Lost In Laos - Day 6

This post starts with breakfast!

23 Dec 09, 1100hrs, Nong Khai Friendship Bridge

The ride couldn't have got off to a more inauspicious start. Only a couple of kilometres (barely 1 or 2 in fact!) from Udon Thani, we got stopped at a roundabout by the police. With absolutely no idea what we’ve done wrong, we could only play the tourist card (act blur all the way) and deny everything to get ourselves out of a bribe. It was really one too many over the past few days.

Then he asked for our driving license. You could almost hear the cue for that moment in silence.

So it was that I had forgotten to bring my driving license and that reality hit me before entering Laos. Although the Thai police let us off, not knowing what to ask from us, a self-doubt had developed. along the ride to Nong Khai What if the Laos customs asked for my license before entry or that it suddenly became a requirement to have it before entering another country? Blimey, this is hitting me hard....

The Laos Customs at Nong Khai has left me with a good impression. Despite looking like we owed them money, they obliged to every request and question we have and even offered to bring us around the customs to settle our paperwork for the import of the bikes. Just like Thailand, Laos also worked with a rather odd system in keeping track of all foreign vehicles in the country, that is, by recording every vehicle in and out of the country as an import or export. Because of this, the paperwork can become very tedious for non-neighboring countries and Larry and myself scooted from booth to booth.

Nong Khai Friendship Bridge

With Laos immigration cards

Nong Khai Customs is also notorious for randomly deciding not to allow foreign registered vehicles into the country, so we accepted the fact that since they gone through the trouble of bringing us around, we are most likely going to get through. The just concluded SEA Games probably helped opened up the country a little and aided us in our bid to enter from this Friendship Bridge. But, being the carrot heads we were, we found out later that we paid extra for something that wasn’t necessary at the Chong Mek border down south. Oh well, as long as we’re in Laos, we are more than happy to begin the 2^nd phase of our trip...Laos, here we come!!

Finally on our way to getting lost!

The first thing you will notice about Laos is that we need to ride on the right side of the road. At the time of this writing (26 Dec 09), I have found myself riding in the opposite direction on several occasions! This wasn’t a problem for us in Vietnam last year as we were led by a guide and the bikes in Vietnam seem to be traveling as they wish anyway. Larry was particularly worried as he hadn’t expected it but I was sure he’ll adapt to it well.

A funny little sign to tell you to stay in the right lane

over the Friendship Bridge...

...to a very dusty Laos PDR. And this is considered mild...

The roads in Laos are a very dusty lot. It is not very pleasant to be behind another vehicle, getting caked in fine dust and grime. Nonetheless, we looked forward to finally meeting up the rest of the group in Vientiane. It’s been 3 long and anxious days, and we can’t wait to get the ride started.

Vientiane, being the capital of Laos, is expected to be decked in festivities for Christmas. But as we found out later, Christmas is not a holiday in Laos! Even the presence of farangs (foreigners) failed to give the pubs and eateries any hint of the Christmas that is to come. Vientiane is also a surprisingly cold and quiet capital city. Being the capital, one would expect a flurry of activities and hordes of tourists, but the feeling one gets from Vientiane is similar to that of Hatyai.

a shophouse in the capital

one of the nicer looking hotels

Much like a border outpost town. So many more towns in Thailand are livelier than this place. The city of Vientiane is gearing up to be a major disappointment, i fear.

our lunch!

A Herge inspired cafe bringing us wonderful tintin paintings..

In Tin Tin cafe

yes, we were very hungry

A very stupid challenge

The first 3 finally meets up!!!

not exactly...we were not fast enough to fly.. :)

The eventual meet up with the first group was an extremely happy affair. All of us have traveled together before but usually as members of Kruzer’s ride, with a fixed itinerary. This is the first time we are organizing one for ourselves and the group dynamics may still run into some hiccups, but as some of us have known each other for 5 years, we do not expect it to be a major problem. It was just a matter of 1 to 2 days of establishing one self in the group.

back to the cafe again. it's the best looking one ard, so we didn't bother with another

my second beer

We have decided to stay in Vientiane for another day. Lun, Cs and Dylan have traveled for several days in a row and having an extra day of rest and sight-seeing would serve the body well. Racheal also have a couple of ex-colleagues from APB stationed here at Vientiane and they are more than willing to bring us around for dinner and drinks.

