Author: Amy-lou

So as I mentioned in my previous post, there are A LOT of temples out here.

In Chiang Rai, two of the most well known and most visited temples are The Blue Temple and The White Temple, both known for their unique artistic style and originality.

I visited the The Blue Temple in the late afternoon, just as the sun was beginning to drop lower in the sky, and it was a nice time to look around in the slightly cooler temperatures, even if the sun did get in your eyes occasionally. It was beautiful, and unmistakably BLUE, with blue walls, blue decoration, and huge blue statues, tinged with gold and other colours to bring out the details. The inside was also based on a blue palate, but used a host of other colours to create scenes with a very mystical and psychedelic feel, all surrounding a huge shining white Buddha. I couldn’t help humming that Eiffel 65 song as I walked around… 😜

After leaving the blue temple, I set off on a little pootle around Chiang Rai on my bike to see what other temples I could find in the remainder of the daylight… I found LOTS.

The White Temple is located about 10miles outside of the town centre, so I decided to drop in to see it as I rode past on leaving Chaing Rai. In my head, I was allowing around 45mins, an hour at maximum to visit it, but I ended up staying an hour and a half, and could easily have stayed longer. It was just like nothing I had ever seen before!

The outside is shining white and decorated with a mass of mosaic mirrors, and it rises up to the blue sky in a mass of peaks, pinnacles, and delicate flourishes. Also woven into the design are a host of menacing mythical creatures, foreboding spikes and undead creatures and skulls reaching out towards the walkways. It was like some crazy mash-up of Frozen, and Lord of the Rings! It was completely mad, and it was wonderful!

In contrast to the outside, the inside was a riot of colour, and was an assult on the senses as soon as you walked through the door. The style of the art was almost psychedelic, with the main part being painted in pastel and florescent shades, with other designs painted on top. As in all temples, the central focal point which faced you as you walked through the door was a gigantic buddha – this one was glittering gold, and surrounded by psychedelic patterns. However the really crazy and brilliant part about the inside decoration was the other details on the walls, covering a wide range of references to modern life. I spotted pop culture references to: Minions, Pokémon, Spiderman, Ben10, Superman, Elvis, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Wars (Yoda), Back to the Future, Angry Birds, Iron Man, Hello Kitty, Harry Potter, The Matrix (Neo), Transformers, Alien, Predator, Michael Jackson, Batman, Nokia 3210, Kung Fu Panda, Avatar and The Incredible Hulk; as well as lots of others that I didn’t recognise or know what they were from. There were references to current events and technologies including 9/11 (with oil tentacles around the towers emanating from an oil refinery, apparently added by the artist at a later date to represent the idea that the US government used the destruction of the two towers as a pretext to invade oil rich countries), the launching of space rockets, the atom bomb, and the erruption of a volcano in Guatemala, amongst others. The song: “We didn’t start the fire” by Billy Joel spontaneously people into my head as I was looking around – it seemed appropriate to the crazy juxtaposition of tons of different references, and the general whirlwind nature of life of modern life that it was projecting. In a sequence around the walls around the middle of the temple was a series of portraits showing stages of a human life from birth until death, including pretty graphic pictures of being on a ventilator in old age, and becoming grey saggy skinned, bloody eyed, and with a crazy expression before death. From the floor up from the bottom of the walls, there was painted a mass of interweaving and wriggling tentacles, with eyeballs and skulls being tossed in their midst – apparently representing hell, in a very fantasy-esque sort of style. Higher up on the walls (apparently representing heaven) were floating lotus flowers and people floating on clouds toward the Buddha in serene groups. Apparently, (overheard from a guide giving a tour of the temple,) the artist’s reasoning behind his design was to highlight that our lives are short, (highlighted by the ‘stages of life’ portraits,) and while we fill our life with temporary pleasures, technologies and schemes (pop culture and current events references,) most of what goes on in the worlds of entertainment and industry is just trying to make money, often has a darker side (see two towers, etc.) and has no spiritual value. Therefore the only way to gain true enlightenment is to rise above the world’s distractions and follow in the footsteps of the buddha. Saying that, from seeing his creation, the artist is clearly a lover of pop-culture (you couldn’t create something as fantastically crazy and amazing as that and not be!) but I think his message is that it’s ok to be part of the somewhat crazy modern world, but you shouldn’t lose track of what is important.

When I eventually managed to drag myself away from The White Temple (I really could have stayed for ages,) I started off cycling again, heading for Chiang Mai. i could have gone straight down the main highway to get there, but that would have been boring! 😜 Instead, I decided to cut across west, over a hill and through some amazing scenary to the small town of Chiang Dao which is nestled beneath a huge limestone mountain and on the edge of a national park. In Chiang Dao I visited, (you guessed it!) another temple – this one in a cave!

Further on down the road I reached Chiang Mai, the biggest town in the region. It seems, because of its size and importance that Chiang Mai has an EVEN GREATER concentration of temples. Thailand really does put its neighbours to shame in the ” who can build the most temples” stakes.

On the other hand, aside from all the beauty, beneath the surface there is a darker side to all these temples and the state religion of Buddhism. With the “Me too” movement gaining momentum, there have been (somewhat unsurprisingly,) a number of of reports of child abuse by Buddhist monks, who are required to be celibate. Seems obvious really, but it seems that, as with Catholicism, when you unnaturally suppress basic instincts there are bad consequences – I imagine this is the same accross all cultures. There is also the issue of the boys themselves, who enter the orders as novices between the ages of 10 and 20, and according to the rules are not even allowed any form of physical contact with women during this time (including their own mother! or other close relatives,) and are taught daily that any form of desire or thought about women is a failing on their part and means they are weak or evil. Teenage boys being how they are, I personally think this amounts to abuse of a different variety, and I would be very supprised if it doesn’t lead to long term mental health and personal relationship issues for at least some of the boys.

