Sagas, slackness and sidetracking

Sorry about the lack of posts on here lately. First of all I had the blog ban to contend with. That kept me busy for quite a while trying to sort out a legal work around. For people with an IT background, if I used a proxy server from another country then it worked, but it is also against the law to subvert the Internet policies here. I'm not unhappy about that. Governments have the right to govern as they see fit. All blogspot sites had been banned as well as all wordpress sites, very suddenly, and I thought the problem would go away, but it didn't. In the end I registered the domain www.vietmanian.com through Google for just $10 and put through a redirect, and it worked first time. As far as I know I have not broken any laws by doing this as I am not using any covert means to access any unendorsed material.

So then I started compiling a video about our time in Luang Prabang in Laos. I have taken lots of video while travelling around the city on push bikes. That went really well and took a few days using Windows Media Maker. I had it finished, it was perfect, all I had to do was to produce the final video to upload to Youtube then link it to the blog. When the final production phase got to 28% through, the program just crashed, with a message saying something like "An unexpected error occurred". I tried everything, moved it onto different hard drives, deleted sections out and retried producing. Nothing worked and I felt sick in the guts with despair.

So I then went looking for alternative video production software than runs under Linux. I have found a program called kdenlive, which seems to do most things, but is a little difficult with the titles and transitions. I've had a bit of a go with that and need to do more, but I have lost a bit of motivation to learn yet another bit of software, when I had the last video perfected before the crash.

Since then I have become extremely side tracked by my involvement in the campaign to prevent the FV Margiris super trawler coming to Australia. This has involved a few phone calls to Australia, emailing various fishing organisations on the mainland, helping with a paper-based petition and setting up another website www.stopthemargiris.net to enable the petition to be printed and circulated Australia wide. I even emailed Rex Hunt last night, hoping he might give some support. Other than the effect that this might have on the food chain, I am concerned about the risk that professional fishermen's jobs will be displaced, and recreational fishing will diminish further. Its been a long time since I have been fired up so much on an environmental issue.

Other than that we are settling well in our flash apartment in Hanoi. We have made lots of friends with the locals in our street. It is always a good thing to be on good terms with the locals, especially if you want to save money. We keep buying from the same people and make them laugh. I use Google Translate on my phone a lot and can't really survive without it. Today as I write this post we are at about our half way point of our time in South East Asia, two months down and two months to go. Yesterday we booked our return flights to Australia for the 27th of August. It will be great to be home again for a few days and very sad to leave here as well. Not sure how we will handle the cold.

Blog ban!!

I woke up this morning and clicked on this blog, but nothing happened. I thought it was pretty strange, I can't see anyone else's blogspot or wordpress blogs either. I have also tried browsing using my phone, which is on a different network, but still no luck.
As an IT bloke I understand that it is possible to find a work around. However, I don't really feel safe doing so in case I am being monitored. It is illegal to subvert the system. Last thing I want is to get in trouble for this.
However, if you are reading this post, then it must be possible to create and edit articles, I just can't see them here.
I am not sure why, but it appears to be a blanket ban, it's not just me being banned. I can still post on Twitter and Youtube.
I realise now, how much I take my freedom in Australia for granted.

The mother of all sleeper bus trips

Zooming out in the took-took

After relaxing in Vientiane for a couple of days it was time to move on and once again the sleeper bus seemed as good an idea as any. A took-took picked us up at our hotel along with a few other tourists. One bloke from the Netherlands was telling us of all the hassles he had had. Somehow it makes you feel better when you hear of other’s hardship, so it was pretty funny really.

We got on the bus expecting the worst, it was hot, humid and uncomfortable, but you get that. At about 2 am the bus stopped in the middle of nowhere for a while and while it was stopped the barely functional air-conditioning was turned off and it soon started to feel like a sauna in the bus. After maybe 10 minutes the bus got going again, but stopped again maybe 10 minutes later. One more start then a final break down, this time outside a bus station in a remote town. The radiator was cooked. It was maybe 2:30 or 3 am and we waited for a while in the stinking hot bus, our clothes feeling wet with sweat, not really knowing what was happening. It was one of those unbearable times where you just have to put the torture out of your mind.

Misty mountains early in the morning

Outside it was raining lightly, with no shelter about, so you got wet from sweat inside the bus or from the rain on the outside. Thankfully a minibus turned up by maybe 5 am and offered people a lift to Luang Prabang which we gladly accepted but had to pay for about ½ the value of the original bus ticket. It was worth it though just to be moving on from our hell-hole.

Clear-fell logging, just like home

The area going into Luang  Prabang is very mountainous, and with that comes very windy roads. The scenery is usually pretty good though, with misty clouds near forested mountain tops; sort of what I hoped Laos would be like. And like home, lots of clear-fell logging. Not just the scenery changed though, you could clearly see the faces of the people changing. Without wanting to sound racist it is perhaps easy for us to think that all Asians look the same, but here you could see people of a more Mongol appearance, or somewhat similar to American Indians.

We finally got to Luang Prabang by lunch time and got a took-took to our hotel. We were met by a Vietnamese girl who was very nice, helpful and caring to us the whole time we were there. 

