Nyaung Shwe, Myanmar

One hour out of Yangon on the number 43 bus is the Yangon main bus station; It's more like a small town populated by buses. The amount of people that smile and wave is incredible. Everyone offers to help carry my bag and ask to see my ticket, then ushering me deeper into muddy bus town; how anyone knows where anything is here is beyond me! Directed by countless people I arrive at a concrete room housing the bus company I'm travelling with. Once checked on I grab some noodles and watch the world go by for an hour. There's no other tourists to be seen anywhere.

The bus is described as a sleeper but only as in you might be able to sleep, sitting up, while the bus bounces and judders, all night. The tilt on my seat doesn't seem to work too well, but the lady in front tilts hers back fine. I use this setup to my advantage and wedge my head between the back of her headrest and my bag, which is now on my lap. The bus stops so many times, all through the night; after a few times I don't even bother getting off the bus. You can see the rest stops from about 4km away as they have lasers, neon signs, flashing full-size palm trees and loud music from a giant Samsung TV.

I'm woken up abruptly and told this is my stop. I blearily look at my watch (5am) and get off the bus. I now have to go 15km to Nyaung Shwe and the only option (short of waiting hours for a bus in the rain) is to get a taxi. As I'm alone I reluctantly stump up 7,000 Kyat (locals can apparently take this journey for 500) and pay a $5 entrance fee to the lake area, as it's a national park. I feel like I've been fleeced!

I get a room at the Nandawunn for $11 a night (down from $16). Nyaung Shwe is said to be the the most touristic place in Myanmar and the prices reflect this. The focus of the tourism is a beautiful lake surrounded by misty mountains peppered with hundreds of Pagodas. The lake is 22km long but you can't stroll around it as there's no paths. People get about on boats, and the houses and businesses around the lake and rivers are all stilted. I join 3 Chinese people and hire a boat and driver for the day (3,000 Kyat each). The boats are long and fast; we shoot down the river and into the lake past a huge welcome sign. We approach traditional fishermen who row using their right foot in a figure-eight motion, while standing. It looks extremely difficult but leaves their hands free to collect or distribute the nets. We leave the south side of the lake and enter a network of muddy fast flowing rivers. The driver skillfully manouvers the long boat around tight corners and through narrow stilted villages. The trip is well worth the money, here's what we saw;

 - Cigar making
 - Cotton weaving
 - Silk weaving
 - Boat making
 - Lotus weaving
 - Silversmith
 - Food market
 - Paper making
 - Various temples
 - Jumping cat monastery

Yep, Monks, in their spare time, have taught the cats to jump through hoops, for treats. There must be 10 or 11 cats of varying sizes and skills in jumping. One in particular is obviously the king and gracefully flies through hoop after hoop.  When the cats aren't jumping they sleep and wash amongst the many Buddhas. At the end of the day we dart north across the lake smoking some hand-rolled cigars and back up the river into Nyaung Shwe. Me and a Chinese girl on the boat learn we share the same birthday and perform the "birthday twin" hug, then part company.

It rains a lot in the rainy season. I didn't see blue sky once. This does however mean fewer tourists; there's barely anyone here. Umbrella's are essential, as is ducking into a cafe when a particularly heaviy downpour appears. One of these cafe's was Indra; a tiny little Indian with four tables and a warm welcome from Miss Indra, her daughters and brother. The first time here I ate a mutton curry with chapathi and chilli and mango side dishes, the second time I had a tandoori; both delicious. Speaking with Miss Indra's brother he talks about how he had drawn plans for a website, but doesn't know how to put one together. As the food's so good I offer the services of Bishshat to build the site and get some free chai ;)

Waiting for the bus out I managed to catch some of the Olympics in a little cafe. It was women's cycling. Despite the rain I had a deep hankering to be back in London; I've cycled those exact streets many times. The Brazilian leader was causing much merriment among the Burmese men I was sitting with!

Women's cycling - good spectator sport

You can see all of my photos here

Vientiane, Laos

Wow. This must be the most laid back city I've ever visited. You have to slap yourself as a reminder that this is a city. I found an oddly-named hostel called DouangDeuane2 and got a room for 40,000 kip per night (10,000 kip cheaper than the place next door). The room was bright and airy and empty! I had the 4 bed dorm to myself apart from the very last night when 3 others checked in. I relaxed straight into the vibe and didn't do much at all, so this might be a short post you'll be glad to hear! I certainly spent a lot of time in the room, or cafe's, catching up with this diary and uploading as the wi-fi was excellent. There's a lot of money here (the complete opposite of rural Laos) - the locals drive around in posh cars, the kids ride posh bikes, posh dogs are paraded along the riverside and keep-fitters don their posh lycra for evening workouts. The French influence is everywhere so coffee shops, baguette stalls and bakeries are in abundance.

left..2..3..4..right..2..3..4..