On a different, but equally negative note, there is a strong tradition in Buddhism, as in most other religions, of discrimination against women. In Thai society (and other neighbouring countries,) women are expected to dress modestly, be ladylike and generally have fewer opportunities (although thankfully this is gradually improving.) In addition, in some of the temples there area areas where only men are permitted to go. Now for me as a tourist, I recognise I’m only a visitor and I’m happy to go along with whatever the local rules are, but it does make me angry on behalf of the local women who follow the Buddhist religion and are still denied access to the most holy areas. In one of the temples that I visited there was a sign up explaining why this is. It read: “Women are prohibited to enter because they menstruate.” Oh. My. God. I was furious! One of the most biologically amazing things that human bodies can do, the very thing that enables us to MAKE NEW LIFE and ensure the continuation of our species, and the patriachal buddhist powers that be chose to look down on it and effectively punish women, somehow suggesting that they are unclean and less holy for daring to have a f***ing period!! Fuming…. Of course, this attitude is no different to any of the other major world religions, but that doesn’t make it any less utterly backward and infuriating.

In short, there are some very nice pretty buildings in Thailand which are cool to look around. On the whole though, you can keep your temples thanks, I’ll keep my freedom.

I’ve been in Thailand for 3 days now, since crossing over the border from Laos. That time has been spent cycling to, and hanging around Chiang Mai. Here are some things that I’ve noticed since being here:

1 – The border crossing is stupid! (at least for cyclists). The border crossing from Huay Xai is in the form of a “friendship bridge” over the Mekong river. For some unknown reason when building this bridge, it’s designers decided to make it too narrow to safely overtake, and without any form of cycle lane, shoulder, or pavement. The result of this is that cyclists, as well as pedestrians, are not allowed to go over the bridge alone, and have to wait to be shuttled accros by bus. Humph! I objected to having to sit around and wait for a bus when every minute that passed was a minute of cool morning great-for-cycling time, while the day was only getting hotter.

2- They drive on the left here! (I assume this was due to British influence while we were in neighbouring Burma.) After so many days of continuous cycling on the right, I keep having to remind myself of this when setting off!

3-They have Tesco’s here! (More British influence?) I haven’t been inside one yet, so I don’t know if they also sell British products, but I was quite surprised when I first spotted one!

4-There are SO many temples here! Like seriously, I thought there were a lot in Laos and Cambodia (I would pass them fairly frequently whilst cycling down the road through villages and towns,) but Thailand has taken it to a whole nother level!

5-The ethnic minority hill tribes that I learned about and encountered in Laos and Vietnam also have settlements here. Whilst in Chiang Rai I’ve on a tour around some of the villages in the nearby countryside and also went to a Museum about it. What I’m learning is that it is an oversimplification to think of the inhabitants of the countries in SE Asia simply as ‘Thai people’, ‘Laos people’, etc. Instead the populations are generally made up a range of communities with differing heritages and traditions, historically drawn from different parts of asia, though unfortunately the ethnic minorities continue to face significant social disadvantages compared with the ethnic majority population.

First impressions aside, I will be continuing my journey through Thailand tomorrow, setting of towards Chiang Mai. It should take me 3 days. After this, my route will differ slightly from the one I had originally planned – I’ve been doing a bit of replanning over the last few days. It will now involve some trains to take me to the Southern peninsula of Thailand, and some more cycling through Southern Thailand and Northern Malaysia. The adventure continues!

Wow! What can I say?! This was AMAZING!

Actually, I’m gonna keep this rather short because I am leaving Chiang Rai today and I want a bit more time to have another wander around, but if you would like to hear me excitedly gabbling on about it for too long, please call me 😉

To give a bit of background, taking part in The Gibbon Experience basically involves getting to stay for a few nights in an area of protected jungle where endangered gibbons live, sleeping in purpose built tree houses with views out over the canopy, and spending the daylight hours whizzing around on big ziplines which have been set up between the trees. It is totally as awesome as it sounds!

Zipplining, though a little hair raising the first time that you jumped, was so much fun, and after a few tries began to feel really automatic and natural so that you could really focus on enjoy the amazing views and sensation of whizzing through the air, rather than focusing on trying to remember what to do with the harness, clips, etc. In any case, the guides were always on hand to help.

Speaking of guides, the guides were awesome and lovely and really made the whole stay! Each treehouse full of people were assigned two local guides, who stayed with the group and looked after us for the duration of the trip. We had A-tith, who was young, super friendly, enthusiastic, and spoke amazing English, and Kampy who was older, came from one of the villages within the forest and had lived there all his life, spoke pidgin English but was really friendly and funny, and knew so much about the forest. For example, he would stop us while walking through the jungle and cut off bits off bits of bark or leaves for us to try, and tell us about their uses in folk medicine or cooking. He picked and cut fruits from the trees for us to eat, and even whittled a flute from some bamboo in front of our eyes and showed us how to play it!

In terms of Gibbons, we think we saw some on the first morning from the tree house, but they were a long way off and little more than black shapes so it was hard to be sure. One thing’s for certain though, we definitely heard them, and it was INCREDIBLE! Gibbons don’t shriek like monkeys, but instead make whooping, melodic sound rather akin to a siren sound. At around 7:30 on the first morning the whole forest seemed to come alive with these sounds as the Gibbons called back and forth from all directions, deeper sounds from the larger males, and higher pitched sounds from the smaller females and young, altogether creating an amazing cacophony of sound. Myself and another girl had already been up since 5am watching, listening, and marvelling at the sights and sounds as the light crept in and the jungle gradually woke up around us. That alone had felt pretty special, but the Gibbon chorus really topped it off like nothing else!