The sleeper bus to Vientiane

Statue in Vientiane

Travelling from the 4000 Islands to the capital of Laos, Vientiane, proved to be a bit of an ordeal. In a classic case of over promising and under delivering, we booked a ticket on the V.I.P. over-night bus, thinking bewdy; this saves us a night’s accommodation and a day of sitting around on a bus.

After a half-day minibus journey to a city called Pakse (pronounced passé), we had to wait about 5 hours before we got on the sleeper bus. That wasn’t too bad though, it was scorching hot and we had an air-conditioned waiting room. Occasionally we would venture out and look at the local shops. We went and had some ‘street food’ and by about 7:30 pm got on the bus. It all looked pretty good; everyone had a bed on a bus that had 2 level bunks up both sides.

The VIP bus

Then a rude, control-freak, female bus conductor got on and when she found out that Kim and I were together she made us share one of the beds. As I was packing my bag she kept nagging me to move. So much for our VIP status! Another couple also had to share, but all the single people got to stretch out. I found out later that there were still some free beds. The problem was that the beds were made more for people much shorter than us, so you couldn’t really straighten your legs. As well as that it was hot and humid. As the bus lurched through the potholes and swerved around the corners and other vehicles, the motion made it almost impossible to sleep. Kim said she would never do another sleeper bus again, but later on we did, and believe it or not, the second trip was much worse than the first!

At Vientiane we arrived at a large bus station at about 7 am, feeling a little tired and peeved. We were immediately set upon by a rabble of took-took drivers wanting to take us into the city. They all talk at you at once, and as you can imagine, first thing in the morning after hardly any sleep, it feels a bit overwhelming. The price seemed reasonable at about $2 each into get into the city, so we got in one of the took-tooks. I remarked that the Lao took-tooks looked very large compared to the Cambodian ones. So next thing we are doing slow laps of the bus station as the took-took driver prowled for more tourists to fit in. “Strangely” the driver appeared to not understand us when we asked him when we would go to the city.  After maybe 30 minutes of prowling, he eventually found about another 8 tourists with their packs to cram into the took-took, then he took us into the city. 

Patu  Xay Monument, Vientiane

Thankfully we found a good hotel, and had a good cooked breakfast just up the road, we had a shower and started to feel human again. I don’t want to sound like I am whinging, just telling it like it is. Like in other times of hardship, it is often OK to laugh at them in hindsight. You can not expect Western standards of customer service in a 3^rd world communist country, rather you “go with the flow”.

We spent about two days in Vientiane taking in the sights, the French influence in food and architecture, a really nice Buddhist temple. We went too a French restaurant that was excellent – Kim had the roast lamb and veggies and I had duck which was superb.

The Mrs, proud to be winning

Before we left we went bowling. The bowling alleys are a free-for-all, where young blokes pelt the bowls into the air, slamming them into the alley, but somehow always hit their target – amazing to watch. I started off extremely poorly and didn’t even know how to hold the bowling ball correctly, while my sporty Mrs showed me up time and time again. Fortunately for me though I learned very quickly and soon gave Kim the flogging she deserved. We are both pretty competitive with each other, and the banter that goes with it is pretty good fun.

After a couple of days recuperating, we left Vientiane to catch another sleeper bus to our next destination Luang Prabang. 

Getting to Laos from Cambodia

When we left Cambodia we were packed into a minibus with more people on it than the seating arrangement allowed. Our bags had to be packed in near our feet, so no leg room unless you nursed your bag. The driving was pretty ordinary too. The driver seemed to want to start off in 3^rd gear, so after massively revving the engine, the car would crawl forward and stall. He did this about 5 times in a row – not sure why, as at other times he did use the lower gears. The other thing was that there seemed to be no easing on of the brakes. As an obstacle was approached, a violent braking occurred that made your whole body lurch forward in the seat.

At the border

As we went on, more people got off the bus, so we gained a bit of leg room, but it was a scorcher of a day, so I guess it is fair to say this trip was pretty unpleasant. We got to the Laos border and had to walk with our packs a couple of hundred meters across the border between the Cambodian exit point and the Lao entry point.

We were met at the border in a modern, comfortable, air conditioned mini-van, with enough space for all of us. The van was beautifully cool and had good music playing loudly and clearly on the sound system. Welcome to Laos! After about 10 kames we got to our boat that took us to an area known as 4000 Islands, on the Mekong River. 

We stayed on Don Det, one of the 4000 islands where there is a small tourist village.

Kim and Caroline + beerlao

On the bus we met another Australian tourist, called Caroline, an archeologist from Queensland. She was travelling alone. She liked a beer and was friendly and down-to-earth and we spent a bit of time with her for the next few days. Normally we don’t associate much with, if not avoid Australians, while travelling. Because, beyond the normal stereotyping of Tasmanians that mainlanders seem obsessed with, Aussies are often as loud as Americans are – “Aussies are the new Seppos”. Besides that, we like to experience different cultures while away. But Caroline sort of reminded us that Aussies were OK after all, and that you could share humour and thoughts about home easily, without having to repeat simple words all the time, just to be understood.