Saucise the dog with owner Ake

I randomly bumped into a couple I met in India so spend a nice few days sitting about, drinking a beer or two, playing some pool and munching some delicious noodles or larb, or a strange stretched chicken on a stick, with sticky rice. We took a bumpy bus journey 25km along the border to the Xleng Khuan Buddhist sculpture park. Built by Luang Pu in 1958 it's a completely fascinating place, combining Hindu and Buddhist figures. As you walk in there's a giant concrete ball; you enter it through a demons mouth into hell where there's hundreds of small odd (and mostly broken) sculptures depicting such a place. You then climb up some steep blocks to earth then up again to heaven; the last level is a small opening onto the roof for a great view over the park.

View of the park from the top of the ball 

The ball

Hindu deities on the side of the ball

Vishnu isn't going to be happy!

120m reclining Buddha! Too big to take a complete picture of!

I hired a bike one day, a "turbo fairy", and cruised around the city like the locals do (wrong way up roads, on pavements, crossing red lights). I visited the beautifully maintained Hophrake temple that used to house the emerald Buddha (which is actually jade) until the Thai's stole it (back?). I then cycle over to Patuxai (victory arch) which was built to commemorate the people that died in the struggle to gain independence from France. I went to the post office and posted a parcel of goodies home then I cycled as far as I could along the Mekong up the Laos / Thai border before the ridiculous heat got to me and I retreated back to the  room!

Cruising

Creative graffiti

Arch of Triumph

Hophrake

My wheels!

Mighty Mekong - Thailand on the other side

You can view all of my pictures here

Don Det, Laos

Saying goodbye to beautiful Cambodia we pile into another minibus (which had some strange smoking mushroom graffiti on the windows) and head off to Stung Treng, a nice little border town perched on the Mekong, where we have to wait for the next bus. We have some noodles from a street stall while hanging about for a couple of hours then our minivan turns up. By now there's far more people than seats in the van. Taking up the back two rows are some bags of things heading to Laos; the seats in front of that contain Talitha, another girl and two guys from Denmark; in the front is the driver then me and a Monk sharing the passenger seat. Although not comfortable in any way it was certainly another journey to remember.

We pull up at the tiny border post - there's no-one else at all here, just a few police in small buildings and a few sitting around in the shade. We fill out a quick form and give it, with our passports and two photographs, to the hand in the window. They shuffle the papers about for a while then hand the documents back, gesturing us to the next hand in a window. The visa costs $35 for 30 days. There should be no other charges but they decide they're going to charge us $2 to stamp the visa! Not wanting to pay this unofficial fee out of pure principle I tell them that I only had enough for the $35 entry, so they tell me I should go back into Cambodia! What can you do?? I root about in my pocket, produce $1 in change, put it on the counter in front of the hand and tell him that is all I have. He takes the change and stamps my passport. I head over the border and into the waiting minibus with a ridiculously BLUE roof.

Our Cambodia minibus - Monk having a quick smoke

The Cambodia / Laos border

The customs windows 

Access granted

The BLUE roof of our Laos minibus

On the road again we get settled... for 10 minutes then we stop in a little town. The driver ushers us out to walk but doesn't really explain where we're walking to. The road in the town is under repair, and is non-existent, so we assume we're walking to another minibus at the other side. We dodge the building materials and the residents dodging the building materials, walk a little further and there it is, the Mekong, flowing lazily around 4000 little islands, one of which is Don Det.