For the second morning, our guides offered to take us on an early morning hike into the jungle to one of the places where the gibbons feed, to give us a better chance of seeing them close up. This again was them being amazing and lovely, since this was not part of the standard program. We set off at 5:30, zipplining out of the treehouse in the dark before leaving our harnesses to continue on foot, walking spread out in a line, treading gently, and practically holding our breaths in order to make as little noise as possible. Unfortunately, we were not lucky as the Gibbons didn’t come to that particular area to feed that day, but regardless, just being in the middle of the jungle as it woke up around us was an unforgettable experience!

I would wholeheartedly recommend The Gibbon Experience to anyone and everyone, and would go back there in a flash! Now, I’m continuing on to new adventures in Thailand, but Wow! What memories I have made!

I realised when I came to writing this that during this visit to Laos (not including the previous time that I passed though it after Cambodia,) that I’ve spent almost as much time in boats while in the country as I have on my bike! No complaints – it’s a nice way to travel, although I think I’ll stick to my trusty steed for long term journeys, (and when my destination doesn’t happen to be along the course of a river!)

The river route from Luang Prabang to Huay Xai (taking two days, with a stop in Pak Beng,) is a much more well known and well frequented route than my previous river journey. The boats are much larger, to accommodate a much greater numbers of passengers, and when it is very busy several boats may leave in the same day. By lucky coincidence however, my direction of travel seemed to be the less popular one, so I didn’t have to contend with the crowds going in the other direction, and loading my bike was simple, since there was tons of extra space.

The boat was scheduled to leave and 8:30 sharp, so naturally in true Laotion why-rush? style we set off shortly after 9, on both days. The boats were surprisingly comfortable – I had read beforehand that standards can vary a lot from one boat to another, but I seem to have been lucky. The first one was especially comfortable, with varnished wooden tables with a cusioned benches facing each other arranged on both sides of the aisle, and both boats had snacks and beer for sale, and a toilet on board. We soon settled into lazy rhythm of the journey watching the view pass by.

At Pak Beng pier, at the end of the first day, we were greeted with hoards of touts for guesthouses loudly offering knock down rates in a race to win customers, people eagerly offering to carry suitcases (and bikes,) up the hill (of course they wanted paying), and people handing out fliers for restaurants and cafés. As far as I can tell, Pak Beng exists pretty much solely as a stopping point for boats, so competition is fierce. In Huay Xai there was no such crush – the people there clearly have better things to be doing – and it made for a much calmer end to the day. Amazingly, even a solo female like me managed to successfully carry my things and find my way to a guest house on both days, without any help from touts at all! Who would have thought it?! (Not them, clearly! 😜)

Riding away from the pier, I bid a fond farewell to the Mekong, since after following it in one form or another for so long, I will be heading away from it once I pass into Thailand. Just before I do however, I will be rounding off my trip to Laos with a bang – tomorrow I’m heading off into the jungle to take part in The Gibbon Experience!

Ah! back in Laos! Back to the laid back attitudes and rhythms of life that give Laotion towns their unique character, quite different from those in Vietnam. Luang Prabang is rather an architype of this general atmosphere that pervades the country and is lovely for it. Saying that, I have taken quite the opposite approach during the 3 days that I have been here, and have packed in as much as possible to my time here in order to make the most of it. For this reason, I’m going to keep this post rather brief, or else we could be here for a while…

I arrived in Luang Prabang around 10 am on Monday, after a short 20ish mile cycle down the road from where I had stopped the previous night. After checking into the hostel and taking a quick shower, I set off around the town centre to visit the many temples and buddist monuments, including the one on top of Phousi Hill, which has spectacular views over the town, and the national museum, which as well as a temple includes the former royal palace. It was lovely too just to wander the streets as I ambled from one temple to the next. The peaceful Mekong River runs through the centre of Luang Prabang, it is also a very green and leafy town, and it also has a large french influence to much of is architecture, giving it a charmingly quirky feel. Late in the afternoon, I was wandering down a pretty side street when I noticed an interesting billboard outside of a building asking for English speaking tourists to volunteer for drop in english conversation practice sessions for school students. In fact, the session was just beginning, so I went inside and spent a really uplifting couple of hours talking with really enthusiastic and driven Laotion teenagers about myself, my life and my travels, their lives growing up in Laos and their hopes and dreams for the future. The English school which was running the session is volunteer lead by a group of expats and funded by donations. Education in also is not free in Laos and most of the teenagers that I was talking to came from quite poor backgrounds, so they were all really positive about the impact that being able to learn English would have for their future prospects. Also, their English was really good!

