? These guys would really be disappointed if they ever come to the Netherlands, I think, and see how 'normal' this country is ;)

One of the tour guides, magic mushrooms on the table

At the elephant camp

One of the views

Where we were sleeping

The last day of our trekking included white water rafting and bamboo rafting, which was nice but quite short... after lunch we returned to Chiang Mai and I was dropped off at my hostel. Forgot to ask contact information of any of the other participants of the tour, so probably will never see them again, which is sometimes also a strange thing about traveling....

Maybe it was because I became sick, but a couple of days a go for the first time I actually was glad that I will be returning home soon. I still enjoy my travels, having no worries except for where to go next to, but I'm starting to miss home as well... So see you all soon!