Jacques is a most gracious and jovial host. With the innate ability to down a mug of beer in 2 gulps and along with that, copious amount of the bitter, he’ll make a good wedding brother. He is also able to make the most conservative of strangers warm up to him, so it was great that everyone had enjoyed the first night’s dinner of Thai food and exploration around Vientiane’s various beer and food outlets. It was also from him that we learn about the routes that we are going to take in the days ahead and some facts about Laos that enabled us to appreciate the country better.

a thai restaurant - haven't had it this good for a couple of days

on to market visits to beer joints in Vientiane

a local coffeeshop! filled with nearby factory workers

and delicious minced meat

the coffeeshop

second round at cowboy cafe! where I drank myself silly, downing one after another in a single go

the remaining cavalry

i don't remember taking this picture though..

Cs was getting a little sick this whole evening and it probably came from some food he ate. Both him and Dylan had fallen sick earlier in the week and they reckoned that it was the Laotian food causing them indigestion. So off they went while the rest of us stayed a while longer to accompany our hosts.

Hopefully things will be ok tomorrow. And another day for exploring Vientiane

Lost in Laos - Day 5

22 Dec 2009, 0400hrs, Somewhere near Hua Hin (I reckon)

The train ride was excellent. Even though it was just a 2^nd class sleeper cabin, the beds were comfy, there were draw curtains for privacy and the whole cabin was just silent. It was already time for bed at 8pm when the sky outside went off and the people in the train switched off. I had intended to write some more in the evening but there's something in the air...makes you go drowsy and sleepyyy....or maybe it wasn't the air, nah...more like the beer....

yea....good night babes at 7pm!

too early to sleep

problem with sleeping early? u wake up damn early...at 4am to be precise..

I woke up too early but that's a blessing in disguise. I never felt more comfortable and fresh, pounding away at the keyboard of my netbook.

Getting out of the train soon!

Let's get out of here!!

22 Dec 2009, 1000hrs, Bangkok Train Station (Near Chatuchak)

Again, porters asked for more money. This time, 600 B for unloading the 3 bikes. By now, even I was getting irritated and patience was wearing thin. We were running out of baht due to these unforeseen expenses and still they clamored for more. It was either a waiting game or a quick unload but we weren’t going to let them go so easily and knowing that there was no advantage to them leaving the bikes on the cabin, earnest negotiations began. In the end, we just shoved 300B into the head porter’s hands and all 3 of us muttered a few words to wave him off. Well, if you can’t convince them, confuse them!

the babies waiting to get unloaded

the unloaded ones

finally loading the boxes up the bikes

I hate the pushing...

but weijie loves it...grrr

With the bikes down and the train an hour late in arriving at Bangkok, we quickly made our way out to the streets and decided to head out of the capital as soon as we can. Fortunately, it was easy enough to get out and we made haste after a quick lunch at the petrol station and bade Weijie farewell as he veered northwards while we headed to the Northeast. He was to head up to Phitsanoluk and decide what to do next. With numbers and emails exchanged on the train (www.rideupnorth.blogspot.com), we wished him luck and I think he‘s pretty happy to have many pictures of him taken on the roads! It is also possible that we may cross paths at Huayxai but we’ll see.

victory is mine!

Weijie's leaving for phitsanulok enroute to Chiang Mai while we head north east

Udon Thani’s next and probably another 6 to 7 hours away. The highways in Thailand are not sealed and U turning cars, crossing bicycles and pedestrians are common, so it’s better to be safe by not traveling as we do on the Malaysian North-South highway.

stopping along highway 2 - alongside Lam Takhong Dam

larry reads maps to get lost

interesting thangka?

The only interesting thing about the sights to Udon Thani are man made ones. After passing through a few kilometres of scarecrows lined up along the highway (presumably by folks specialising in making scarecrows), the next town would be one selling a variety of kites, with the stalls lining up the highway. Well, if I could even bring this up in this blog, just goes to show how boring the highways can be...sigh..at least we avoided the stretch from Hatyai to Bangkok...

Udon Thani is as dead a town as it can be by 8pm. The only attraction is an airforce base used by the US during WWII (to bomb laos but really, is THAT considered an attraction??), there was nothing to entice us with.

23 Dec 09, 0800hrs, Udon Thani

The only interesting thing we came across is the morning market with an amazing (not really amazing but exotic!) variety of local grubs, ranging from fried rats (it could be field mice fed with the finest grains but you never know), live crabs sold on sticks, crickets, grasshoppers.

snakeheads

hmmm..yummy..served on a banana leaf!

just dip in hot water and watch it turn red!

met my good friend over at Udon Thani..

Thai pho..tasty, fresh and most impt of all, homely

With breakfast over, we hurried back to our accommodation. After 3 days of traveling and endless problems, we finally get to cross into Laos. Fingers crossed and hope for the best.