On Tuesday morning I got up on early and set out on my bike to Kuang Si waterfalls, which are about 20miles outside of town. This decision was largely based on the advice of the teenagers the night before, who had all agreed that it was one of the best things to visit near the town, and that I should go and visit. It was good advice. As well as the waterfalls, which were beautiful, the waterfall complex also includes a bear sanctuary for Asiatic or moon bears who have been rescued from poachers who hunt them for their paws, claws, gallbladder and bile, which are all used in traditional medicine. A few hundred metres back down the road their is also a butterfly park, opened by a couple of Dutch expats, and home to a host of local butterfly species. While I was there I was lucky enough to see a caterpillar building it’s cocoon around itself right infront of my eyes, and also see several butterflies unwinding and rewinding their ‘probiscus’ (spiral tongue) as they fed on fruit at the feeding stations. A little further back towards town, I visited Laos buffalo dairy, a new project set up by a group of expats to develop the dairy industry in Laos, whilst helping local farmers along the way. My next stop was to exhibition of Hmong culture. The Hmong are the same ethnic group as the people in the village that I visited in Sapa, and make up a large proportion of the Laos population. Infact, only 53% of the Laos population are ethnic Laos, and the rest come from other ethnic minorities, of which Hmong is one. This means that for the other 47% percent of the population Laos is usually their second language, and if they speak English it is their third! This included most of the teenagers that I was speaking to the night before, which makes their level of English even more impressive! I made it back to town on Tuesday with just enough time to grab a bite to eat before making my way to a little place that I had heard about for an evening of story-telling of Laos folk tales accompanied by traditional music. It was enchanting!

Today (Wednesday), I got up even earlier than the previous day, and went out into the streets to watch the buddist alms giving ceremony, which begins around sunrise. Local people sit out along the street with offerings of food (usually sticky rice) and processions of monks come out from the temples and walk along the streets, carrying baskets or bowls for the faithful to put their offerings into. In buddism, this is seen not as an act of charity but as an opportunity for the faithful to earn merit and enlightenment. It is believed that as a layperson empties their cup of rice into the monk’s bowl, they receive a spiritual blessing from the monk. The community believes that it is their duty to care for the physical needs of the monks, since the monks are working for the spiritual well-being of the community. In this way, everyone benefits. Poor families who don’t have enough food will also sometimes send out children with a bowl or basket, and the monks will share out some of their food to the children, so that everyone gets enough.

After watching the Alms giving ceremony, I went to walk around the morning food market, which unlike touristy night markets full of souvenirs, is a functioning grocery market where locals go to do their shopping. I looked on cheerfully at the arrays of colourful fresh fruits and vegetables, and with a mixture of horror, morbid curiosity, and queeziness at the selection of things that passed for meat: live chickens and fish, dead wild birds such as finches and pigeons, frogs, squirrels, beetles, maggots, hollow sticks of bamboo slit open to reveal wriggling larvae, and all manner of other creatures, big and small. It seemed to me that in Laos, if it moves, it’s fair game.

In the afternoon, I visited the museum of unexploded ordnance (UXO), which documents the ‘secret’ bombing campaigns in Laos during the Vietnam war and it’s far reaching consequences. Laos holds the unfortunate accolade of being the most bombed country in the world – more bombs were dropped on Laos during the Vietnam war than were dropped during the whole of the Second World War. Additionally, because at the time the bombing campaigns were not officially declared or admitted to, the armed forces were not obliged to follow the usual ‘codes of engagement’ that are usually adhered to, such as only focusing on confirmed targets, limiting damage to less military significant areas, etc. After UXO, I visited the museum of traditional arts and Ethnology, a collection of information about the cultures of the ethnic minority groups in Laos, such as the Hmong, as well as others.

As I mentioned already, I feel that I have managed to pack rather a lot into my three days in Luang Prabang – I certainly don’t think I could have fit in much more! Tomorrow morning I will go down to the docks to catch another riverboat. The journey down the river will take two days, with a stop off in a village tomorrow night, before catching another boat the next day to carry on down the river. By Friday night, I will have reached the Thai border. However before crossing over the border I have one more adventure in Laos planned, and this one is in the jungle!

The first town that I stopped in after crossing the border into Laos was Muang Mai. From there, I had been planning on carrying on down the road towards to Muang Xay, with the eventual destination of Luang Prabang. From what I had read and heard, Muang Xay isn’t a lovely town, but it’s one of those places that you have to go through in order to get to where you are going, so hey ho! However… as I was checking in to the guest house in Muang Mai I got chatting to a French guy who was also checking into the same place, and we ended up going out for some food and a drink a little later. Over dinner, me, him and an American guy who we also met, and who was also cycle touring, discussed the different places in Asia that we had visited, and swapped reccomendations. Intriguingly, they had both already visited Luang Prabang where I was headed, but had both bypassed Muang Xay on their journeys, and had instead taken a riverboat from the the next town along from where we were currently. “Good idea!” I thought.

So, the following day, I had a lovely short and mostly flat morning cycle along to the next town along, and spent the rest of the day luxuriating in free time, sunshine, and no longer feeling full of cold while I hung around to catch the riverboat, which would depart the following morning.

The next day, I got up feeling fully refreshed and pootled down to the Riverside to buy a boat ticket for me and my bike. The bike was loaded without a hitch – so far so good. I then hung around and chatted with the small group of people gathering at the docks (who all happened to be French, apart from one German couple,) as we waited to buy our tickets. The way the ticketing system worked, the more people were in the boat, the less each person paid. The most expensive bracket was for four people or less, the next bracket down was for 5 – 9 people, and the cheapest price was if there were 10 or more people in the boat. Annoyingly, there were 9 of us. At the very last minute a middle aged French lady with a colourful headscarf started making her way down towards us waving cheerfully at the ferryman. “Yes!” we started collectively exclaiming (not too loudly.) But no… she was just enquiring about the boat for the following day.