Our little long tail boat nips through the islands and lands on a sandy shore framed with quiet restaurants. We jump out and have a quick drink in one of the restaurants, admiring the beautiful Mekong. I'm approached by a tiny kitty when leaving the restaurant, possibly the smallest cat (that's not a kitten) I've ever seen. I name him Oscar and promise to see him later with some food (I never found him again). There's no roads on Don Det, just dusty paths between shops and bungalows down each side of the river bank. You can walk from the eatst to the west side of the island in under five minutes. We look for accommodation on the sunrise side, but find nothing. We find the kind of place we're looking for on the sunset side; two little bungalows right on the river in a resort called Tena, for 30,000 a night. Extremely basic, literally a bed in a hut, mosquito net, a fan and a hammock on the balcony; toilets are in a separate block. Talitha only stays one night and moves to a nicer place, preferring to have a toilet in the room. I'm a tramp, and will sleep anywhere (as long as there's a mosquito net). We dump the bags, have a shower and relax in the melting sunshine. That night we meet a Canadian guy, who's wearing a t-shirt with a logo that later becomes a big part of my life (keep reading for more on this ;) - he's travelling with a half-Vietnamese girl who puts to rest the little mystery of the little question-marks on some Vietnamese characters. We laze about drinking with them for ages. Later we come across a little cinema where you slob out on the floor with a beer and "happy" chocolate brownie; we watch Pineapple Express; which was extremely entertaining! (because of the brownie?). You can get anything "happy" here: shakes, cookies, brownies, pizza - you name it. It just means it's had a liberal sprinkling of cannabis when made. Take it slowly though they're pretty strong; half a brownie each was more than enough!

Everyone out the minibus! walk this way.. 

Arrival at Don Det

Laos Laos (Whiskey) and coke and some mint and lemon drink

I'm going to take you home

This is where is spent most of my time in Don Det

Laos sunsets are spectacular

  The next few days for me are spent reading, writing and relaxing; literally doing nothing. Don Det had a strange effect on me: I'm not sure I've ever been that lazy in my life! Talitha was, on the other hand, in party mode, so she darted off here and there! One day we hired some bikes and cycled to the waterfall on the next island down, paying a small charge on the bridge to cross. The waterfall's not like any I'd seen on the trip so far, it was a powerful Mekong monster crashing over sharp rocks. You can't get particularly near it for the "DANGER" signs! Truly awesome; and this is in the dry season; it must be scary in the wet season. After this we ride over and check out a viewing spot for the rare Mekong dolphins. We didn't see any, despite the many suggestive, badly photo-shopped pictures of tourists frollocking with them, so we head back to Don Det.

That evening we tried a little tubing, with one tube. We tried on the west side of the island, attempting to swim upstream with little progress; constantly aware of the raging waterfall 5km down the river! We leave the water and walk up the north side, hoping we can get into the current at the top point; and float with the current down the west side, to our bungalows. This also failed as the fast current splits on the north west side pushing us east around the side of the island with no places to exit the river. Still, it was great fun splashing about for a while, and at least I can say I did a little tubing in Laos! 

Our last few days together before we part company

The beach a little further down from the waterfall

FROLLOCK WITH THE DOLPHINS LIKE THIS!

Deforestation

 

Totally tubular

Here's the sunset from our final night - no words can describe it, and these pictures certainly don't do it justice.

Ban Lung, Cambodia

We try and wake Emily up to say goodbye, as she's heading back to the UK, but it's impossible so we just leave. We're picked up by bus #1 at 5:30am (without checking our tickets) and we're taken to a hub where the main bus would leave from, where they decided to check our tickets. Wrong bus! We're quickly whisked back on bus #2 to where we started just in time for the correct bus to collect us. Quite a relief! We get on bus #3 (making sure they check our tickets) and we're taken out of town to a dirt patch, where we switch to bus #4. This has all the usual features you could want while bus travelling through Asia including Arctic aircon and deafening Thai karaoke DVD's. The countryside up here in Northern Cambodia is barren; scorched trees and burning land make way for huge rubber tree plantations for the Chinese, who help by building roads up and through Laos to China. This journey should take us 12 hours in total at a cost of $16 and at 3pm we're already nine hours in and we stop at a town called Kratie. A standard town with a simple bus station, beautiful temple, and some street vendors and cafe's - I like it. We're told bus #5 isn't going to leave until there's enough people to fill it so we head out and grab some delicious pork and rice from a little family home/shop around the corner.

Bus #5 - with driver waiting patiently for people (bus #4 behind)

Once done we head back to see the situation; some more people have gathered but still not enough to go so we wait. There's a family waiting also, and their 3 year old driving his toy truck around in the dirt. The wheel falls off and Talitha pops it back on for him. We have a drink, pet the local wildlife and chat to a local who told us he's contracted malaria in Ban Lung and wouldn't go back there.Well, he's still alive, so that's good!