Satellite dish in traditional village

While on the island we took a kayak tour on the Mekong. Along the way we saw some villages that would have looked traditional if it were not for the large satellite dishes that you see everywhere in the back yards. I guess you need something to get good reception on the large flat panel TVs though. 

It's not easy being green

We also saw some waterfalls that would have been pristine if it were not for the plastic and rubbish swirling around the bottom. We did see some fresh water dolphins though, but that took some patience as we had to wait a long time sitting in kayaks, maybe ½ an hour, before we saw our first one.

Khon Phapheng Falls

Here Kim and I were reminded that our age was catching up with us. Every time we set off on the kayaks every other person in our group always overtook us and we always came last, no matter how much we tried. Strangely, we would see others in kayaks not even paddling and when we paddled hard could not even gain any ground on them. It didn’t make sense, but that’s how it was, a little dispiriting.

Still, the scenery was  nice and we probably needed the exercise. The island was quiet. The people on it were very laid back and didn't hassle us to buy things at all, if anything they almost completely ignored us. It was good to just relax after so much time on the road. 4000 Islands was probably my favourite place visited so far, and if I get the chance I would come back here for sure.

Banlung, Ranatakiri

After a few days in Siem Reap we headed to Banlung (pronounced barn loong) in the province of Ranatakiri, which is “out in the sticks” of  far North-Eastern Cambodia.

Kim behind a waterfall

Although still a beautiful and relatively undeveloped area, the change is coming fast. Here the native bush is being clear-felled at a rapid rate and being replaced with Chinese-owned rubber and cashew plantations. The roads are wide and flawless. One of the locals told us that the roads were built by the Chinese so that they could log the area even faster. The clear-felling and burning reminded me a bit of home. The jobs bonus included at least one bloke being employed, driving a tractor that dug post holes for the trees to be planted in.

Tony, at the bungalow, about to clean teeth

Our first room was in a bungalow in the bush on the outskirts of town. There was no air conditioning and stuff felt damp like it does in the tropics with very high humidity. The door of the room had been left open, with the light on and there were a fair few insects inside. We brushed most of them out – but not all of them. I got stung by a bee on the soft part of my foot, which bloody hurt, much more than bull ant stings do. Shortly afterwards Kim also got stung on her foot, so we decided not to stay for two nights like we had originally planned. Besides, there was no wi-fi in the rooms!!

The accommodation came highly recommended in the Lonely Planet guide, mainly because of the quaint bungalows in the bush setting. There was a good atmosphere in the restaurant area, but the down side is all the Western tourists, talking loudly on their mobile phones and being a little too demanding of the staff. These come as a result of the publicity.

Once we got to the natural bush we went to a waterfall where we met a 70 year old Canadian woman that had retired to Cambodia. She was really talkative, almost too talkative. She spilled her guts to us, and told us of her life and travels, and gave graphic details of how she had been attacked in her house in New Guinea. The details of the attack are too gruesome to write about on here, but she was left for dead. However, she was remarkably resilient. She said that she had not spoken to anyone in English for months, perhaps explaining her enthusiasm.

The next day the owner of our bungalow took us to a new hotel. He apologised for the bees and said there was a large nest near our room. An older Australian lady had fallen over and seemed surprised that her leg was not broken, even though she could walk on it. I expressed my sympathy to her, but the term “drama queen” did enter my thoughts.

Our new hotel, for an extra $2 per night

The new hotel was really nice and not that much more expensive. We got to talk to our friends and family back home on Skype. It was great to be able to say ‘Happy Mothers Day’ with a webcam at both ends.

Getting out of here on the bus proved to be a bit of a saga, as we accidentally gave the bus company the wrong pickup address. We had to get the reception staff to contact the bus company. Their English was poor to non-existent, but somehow we managed. The bus was small, cramped and hot, but it was still a relief to be heading out.

Tonle Sap Lake

The next day we headed to Tonle Sap Lake.


Tonle Sap is unique because the river that feeds it reverses direction twice per year.






The Tonle Sap River flows into the lake during the wet season and out during the dry season.



When we visited it was the end of the dry season and the canals that connected our boat to the main lake were very low. Large wooded boats were getting “bogged” in the mud, and blokes had to get out of the boats and try to lift the boat out of the sand. They motors were revving hard and a rooster tail of muddy water was spraying out the back.

Once we got to the lake, it appeared huge and you could not see the other side of it, just a distant horizon. The lake has a floating village. People that have constructed houses on top of boats, that include cages to contain fish and even crocodiles in farms. There are schools here and even a floating Catholic church. We ended up getting scammed again here, and were asked to buy food from a shop, then take the food to the orphanage to give to the kiddies. However the food prices were extravagant, even by Australian standards. We bought a carton of 50 packets of noodles for $20 and donated them to the poor kiddies, knowing that the shopkeeper was probably taking half.

That's havna!! A kid rowed up to us in a basin to show us a snake

In the afternoon I went to the museum. Kim had been feeling under the weather so she had a sleep. Cambodia under the control of the French was once known as Indo-China. The museum pretty much emphasised the history of that amalgamation of both Indian and Asian cultures, and the once great Khmer empire.