Once on the boat we settled in our seats, chatting, joking, and ready to go. The boat driver fired up the propeller and we were off! …and then we stopped, or rather the engine did. The next few attempts were no more successful. This began to gather a crowd of men who had been smoking, eating breakfast and mending fishing equipment near the river. They all duly came and inspected the engine, had a quick conference, and from what I could gather with my non-existant Laos, they all agreed that the engine wasn’t working. A new man was fetched, carrying with him a precision boat fixing tool – A BIG HAMMER! Supprisingly, this seemed to do the trick, and we were, at last, off.

The journey down the river was lovely. The engine was quite noisy, so conversation died down quite quickly owing to the amount of effort it took, but the views were more than enough entertainment on their own. The tranquil waters, occasionally broken by rocks that would create ripples and splashes around them, and the green covered majestic limestone hill formations rising up on either side. At various points along the river, birds could be seen skimming across the surface of the water or perching on the banks.

At some point down the river this parade of gorgeousness was interrupted by a clunk. The boat stopped. Luckily, it started again, but at the next stopping point (the riverboat was also delivering supplies to villages along the bank,) another ‘conference’ was held, and a man from the village arrived carrying a new propeller. This finally seemed to actually fix the problem, and no further unscheduled pauses were had during the journey.

The next barrier to our journey, (and when I say barrier I am being very literal,) was a damn… right across the river. When I had read about this when I was finding out information about the riverboat, it seemed to be quite a controversial subject. The damn (which is still under construction,) will be a hydroelectric damn, and is being funded and built by a Chinese power company. Lots of people are upset that the Chinese are effectively ‘coming over here, building their things, ruining the lovely river and countryside’. Looking on at the ugly, noisy, smelly construction site I could see their point, but on the other hand at least when it’s done it will produce relatively clean energy – much better than a coal power station, which with China’s track record, feels like it could have been a possibility.

As far as the riverboat was concerned, there was of course a plan for getting around the damn. We simply had to debark, get into a tuk-tuk that would shuttle us to the other side, and continue our journey in another boat that would be waiting for us. Simple, they said. Simple…

The problem was that as I have mentioned the damn was still under construction, meaning that the ‘road’ that the tuk-tuk had to drive down wasn’t so much a road as a faint and very uneven track through building rubble, dust, and debris. With my bike wedged between us, we all clung on to our teeth and for dear life as we bumped along the track. Each time a construction vehicle passed, anyone who had not been quick enough to cover their mouth collapsed into fits of coughing as great clouds of construction dust engulfed us. Then… bump! We stopped.

Looking down, it soon became apparent that the tuk-tuk’s wheel had become trapped between a previously hidden rock and a deep drift of soft sand. So, off we all jumped! This was becoming quite an adventure and we were all giggling together and joking at the absurdity of the situation. The ‘big strong men’ all stepped up to help heave and push the tuk-tuk out of it’s predicament, as did I. With a bit of gentle teasing and encouragement I persuaded some of the other women also to join in – “allez, les femmes!” (come on girls!)

Once safely settled in the second boat, we carried on down the river, marvelling once again at the stunning scenary as the sun gradually dropped lower in the sky. We arrived at our destination only half an hour late, which was quite surprising considering the amount of hold ups we had had. When we arrived, there was just about an hour left before sunset, and I thought if I was really speedy I might just about have time to hike to the top of the hill in the village to get a glimpse of the amazing views that it promised. I made it just after the sun had set but while the sky was still full of colour. Standing on top of the hill, my heart was beating fast from the exertion and my skin was covered in sweat, but I felt completely at peace as I gazed out at the beautiful sky and the twinkling lights of the village below. Happy, I made my way slowly and carefully back down through the twilit woods to the village, had dinner, and returned to my dormitory to sleep.

Walking into the dormitory, I was slightly supprised to see somebody else’s bag on the bed that I had already claimed. “Oh sorry,” said the guy doing his stretches nearby, he and his friends had just arrived and they had just quickly dumped their bags down before going off to get some food – they hadn’t noticed my bags by the side or my pyjamas on the pillow. “No worries,” he said. He moved his friend’s bags onto the bed adjacent to his, and we chatted as I got ready for bed and before he left to join his friends. I was sleepy, and soon after he left I was snuggled down and drifting off into dreams.

“Eeeekk!” I screamed, high pitched and ear splitting, as I was suddenly awoken by the weight of a body flopping down on top of me in the dark, then hastily jumping back, as confused as I was. This was shortly followed by peels of laughter, which I joined in with as soon as I realised what had happened. Whether by mistake or for a prank, the guy that I had spoken to had forgotten to tell his friend about the change of bed, and his friend had just walked into the dormitory without turning the light on and lain down, only to be greeted by my unexpected presence and loud scream. The poor guy must have had such a fright! – it was very funny. Giggling, I rolled over and was back asleep within minutes. It was just about on course for a day that had been very enjoyable, but not without its fair share of unexpected twists and turns!

Since hastening back from Halong and Hanoi, hills and handicrafts have been featured heavily in my hobbies (ha ha!) 🙂

Silliness aside, the handicrafts part refers to activities I did in two different locations, Yen Duc village, and Sapa, which are both trying preserve traditional handicrafts through tourism. The hills part refers to, well, hills!

Yen Duc village is an ecotourism village close to Hanoi, working from the same basic model as Preah Romkel that I visited in Cambodia. The difference is that Yen Duc is more independently wealthy, and has also been running for a tourist attraction for longer, meaning that visitors really get the 5 star treatment – a luxiourious bed room, meals with multiple courses to sample a wide range of local specialities, etc. The activities that I did while there were all designed to foster an understanding of traditional village life, and they were all great! Possibly the most interesting for me was learning about how rice is made, from the crop that is harvested from the field, to the finished product that we have on or plates.

