So it's been awhile since my last post, and I know I kinda left it on a cliffhanger so I'm sure you are all dying to know what happened with my passport. Well I got a new one. I spent 5 days in Vientiane, Laos, running around town from embassy to police office to foreign ministry, bribing Lao officials, waiting arbitrary amounts of time while they were supposedly working on my case, whatever that means. At one point I spent an hour waiting in the passport office of the immigration police, with 3 very stern officials in full communist regalia, while they reviewed my papers, while a TV played Thai soap operas in the corner and I could see they were much more concerned with who cheated on who on Raeng Ngao than they were with my international status. So after waiting an hour they told my to come back the next day because they needed more time. It was an interesting experience, and I got to see how a corrupt communist country works from the inside.
Eventually I got my passport, a new exit visa, and a Vietnam visa, and after 5 days I was finally ready to leave Vientiane, a grungy little city with very little to do, so I was pretty excited to leave. And to make things better Arni arrived in Vientiane, and will be traveling with me for the rest of my trip. I'm sure most people reading this blog know Arni, but for those of you who don't, he's a good friend and teammate from college, and will be one of my roommates when I move to Palo Alto after the end of this trip. Anyway it's great to have Arni along, and he'll be showing up from time to time in the blog I'm sure.
Ok now on to the pictures. Not too much from Vientiane, as there wasn't much to see/do there, but there are a bunch from Kung Lo cave and the 4000 islands, my two final stops in Laos.
Delicious dinner in Vientiane, I decided to splurge and go to a nice restaurant, after eating street food for most meals. This treat cost me about 15 dollars. Fried fish in spicy tamarind sauce, green mango salad, eggplant dip, spicy tomato dip, sticky rice, and a mangosteen-rhambutan-lime fruit shake.
The Vientiane night market. Touristy clothes for cheap.
My favorite fruit shake spot, which I went to about 10 times in my 5 days in Vientiane.
A mangosteen shake, which I had never seen anywhere before this place. It was amazing.
The COPE center, which helps victims of unexploded ordinance (UXO) and other disabled people across Laos to recover by providing them with rehab services and prosthetic limbs. I talked a lot last blog about the problem of UXO left in Laos by America in the Vietnam War, so I'll spare you the history lesson again. But the COPE center had an amazing exhibition on the problem and on those who have been affected by UXO. They are really doing great work trying to help fix a very difficult problem, and I would really encourage all of you to check out their website and make a donation. This is a problem that we as Americans caused, so it is the least we can do now to help raise awareness of the problem and give them our support.
These are examples of "bombies," the small bombs that are released from cluster bombs that America dropped all over Laos during the Vietnam War. All of these bombies come from a single cluster bomb, and it is estimated that about 30% of all bombies did not explode when they were originally dropped, and are still laying dormant today, ready to explode on unsuspecting Laotians. The Convention on Cluster Munitions is an international treaty which prohibits the use of cluster bombs, and has been signed by 112 countries. The US is not one of them.
A bad picture of some of the incredible figures of the damage done by the US to Laos during the war.
The red dots represent bombing raids on Laos.
The Lao Arch de Triumph.
This sign is under the arch. Apparently they aren't very impressed by this monster of concrete.
After finally leaving Vientiane, Arni and I went to Kong Lo village, which is a small village right in the center of Laos, located beside a huge system of caves. Almost all of the land in this area is covered by rice farms.
Our room in Kong Lo. I got the dinosaur sheets, definitely a win for me.
The entrance to Kung Lo cave. At the cave we took a small canoe with a motor attached for about 7 km through the cave, only lit by our guides' headlamps.
No turning back now.
Just me, Arni, the 2 boat drivers, and our little canoe, surrounded by 7 km of darkness. It was incredible. I heard it described, and this was a perfect description I thought, as the closest real world embodiment of the Greek underworld. I felt like we were being ferried down the river Styx into Hades. It was an amazingly eerie experience.
Some stalactites and stalagmites.
The light at the end of the tunnel.
After seeing the cave, we decided to go chill out in Si Phan Don, or 4000 Islands, for a couple days. One of the 3 tuk tuks we took to get there we shared with about 4000 chilies.
Some rice farmers we encountered right outside of Si Phan Don.
My hammock, where I spent a large amount of my time on Don Det, the one of the 4000 islands that we decided to stay on.
The view from our bungalow. It is called 4000 islands because it is where the Mekong River widens around a series of islands, many of which are no more than bushes sticking out of the water. And the water level varies a few meters between the rainy and dry seasons, so about half of the islands disappear for half of the year.
The 4000 islands are known for the beautiful sunrises and sunsets. I took this picture from my bungalow. No filters or anything, it was actually that color. The whole world was purple for a few minutes, it was stunning.
Another sunset pic.
A praying mantis and a gecko square off on the roof of the bar we were in one night. The praying mantis won.
Arni and I chilling on a bamboo footbridge overlooking the flowing Mekong. We did a full day kayak tour, which was amazing, and we got to spend hours out on the Mekong in our kayaks, looking at villages, waterfalls, and even spotting a few of the rare Irrawaddy dolphin, the world's only freshwater dolphin. We saw 3 or 4 of them on the at the southern tip of the islands, on the border of Cambodia. Only about 80 dolphins live in this area of the world, all on the Mekong, so it was cool to be able to see a few.
Khone Phapeng, the biggest waterfall, by volume, in Southeast Asia.
Arni and I hanging out at the waterfall between kayak sessions.
After about 2 weeks in Laos, which was an incredibly beautiful country filled with some of the friendliest people on the planet, we are off to Vietnam for about 2 weeks. I am currently sitting in a hotel in Hoi An, and we have been in Vietnam for about 4 days, so I have a lot to write about already. But it's been hard to find time and good wifi, so it will have to wait. Hopefully I'll get a new post up soon, cause Vietnam's been awesome so far. But until then,
Sohk dee der
No comments:
Post a Comment