The Slow Boat Experience: Advice for Travellers
From Chiang Mai we wanted to make our way into Laos. There are very limited options to do this:
1) fly ($$$)
2) take a 16 hour ride on a mini-van to Vang Vieng and skip out on Luang Prabang
3) take a two day slow boat into Luang Prabang - we went with this option
Advice #1: book the full excursion from an agency in Chiang Mai because you get better value than if you were to try to do it on your own. We paid 1650 Baht which included a mini-van ride to the border, accommodations the first night, dinner, breakfast, a lunch box and the two day boat ride.
Here is how it goes:
Day one, we were picked up from our guesthouse and driven to the border town of Chiang Khong. Along the way we stopped to see some hot springs (which are great to soak your feet in) and in Chiang Rai to see the amazing White Temple (Wat Rong Khun). We made it to the border where we checked into the guesthouse and were given dinner (included).
Wat Rong Khun, the White Temple
Advice #2: use the guesthouse service to get your Thailand exit stamps. To avoid having to wake up early the next morning and cue up for customs, you can pay 100 baht and your guesthouse will do it for you. They also give you all the necessary paperwork to fill out to get your Laos visa.
Advice #3: go buy provisions for the long boat ride. Bring drinks and snacks because there is limited options on the boat and it is way more expensive.
Day two, we got breakfast and a take-away lunch box (included) for the boat. Our stamped passports were returned but not before being accused of carrying a fake Israeli passport! We were driven to the border and then got on a rickety long boat and crossed the river into Huay Xai, Laos. After a long wait we got our visas which cost $US42 for Canadians and only $US30 for other passport holders.
Advice #4: do not listen to any touts trying to convince you to upgrade to a bus! They will tell you of the horrors of the boat and how expensive the night to come is. Not true! Just stick with the boat, it is an experience. You won't regret it and plus, you've already paid for it.
We were driven to the slow boat and we were off down the Mekong River. There were some very comfortable and reclinable chairs and most benches had cushions. There was even enough floor space to have a great round of UNO. The boat ride was only 6 hours (the aforementioned touts claim it takes 10 hours).
How many white people can you fit in one boat?
Advice #5: make friends, it will make the time go by faster. Sit beside the guy with the guitar and join the sing along or bring cards/games. The slow boat can be lots of fun!
We arrived in Pak Beng and were whisked away to a great guesthouse. All the guesthouses cost 200 baht and we had the cheapest beer to date. Again, the same touts promised rooms no less than 400 and expensive food. The only down side is that electricity shuts off around 11pm so the whole town is dead. It is a good excuse to get an early night.
Day three, we got breakfast and some more food for the boat (the baguette sandwiches are cheap and taste great). Then it was back on the boat. The second boat was a tighter squeeze but we got the floor where we read, slept and played games. We were on the boat for 7.5 hours but with the beautiful scenery and great company the time went by fast. We arrived in Luang Prabang with high spirits.
Views of the Mekong River
In conclusion: slow boat = good times
Chiang Mai, a city not to be missed
Chiang Mai is a city that is not hard to fall in love with. The lack of ladyboys, touts and noise streets is a plus but the friendly Thai and the chill out atmosphere is what makes this city of the north of Thailand and great place to visit.
Our exploratory visit started by getting some wheels. As the city's main attractions are quite spread out we decided that a scooter would be ideal as there is some big slopes that will take a lot of effort.
The first stop was the famous temple on top of the hill called Doi Suthep. I think this is a must-see temple. It is very nice inside with lots of people praying at the different Buddhas. We actually stopped at one of this rooms where a monk was doing some blessings. I did like the locals and got on my knees in front of him with my arm extended. He sprayed some "holy" water on me followed by some prayers and continued to tie a white bracelet on my wrist. I didn't understand what he said but he probably converted me into a rare combination of Buddhist-Jew.
I think I was just converted!
With the scooter we also visit the ancient city of Wang Kun Kan, believed to be the foundation of Chiang Mai. We also went to the town of Bo Sang, a handicraft area where they do wood carving and umbrella making.
A Thailand visit would not be complete if we didn't take a cooking class. We selected the Siam Rice Cooking School. We got to visit a local market and cooked seven different dishes of our choice. Yep, I got to prove myself that I am not a lost case in the kitchen!
Enjoying my creations
We felt adventurous so we signed up for a two day trek. The trek consisted of hiking through the jungle to get to some isolated hill tribes, elephant riding, bamboo rafting and water rafting. The only part of the tour that I was not thrilled about is when we went to visit the Karen "long neck" tribe. These people were waiting for us in a market style huts. They all wanted us to buy stuff from them. It sort of felt like a human zoo. We thought it would be more like them showing us their lifestyle but it was nothing like that.