Grains of rice, it turns out, start out as the seeds on the upper end of long stalks of grass, which you might imagine swaying in a a summer breeze. Rice harvesting generally involves going out into the field and cutting off the tops of the grass. The bottom parts of the stalks are then often burned in order to fertilize the ground. Traditionally, the tops of the stalks are then put through a wooden machine, wound by hand, to separate the seeds from the stalks. Next, the seeds have to be dried out – indeed while riding around SE Asia I’ve passed by many houses with large tarpaulins spread out in front of them with grains drying in the sun. After this, the seeds are put in a big circular bin sort of machine with a woven bamboo straw bottom, and pushed around in such away as to force apart the husks from the grains of rice within, then the grains of rice, which are smaller and heavier, fall through the holes. Of course, some husks do make it through the holes so the rice has to be seived and re-seived and the husks removed so that only rice remains. At this point in the process it is brown rice – now I had always assumed that white and brown rice came from different varieties of plant or something similar, but it turns out that white rice is just more processed. Brown rice is basically white rice in a little shell of fibre, as if white rice were chocolate, and the brown part the sugary coating on a smartie (weird simile I know but I’m craving chocolate!) Anyway, to get the white rice out of its little brown shell, you basically have to pound the rice until the coating breaks apart and turns to brown dust, which is then seived off. Given how often I eat rice and how little a knew about it before I found it really interesting to find out about and try my hand at the processes, especially since many people in SE Asia still the traditional methods for rice they grow on their own farms, though course the larger commercial ones are now mechanised.

Sapa, the next place that I visited, is a mountain town that was originally popularised for tourists during the French colonial era as a sanitorium due to its cooler climate and fresh mountain air. Nowadays, it is best known as a destination for hiking, and for the ethnic minority hill tribes in native to the region, who continue to live according to the same customs and using the same methods that they have for centuaries. When I visited, I decided to book onto a day of traditional handicrafts in one of the villages, reasoning that I could see the landscape and scenary, which is the main attraction of hiking, while I was on my bike. I thoughourly enjoyed it!

Amongst other things, I learned about how they made fabric from hemp, which before the days of imports would have been used for the majority of their clothes, since cotton is not grown in that region. Hemp starts off as long grass, which has to be harvested and then dried out for a long time before it can be used. Once it is ready, the grass is broken into thinner strands and these strands are twirled together and spooled into a long thread, though at this point, it is still recognisably dried grass. This proto-thread has to be boiled several times in water and also in solutions of things like vinegar, and then combed out until it resembles something more like fabric thread. When the thread is ready, it can be put on a loom (which is hand built by the men in the village) and woven into fabric (trying this out was really fun!). To dye the fabric, leaves of particular plants are crushed and put into huge vats with chemicals extracted from other sources, and the fabric is left in the solution and then boiled to fix the dye. In my one day I had a rather whistle stop tour of processes which in reality would take months to complete from start to finish, and it really was awe-inspiring to see the skills and knowledge that members of the hill tribes possess! One lady who was showing me handicraft items that she had for sale told me that each item had to go through 14 different processes in order to be made!

I found both experiences truly fascinating. It really is amazing to think that for both rice and hemp, the starting point is essentially a field of long grass (though of different, and very specific varieties.) To be able to go out and harvest that grass, and then turn one into a yummy dinner and the other into a peice of cloth just seems ingenious! Even more so when you think about the many steps that had to be taken for our ancestors to develop the technology over time. Colour me amazed!

On the hills front, I was quite pleased with myself on arriving in Sapa, having ridden up ridden up 5075 feet of climbing in 21.2 miles, and got there feeling ok, if pretty tired. On talking to John afterwards, I realised that this level of climbing meant that the hill classified as HC, the first ever hill of this category that I have climbed! Quoting Wikipedia: “Hors Catégorie (HC) is a French term used in stage bicycle races to designate a climb that is “beyond categorization”. The term was originally used for those mountain roads where cars were not expected to be able to pass. A HC climb is the most difficult type of climb in a race.” Quoting myself and John: In English HC can stand for “Holy Cow!” amongst other things! 😜 As I was going up it, I was passed by a group of three Scottish cyclists going in the other direction, down the big hill. They called out hello and also “it’s a lot easier in this direction!” – I’ve got a feeling they were right!

Leaving from Sapa, I had been looking forward to riding the Tram Ton pass, (also known as Heaven’s gate,) which is Vietnam’s highest road and is known for its spectacular views and impressive waterfalls… however as it transpired the morning that I set off the mountain was covered in thick fog, with very little visability… no views to be had here! On the bright side, the thought did cross my mind that I was in a much better position than many of the other tourists in the area: for me, despite being a little disappointed in the lack of view, the twisty roads were still fun to ride on, and I had an enjoyable morning’s riding… for the tourists who I encountered at the top who had presumably booked in advance to be taken by bus or taxi to see the views and who were now obediently shuffling around from invisablable viewpoint to invisable waterfall… well I’m not quite sure what was going through their minds!

To make up for the lack of views at Tram Ton pass, I made a slight detour in order to also ride over Pha Din Pass, which is the longest mountain pass in Vietnam and also has spectacular views. This time, the weather was just about perfect, and the way down was truly exhilarating – taking in bend after bend of the road as the landscape opened out in front of my eyes!

The going has been a little slower for the past few days. Since leaving Sapa I’ve had a bit of a cold, which, while it wouldn’t bother me very much if I was just at home, going to work etc., in this situation where I am pushing my body much harder, I have noticed a definite decrease in my power output while I was feeling under the weather. (It’s also the reason that there has been a slightly longer gap in between blog posts than normal, as I have spent more time sleeping when not cycling, rather than blogging.) Happily I seem to be over the worst of it now though. Incidentally, since crossing the Laos border, I think I am also over the worst (or best, depending how you look at it!) of the hills.