I  think around 6pm we finally get enough people crammed into the back and cabin of the bus and we set off with the setting sun. Inside at the front is a motorbike (of course) and strapped to the back is another motorbike. To exit the bus for toilet you must use the back windows. I'm right at the back-left corner, pressed up against the seat in front; luckily I have a window and I can put my head out in my usual dog-like fashion. Poor Talitha is crammed next to me so I have her bag on my lap. Next to her is a stocky English chap we met on the way; equally as crammed. I truly love these journeys; they're far more memorable than an easy journey on a comfortable coach; I find myself smiling at the sheer ridiculousness as the bus bumps its way along the unlit road through Northern Cambodia. I had a great moment with my head out of the window, trees dashing past, wind massaging my hair follicles, looking up at the brilliant stars and listening to Rano Pano by Mogwai - everything was perfect.

Everything was perfect, until we arrived at Ban Lung and the bus driver (after dropping everyone else where they wanted to go) decided to take us to his friends hotel. Bearing in mind it was now midnight and we'd been travelling for 17 hours we firmly said thanks but we're good, and we'd like to go to the place we'd booked. He refused to take us, so having no idea where we are we refused to leave the bus until we were there. Reluctantly the driver eventually dropped us off and we unloaded the bags and woke the lodge owner up. We'd booked a room for two but had now adopted Josh. Luck would have it they had a triple cabin (double and single bed) for $15 where we crashed out, big style.

Treetop eco lodge - triple room

Ban Lung is a busy working town with a friendly feel, the occasional tourist can be seen wondering about. It's pierced by an unusually wide main road and surrounded by lush green forests. The eco lodge is perched on a hillside above a valley amongst the trees. The walkways to the cabins weave through the forest. Taking breakfast on the open wooden balcony is lovely. The owners, their kids and their pets all hang out there with you. The dogs are particularly cute.

The mother - Ludu

Walkways

Communal area

We meet an Australian girl and grab some bicycles to head to a volcano lake for a swim. It's a quick jaunt up the main road to get there then off a side road, down some steep hills then up, up, up! Working up a little sweat on this 7km ride feels great - it's been a while since I've done much cycling. We arrive at the lake much to the happiness of some local kids who hug our legs and laugh hysterically! The lake is a perfectly circular 3km surrounded by thick shrub and forest. There is a path all the way around with main bathing points, all containing happy locals having picnics. We find a spot a little further around with some fallen trees we can jump off into the clear warm waters. I've not been fresh water swimming for a while; you dramatically notice the extra work required to stay float when not in salt water! 

Josh in a tree 

That evening we get a now typical Cambodian thunderstorm followed by a beautiful sunset, we sit about in the communal area and catch up with emails, chat and be entertained by the children and animals. Earlier that day we'd seen the family eating a delicious looking feast and we asked if we could have this for dinner, over anything on the menu. They agreed and went to the market to get the ingredients. It was huge plate of vegetables and edible flowers, with some smaller dishes of spicy fish and cooked vegetables with rice. Very delicious and filling.

Next day Josh has left for Laos leaving the three of us. We ask the Australian girl if she want to move to the single bed in our triple room, but she declines, needing her own space, so we move to another double room, nowhere near as nice in a series of rooms but still good for $5 each. Later we're back on the bikes again, this time searching for waterfalls. We have a basic map, which looks good, but turns out to be quite misleading, missing junctions and it completely not to scale! We have fun exploring though and get lost in some dusty friendly villages; everyone would say hello to you! Eventually we find the right track to a particular waterfall; we cycle past cleared land ready for rubber tree planting and down through more dusty villages before the heavens open and we take shelter in a tiny shop in the middle of somewhere. We have a quick peanut snack and drink then say bye to the shopkeeper and head down to the waterfall when the rains stop.

Little Hoochie, little Hoochie, on the dusty road... 

Land clearing 

Quick e mart

  The Cha Ong waterfall is big and rocky! You can't swim in the base but you can stand under it like a power-shower, although it feels like it's removing a layer of skin. There's also a huge overhang behind the waterfall, it's not often you get to see waterfalls from this angle. It's slippery to walk about on the mud and rocks. As far as waterfalls go it's a beauty! We sit at the bottom for 20 minutes gathering up some scattered sunshine then slip our way back up for a quick photo in some (we're told) matrimonial huts then it's back to the bikes for the journey home. On the way I ask some local kids, who ran over, if it's OK to take a picture; they all said yes, but one didn't seem too happy when I started snapping.

Matrimonial huts - roles reversed  

Not happy!

Relaxing beer after a hard day 

Our last stunning Cambodian sunset