Karen "Long neck" village
Our tour concluded on Halloween so what better way to finish our night than getting dressed up and making fools of ourselves. All the guys from our tour group dressed up as ladyboys and we made cat calls to all those cute guys passing by.
I love you long time.
It seems to happen a lot that we arrive in a town not knowing of the upcoming festivities. In this case we got to Chiang Mai for the Loi Krathong Festival. Here people lunch their lanterns in a hot balloon fashion. The sky is filled with these lanterns for 3 nights! It is quite the party.
Lantern getting ready for some air time
Surprise Detour
The last few weeks have been some of the laziest and we don't have too much to report. We've done nothing but hang out at different beaches across Thailand.
Following the Full Moon Party we visited Koh Samui and then flew to Phuket. The only thing in Phuket are prostitutes and lady-boys and sometimes it is hard to tell the difference. I learned two important expressions while there:
1) it's not a lady-boy unless you check and,
2) what happens on vacation stays on vacation except for STDs, those you take home with you
Just in case you were wondering, we never had to put either of those expressions to use.
Ladyboys...they look better than most girls!
To get away we went to the incredible island of Koh Phi Phi. We go to check into our hotel and when asked for our passports Gadi and I look at each other in horror. We forgot them in the safe of the last hotel in Phuket! Now we are forced to go back there.
Koh Phi Phi is paradise and it's hard to imagine that it was almost wiped out by the tsunami. We wanted to put our new certification to use so one day we went scuba diving. All I have to say is "wow"! We saw two kinds of shark, octopus, squid and not to mention all the amazing fish. On the second day we hiked to the top of the island (just follow the tsunami evacuation route signs) to catch the magnificent sun-set. Very romantic.
I love you!
We had a very last minute change of plans and we are now in Bali, Indonesia! Again, my dad was working in the area so we seized the opportunity to meet up with him. It's been lots of fun to hang out with Pa, and I love that he spoils us rotten.
To fly to Indonesia we had to make a stop over in Malaysia. The thing about these two countries is that they don't like Israel too much, that is, no Israelis are allowed in. This shouldn't be a problem considering we both hold Canadian passports. That doesn't change the fact that Gadi is a born Israeli and I have several sets of Israeli stamps in my passport. I didn't think we were going to have any problems but Gadi was frantic! As we were passing through customs in Malaysia, Gadi was just sweating bullets. We gave our best "Canadian smile" and no one gave us a second look. All I have to say is "I told you so".
We took an island tour of Bali where we saw some Balinese dancing, visited several beautiful temples, played with monkeys and ate lunch overlooking an active volcano. We also stopped at a coffee plantation where they make Kopi Luwak, the most expensive coffee in the world. This coffee is made by collecting "droppings" of an animal (the luwak) which contain the coffee seed after eating the most ripe coffee berries.
That's right, the coffee was eaten, digested and defecated and is considered the best coffee on the world. I had to try it. At $3 for a cup of coffee, no more expensive than Starbucks, it tasted just like coffee. Good? Yes, but I can't say it was the best I've ever tasted.
I can't believe people drink this stuff...
We got tired of Kuta beach so we rented scooters and made our way to Dreamland beach, south of the island. The beach was nice but there were huge waves. I got smacked down by one and face-planted into the sand and coral. I didn't realize what happened until I felt the blood dripping down my face. Beside the beach was an amazing restaurant that has the nicest infinity pool overlooking the sea. It was beautiful.
Me and two of my favourite boys in the pool
Bad to the bone!
As much as I've enjoyed my time I have to admit that I am all "beached out". I'm ready to move on and do something a little more cultural. Next stop is Chiang Mai in northern Thailand to visit the long neck girls.
Pad Thai and beaching around
I don't know if it is getting harder to write this blog or our beach time in Thailand is just making me lazy.
Yeah, we are in Thailand. Our stay here started in Bangkok. We arrived just in time for the most important Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement. As we are far from family we decided to spend our fast with some fellow Jews. In this part of the the world most of the Jews that you will find are Israelis and loads of them. But all the sudden we heard English being spoken in the Beit Chabad. Coincidence brought us two Canadian Jews from Montreal (Shona and Ariel) to hang out with.
Our accommodation was greatly provided by an Israeli couchsurfer, Yuval. As we contacted him we understood that we will be hosted in his house. Well, it was sort of his house. His place is an abandoned whore house turned bar-hostel-long-term-living place, oh did I mentioned that it is a hot spot for the whole Hippie community of Bangkok? We didn't quite fit in, we just didn't have dreadlocks and marijuana chimney. It's a really cool scene if you are into that. For more info go to The Overstay website.
Rebecca pretending to be a rastafarian
Once the fast finished we were able to eat the delicious street food from the famous Kha San street. The pad thai and all the excellent fruit did it for us. To me in comparison with street food in India, Thailand has some hygienic standards.