Yesterday (Thursday), I crossed over the Vietnam / Laos border, (which was on top of another hill,) and am now in Laos. Today I am going (with my bike) on a boat down the river – a nice shortcut which both allows you to see the beautiful river scenary, and bypasses a relatively busy and fairly uninteresting bit of road (from what I have heard.) Next major stop after a bit more cycling is Luang Prabang, which I have heard good things about, and am looking forward to visiting.

What a beautiful place! Cat Ba island is situated in Lan Ha bay, a relatively quieter and lesser known (but equally beautiful) neighbour to the more famous Halong Bay. It is also the largest island in the area and the only one that you can stay on. The attraction of the whole area, which brings in more than 6 million tourists each year and earns it the title of Vietnam’s most popular tourist destination, is the specular limestone karst geology in the area which gives rise to conical, tree covered peaks rising out of the tranquil waters. It really is breathtaking! Interestingly, the karsts originally formed as a mountain range, and were later engulfed by the ocean, transforming the peaks into islets. Cat Ba provides opportunities to see the formations in both mountain range and islet form, so is particularly interesting. It is also much cheaper to stay on Cat Ba in a cheap and cheerful hostel than to stay overnight on a multi-day cruise!

I stayed on the island for 3 days and 2 nights. I arrived on the first day around midday, after getting the bus from Hanoi. Eager to make the most of my time on the island, I quickly dropped my bag off at the hostel and arranged a motorbike taxi to take me up to the national park, where you can hike up to a mountain peak and viewpoint. The ride there in itself was a great experience – the driver kindly suggested taking the slightly longer, scenic route so that I could see more of the island (despite having pre-agreed the price, so he wasn’t making any more money out of it,) and the joy and exhilaration of driving around bend after bend of the twisty road, wind in my face and warm sun on my back as view after spectacular view of the island spread out in front of us put me in a great mood already, before even reaching the national park. When we got there, I thanked the driver, paid the entrance fee, and set off along the path to the peak and viewpoint, eager to get stuck in to discovering the island. The path was well a maintained tourist track, easy to follow and not too challenging to walk, despite some relatively steep sections in places. It wound up through the jungle which was alive with the calls of birds and insects – on a few occasions birds even hopped out onto the path right in front of me – they had evidently got used to tourists passing by! On reaching the peak and viewpoint I was not disappointed – there was a spectacular 360° view of the conical limestone mountains which dominate the centre of the island, clear skys, and birds of prey wheeling overhead – it was magical! On the way back from the park I walked down the road to visit two nearby caves – one with beautiful rock formations, and the other which had been converted into a hospital and bunker during the Vietnam war. Then, just as I was starting off on the long walk back to town (with an idea that maybe I could get another motorbike taxi if I passed one) a passing Spanish guy on a rented motorbike stopped and offered me a lift back to town – win!

For the second day I had booked a boat tour of Lan Ha and Halong Bay in advance, so I toddled off happily down to the harbour to see what the day would bring. It was AMAZING! I really feel that the area’s celebrity as a natural wonder and must-see destination is deserved. The sight of the rocks rising out of the tranquil blue-green waters was just breathtaking, and by good fortune we also had near-perfect weather, which always helps! The tour company that I went with sold itself as going to the quieter, less touristic areas and they did manage to find some pretty secluded spots, which was nice. We stopped twice to swim off the side of the boat, which was so much fun, and so cool to be able to look up at the peaks from the viewpoint of actually being in the water! We also stopped once to go kayaking, which included going through some cave tunnels and into some hidden lagoons on the other side! Additionally we stopped to visit one of the floating fishing villages in the area, and learn a bit more about the people who live there.

One thing I should mention at this point, although we didn’t actually see too much of it, is that there is a big problem with rubbish and particularly plastic waste in the Halong Bay area, caused in a large part by the pressures of mass-tourism on the area, and the frequent lack of awareness of tour companies who hand out plastic bottles, plastic wrapped snacks, mini bottles of suncream, etc. to their customers, many of which end up in the sea. The fishing villages are also a source of much of the pollution (old nets, fishing tackle, household waste) and although our tour guide informed us that there are now fines in place for villagers who don’t dispose of their rubbish correctly, this has not always been the case. Things are gradually changing. Tour companies are becoming more aware of the need to be sustainable (although there is still a lot of variability with how much this buzz-word actually gets put into practice,) and the authorities are doing more to educate local people or fine them if they don’t comply (stick and carrot approach.) As much as anything else, the Halong Bay area is both a UNESCO world heritage site and a major source of touristic income for Vietnam, so it’s not a particularly hard sell to convince people to try to look after it, but in practice, changing the habits of both people and businesses is a slow process.

Back to the main story – the tour got us back to Cat Ba island just in time for me to walk up to the headland to see watch the sunset, which was beautiful! It really was a brilliant end to brilliant day. I also decided to get up early the next day to see the sunrise, and this turned out to be equally lovely. Once the sun had risen, I walked in the direction of the island’s “cannon fort” viewpoint, which I knew was closed due to nearby construction work, but… I had read something that someone had posted online about a secret way up to a nearby spot with a similar view by following an overgrown access route up to some electricity pylons… time to explore. I found it! And the view was great! I could see mountains on the one side and the harbour on the other, as well as islets poking out of the sea in the distance. I got onto the bus back that afternoon feeling that I had truly made the most of all of my time on and around the island, and enjoyed every minute of it.