Lost in Laos - Day 4

Dec 21, 2009, 0500hrs, Hatyai

Anxious about the cargo space, I awoke early and made sure we were there on time. We were early by half an hour but it didn’t matter. All that matters now is the train space. I had a good look at the train station as Pom brought us to the platform that the train was arriving in. It was filled with people selling an assortment of fruits, food and nuts. We even had to help a lady lift her entire stall up a curb to the platform. Yet surprisingly, it was dead quiet except for the whispered chatter of the sellers. Perhaps the early morning Monday blues is strong in this part of the world as well.

As the train pulled in, we realized why the food sellers came so early. As the throngs of people lethargically slumbered out of the trains, many headed for their breakfast. With Pom leading the way, we went straight to the cabin master. The heavily moustached cabin master looked at us from his container with suspicion and refused to confirm any space. You could probably hear our hearts plonk onto the cold, hard concrete of the train platform. Pom had a desperate look and went up to his cabin to speak to him privately.....

A few minutes later, Pom came down smiling and we knew he was happy with the outcome. We are to come back again at 1200hrs with our full gear and bikes. All we needed was 600B for the cabin master’s services. Hooray!! and now for breakfast...

Dim Sum at Hatyai is a veryyy cheap affair. each plate costs something like SGD 20 cents?

Porridge and noodles as well..slurpp!

The paperwork was tedious and an extremely long drawn affair. The cost computation for the bikes was also complicated but Racheal handled that well. Both of us realized that many of the train station personnel treated females with more dignity and grace than dirty, grime-filled and aggressive looking guys like us, so she went ahead with the paperwork while we unpacked all the boxes. Only the bikes are going up to the container, the rest we carry.

unloading and stripping the bikes of other luggages - bike to go in "clean"

Unpacking

All our luggage to be hand carried!!

Through the negotiations, I realized our typical Singapore adversarial approach to negotiation must look as hateful to the Thais as much as I hate it when Caucasians try to apply pressure tactics to squeeze a concession or two in contract discussions. If I were in the Thai train operator's shoes, I would probably be annoyed at everyone crowding around me when I only needed to speak to a rep. Seeing that we are clearly the ones in need, bargaining may also prove to be counter-productive. We could play the waiting game but our schedule had no time for that. Our only hope is that they don't quote us ridiculous prices from the onset.

Taking it step by step

With more coffee money paid for the porters and fixers, the total cost for each bike came up to almost SGD100 each. The money may be seen as money wasted but I’m inclined to think otherwise. The wear and tear, petrol, fatigue of riding the most boring stretch of Thailand’s highway 4 and saving a night in the hotel is certainly more than the 100 bucks for each bike and we are guardedly optimistic of our chances of loading onto the train.

Waiting for the time to load

Lifting the bike is an amazing affair. Human power all the way and the buckets of sweat was expended for these 3 bikes. As we bade Pom farewell, we loaded onto our own cabin and off we go.

Here's a video of the bikes being uploaded. Just realised I have another video of the first group's bike lift which was much scarier than mine! But wld take some time to upload...so just enjoy this for the time being...

Luggage loaded in double quick time

The train experience in Thailand is quite unlike that of China when me and Racheal took the controversial Qinghai-Tibet train to Lhasa from Szechuan. Although the trains in Thailand look much older, they are well maintained and are frequently mopped. And more importantly, the people on the train are much more friendlier to tourists.

The look and ruckus of hassled newcomers to the train is an irritating affair for people already settled in the train, and yet the locals assisted in pointing out our seats to us and offered to change seats when they found that Larry and Tricia were seated separately. Indeed, with all our boxes and luggage, our cabin looked a terrible mess and we took almost 20 minutes to settle down and have the boxes neatly stacked.

the narrow passageway but spacious private corners

finally, all the boxes are securely stacked and time to take a breather

We had 4 or 5 of this really good beer

WeiJie's wondering what his next step should be

Looking back, things were much simpler then in 2007 when me and Racheal did the solo ride up to the Golden Triangle. Perhaps ignorance of the unknowing can be a blessing in disguise, especially when I only had a broken footpeg from a fall near Doi Ang Khang. But the last 2 days of our 16 days turned out to be one of the most problematic ride I ever had.

But the past few days have also shown that we are extremely lucky to be surrounded by good people who are ready to lend a helping hand anytime. My thanks to Raymond and Nick for their offers to help and constantly showing concern throughout the time we were stuck along the highways. Rosli for organizing a quick courier up, leading me to a contact in Penang and diagnosing the problem in the early morning hours. William Tan for the most obvious reasons, without whom, we may still be stuck in Penang now. The good mechanics along the way in Tapah and Penang, especially Ryan for going the extra mile.

But the most important people are my companions who are most encouraging.

Tomorrow, we finally ride northwards.

Cheers to that!