As we discussed in a previous post (Plan to Plan) we rarely book hostel/hotel in advance and we never know what or where we will be the next day. Well, we were convinced by our new Canadian friends to follow them to a travel agency they knew and we ended up booking our lives for the next two weeks.
Do we regret it? Maybe a little but it's not too bad. Now we don't have to think too hard for the next couple of weeks.
Our first stop was at Koh Tao, a small island with some of the Top 10 diving sites in the world. We came specifically to this island to get certified in the PADI's Open Water course. This course consisted of in-class, confined and open water lessons. Yes, we pass with flying colors! Rebecca got a better mark than me on the written exam but no surprise there.
Rebecca getting ready to scuba
The dives were great. So many fish from every color and shape.
Our next island in our itinerary was Koh Pha-ngan. As planned we arrived there for the World famous Full Moon Party. Basically an excuse to party your ass off until the next day. As we learned later is that the whole week prior to the date there are multiple of other parties like the "Full Moon Warmup Party" to give you and example. In this island they sure like their parties. The even celebrate the Half Moon and Black Moon with a party in their honor.
Well for this party we were lucky to meet family friends. Yeah, we hang out with Tali, Einat and Michal Haymann. Our parents have known each other for the last three decades and we are always planning our next get together. The party preparations started by getting the whole crew all painted up with glow-in-the-dark colors. The whole beach is lined with bars playing different kinds of music. They compete against each other with drink specials and by seeing who can play the music louder. Everyone just goes crazy dancing on the beach. The rest of our days were spent recupperating by relaxing on the beach and eating lots of Pad Thai.
Kiss me baby!
Racing across Rajasthan
It is such a hard life! After relaxing on the houseboat we went to relax on the beaches of Varkala. The beaches here are considered to be sacred, and there are distinct "tourist" and "local" beaches. It was strange to us that locals come to the beach fully clothed in jeans and saris in which they swim.
With one week left in India it was time to get into sightseeing mode! We really wanted to see the Taj Mahal, after all, how can you come to India and not go see the Taj? On the way to Agra we had to spend one night in Delhi. Let me tell you, one night was enough! We arrived at the hostel and were showed one room. The door was opened and about ten cockroaches greeted us. "OK?" the hotel employee asks...not OK. We were showed another room, sans roaches but as we were getting ready for bed a little mouse ran across the floor. We were happy to leave the next morning.
We made it to Agra, checked into our room and went to the roof top terrace. There she stood, all majestic, the Taj Mahal! We couldn't wait to get out to explore. The Taj is every bit as beautiful as they say it is...particularly at sunset. We just sat in front and watched as the marble changed colors from white to pink to gold as the sun set over the horizon. It was truly magical.
Taj Mahal at sunset
We then began to hop across Rajasthan. First, Jaipur. We walked around the old town and visited the Hawa Mahal, another palace built by yet another maharaja. It is here is Jaipur that we ate McDonalds for the first (and last) time in India. Since Hindus don't eat meat there are no Big Macs. Instead they have the Chicken Maharaja Mac. I ate the McAloo Tikki which was basically a deep friend potato pancake on a bun. It just wasn't the same!
We then made it to Pushkar in time for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. This little town doesn't even show up on most maps of India and still we celebrated the holiday with about 150 Israelis at the Chabad House. Actually Pushkar almost feels like mini-Israel. All the signs are in Hebrew, all the tourists are Israelis and the locals speak better Hebrew than I do (nine years of Jewish education, down the drain). As we walked down the streets, store owners would say "shalom" and "shana tova". Apparently we look Israeli...at least Gadi does.
Gadi in front of Beit Chabad
Our next destination was Jaisalmer. We bought tickets for two reclining seats in the front of a super deluxe bus. We got on the bus to discover our seats were the last row of the bus. Not only were they not reclinable, but they weren't even seats, just a bench at the back! We totally got screwed and had to sit there for the ten hour ride through the night. What a nightmare!!!
Jaisalmer has beautiful architecture and old fort but it was way too hot to tour much. We were recommended a beautiful hotel called Pol Haveli. We spent much our time just lounging in the cool breeze on the roof top terrace. Apparently marijuana is legal in the province of Rajasthan and there is even a government run store where you can buy "special cookies" and other various products. I took the opportunity and on the last night had myself a "special" banana milkshake. VERY GOOD!
The beautiful rooftop terrace were we spent most of our time
Our last and final stop was the romantic city of Udaipur. This is where the famous Bond movie, Octopussy, was filmed. The lakes are truly magical and were the scene of my 27th birthday. It will be a very memorable one.
My 27th birthday!
Looking back, I can't believe we hit so many cities in the span of about a week. It was time to leave India and continue our adventure. Thailand, here we come!