The one controversy about Cat Ba island, which I was thinking about as the bus drove away, is the effect that its recent surge in popularity and influx of tourism is having on the island. On the one hand it is an amazing place which I really enjoyed visiting, but on the other it was until fairly recently a somewhat untouched paradise next door to its touristic neighbour Halong Bay. Now, the surge in tourism has bought along with it an influx of construction, high rise buildings and hotels, and urbanisation around Cat Ba town, with more developments still starting every month. It feels that we are damaging Cat Ba in our rush to enjoy it, with echoes to the pollution problem in Halong and Lan Ha bay. Personally I would advocate a more sustainable, constrained approach to developing tourism on the island, but then it is hard to deny the local people the chance to make a quick buck, when the demand is clearly there from tourists, and many people struggle to afford to send their children to school or to pay for healthcare, since this is not provided by the state. It’s a tough one…

I am loving this city! It is a perfect mix of old and new, lively and vibrant yet relaxed, welcoming to foreigners and tourists yet true to its character.

The experience started well with my journey into the city. I had been a bit nervous about riding into a big city on my bicycle, but the road system was amazing! On each side of the main road into the city there was a completely segreated one way road running parrellel for motorbikes, bicycles, and other slower moving traffic to use. Once in the city, all of the traffic was divided into lanes according to vehicle type with regular signs reminding everyone where they should be, which meant that anything large or going fast didn’t come anywhere near me. Additionally, in places such as big intersections where the traffic was very busy, the bicycle/motorbike lane was generally funnelled away from the traffic, to rejoin it once the traffic was less crazy. It was fantastic! I felt so safe the whole way and it was also really easy to navigate. (Incidentally I think the ‘good for bicycles’ thing is just a bi-product of designing roads to cope with massive numbers of motorbikes and scooters, but I’m not complaining!)

Looking around the city, I didn’t have a set plan of what to do, but I had a lovely time just wondering around the streets, taking in the sights and sounds, and seeing what I could find. The streets themselves were really interesting – in the old quarter each of the streets specialise mostly in a particular trade or product, so that on one street you might find lots of flowers, in the next one it might be fishing tackle, in the next one it might be coffee beans and dried pulses. The street next to my hostel seems to specialise in metal kitchenware, and it’s particularly impressive to see motorbikes loaded up and towering with goods to the point of imbalance trundling along the road resupplying the shops! In my wanderings I also came across a market, a couple of temples (one with some kind of ceremony happening inside it,) a European style cathedral in a square (presumably a hang over from french colonialism), and Train Street – literally a street with a train that goes down the middle.

Another thing which brightened my day, quite aside from being in a beautiful city, was… I met up with Fiona! Fiona is a fellow solo female traveller from the UK who I met by virtue of the coincidence of being in the same carriage on the train from Warsaw to Moscow, back near the start of my trip. Through another fortuitous coincidence, we ended up arriving in Hanoi on the same day, and met up for a morning of coffee and sightseeing! It made me very happy to have a partner in crime for the morning! Together we went to see the colourful ceramic murals along the walls of ceramic street, and walked across Long Bien bridge to see Hanoi laid out infront us. A good time was had by all 🙂

Hanoi, being the capital, is also an extremely useful and important stop in my trip as it provides me with an opportunity to regroup and reorganize for my onward journey. Everything is available here, which is not the case in most of the smaller rural towns. While I am here I am going to take the opportunity to do some sorting out, but also take some time to do some sightseeing around the many attractions in the local area. On the list of things to do (other than organizing myself) is visiting Cat ba island / Ha Long Bay, staying in Yen Duc village (another ecotourism village,) and of course some more time wandering around, exploring, and enjoying this beautiful city!

On Friday I spent my second of two days (three nights) in Phong Nha. Paradise Cave, the most famous and generally agreed to be the most beautiful of the Phong Nha caves was indeed very beautiful and very impressive. I also visited the botanical gardens which is more like a path which leads you in a circuit around slightly tamed and cultivated jungle, including a few swimming holes and an impressive waterfall. In order to visit these places and also see the local area, I followed a slightly shortened version of the Phong Nha circuit, which is a loop that a lot of tourists follow on rented motorbikes. It included some not inconsiderable 10 and 11% hills, and earned me lots of impressed looks, thumbs up, etc. from people who passed! (Phong Nha attracts many more tourists than most of the places that I have passed through.)

On Saturday I left Phong Nha and began continuing North along the Ho Chi Minh Highway towards Hanoi. I’ve been gradually progressing along the road since then, passing through 5 provinces and a variety of landscapes on the way. In general, the terrain has been flatter since leaving the hills around Phong Nha, though there are still plenty of nice views. Additionally, these more rolling landscapes can be extremely fun to ride around on at times – for example one morning a few days ago there was a moment when I was riding down a nicely tarmacked stretch of road which was particularly pretty and particularly quiet in terms of traffic, with just the right amount ups, downs, twists and turns to be really fun, when what should come on the music I was listening to but “bicycle race” by Queen! The whole moment just seemed perfect! On the other hand, I’ve also had a few drizzly / rainy days since leaving Phong Nha which haven’t been quite as fun, but at least drizzle isn’t monsoon rain, and I’m still making progress, so I’m happy.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) I will arrive in… (drumroll please)… Hanoi! This marks the end of the Ho Chi Minh Highway and the end of this section of riding. Once there, I will have some time off for resting and sightseeing before continuing on my way. Now, off to bed to rest to my body so it can get me there tomorrow!