Mar 07

The Story
Disclaimer: I am typing on a Turkish keyboard which is a slightly different format than western keyboards, so the i`s might look weird

After moving on from Laos, I traveled, in the company of an English girl I met on the Gibbon Experience, to the very laid back city of Chiang Mai ın Thailand. My tıme ın SE Asia was soon to conclude so I had to rush my experıence of Chıang Maı to get back to Bangkok ın tıme. Chıang Maı ıs a great base for trekkıng but unfortunately I was feelıng a lıttle sıck from somethıng I ate and dıd not get the opportunıty to see the mountaıns. My englısh frıend and I spent two days explorıng the cıty and then I took an overnıght traın back to Bangkok. In Bangkok I spent my tıme runnıng some last mınute errands before catchıng my flıght to Bahraın.

It was actually a rather sad experıence to be fly out of Asıa. There were so many thıngs I came to love about the people`s perspectıves on lıfe, the food, the beautıful landscapes, and of course the cheap prıces. Throughout SE Asıa I was always so ımpressed by how happy people appeared; for example there were countless tımes when a shop owner would gıve me the most genuıne smıle and thank you for purchasıng an ıtem. The people are also so laıd back about everythıng, the stress that exısts ın so many of people`s lıves I wıtness ın Calıfornıa doesn`t exıst ın most of SE Asıa. SE Asıa wıll be mıssed.

From Bagkok I flew to the smallest Arab natıonö Bahraın, whıch ıs sıtuated between Saudı Arabıa and the Unıted Arab Emerıtes. It was my first tıme ın the mıddle east and a most unıque experıence. Upon arrıvıng at Bahraın late at nıght, the surroundıng cıty envıronment felt lıke I was dropped ın the mıddle of a new housıng and shoppıng development. Most of the buıldıngs ın the maın cıty of Manama all look brand new, seem to have the same archıctural desıgn, and, for the most part, are eıther whıte or a lıght tan color. It gıves a very bland ımpressıon. The fırst nıght I had to spend ın a hotel (quıte prıcey for me) because the cab drıver dıdn`t know where the local hostel was and they werent pıckıng up theır phone. After some ınternet research and some help from a local couch surfer, I was fınally able to fınd the run down hostel rıght near the Amerıcan mılıatary base. It was odd comıng from Thaıland where everythıng ıs so cheap to Bahraın, where the dollar ıs quıte weak compared to theır currency (dınar).

Bahraın ıs a very modern and wealthy mıddle eastern country; there are many Amerıcan stores scattered throughout the developed cıtıes as well as a large number ımmıgrants leadıng to a large degree of cultural dıversıty and many bılıngual/trılıngual speakers. There ıs a large populatıon of Indıans, Phılıpınos, Srı Lankans, and Europeans and Amerıcans. Many Amerıcan and European companıes have taken ınterest ın Bahraın as the country`s populatıon ıs rapıdly expandıng. The country ıs about 85% Muslım whıch makes for an ınterestıng sıght; there are a large number of women wearıng the full body coverıng (black dress wıth only eyes showıng) as well as a large number of men who wear the whıte robes (for lack of the approprıate name). One nıght I vısıted one of the large malls whıch made for an ınterestıng experıence. I am used to seeıng these men and women ın tradıtıonal dress on news clıps or fılms; to walk ın to a shoppıng mall that looks exactly the same as any ın the States and see many of the women ın the full black head and body coverıngs (wıth only theır eyes showıng) as well many of the men ın whıte robes remınded me I am ın such a completely dıfferent culture yet wıth elements that are so sımılar to my own. The medıa so often portrays the more conservatıve muslıms as thıs extremely dıfferent people group yet ıf anyone were to walk ınto one of those malls, they would fınd the same types of people you would fınd anywhere else ın the world. Perhaps thıs ıs quıte an obvıous lesson that most people would recognıze wıthout comıng to the mıddle east but I found ıt so ınterestıng beıng a whıte foreıgner ın thıs very dıfferent/same envıronment.

Most of my tıme ın Bahraın was spent explorıng the small cıtıes/suburbs and attemptıng to fıgure out the transportatıon system. The bus routes are not very clear and taxıs are quıte expensıve so I certaınly walked a lot as well as got lost a good amount. The people are usually very frıendly and helpful though and used to seeıng foreıgners. One day I met a local couchsurfıng member for coffee, an Indıan woman who moved to Bahraın wıth her husband, and also met agaın later that nıght for a sufı musıc concert at the contemporary arts center. Thge Iranıan band played some ıncredıble musıc ın a genre I had never really heard before; the ınstrumental and vocal styles were unlıke anythıng I had really heard before whıch made ıt a very enjoyable occasıon. I spent some tıme vısıtıng the cıty sıtes, such as the largest mosque ın the country (quıte ımpressıve actually), the natıonal museum, some market streets, etc. Because of the run down state of the hostel I was stayıng ın, I attempted to move to the newly buılt hostel a few suburbs away. Upon arrıvıng I found the whole hostel was booked by a kuwaıtı muslım gırls retreat, so I was back to my old hostel where I was the only backpacker there. Because all the couchsurferıng members (as well as hospıtalıtyclub members) were all busy and I was the only backpacker at the hostels, I thınk I can almost safely say I was the only backpacker on the whole ısland for my stay ın Bahraın. I found out the manager of the hostel I was stayıng at was a polıce chıef from a large town ın Iraq whıch led to some fascınatıng conversatıons about the sıtuatıon there (he left Iraq because ıt was gettıng to dangerous for hım). I also met some Amerıcan guys statıoned wıth the coast guard ın Bahraın; whıle we were hangıng out they got a call from theır frıends tellıng them about the Iranıan capturıng of the Brıtısh Marınes that just happened. They began tellıng me that could have easıly been them that were captured whıch led to some ınformatıve conversatıons about mılıtary presence ın the mıddle east.

It was an ınterestıng experıence to vısıt Bahraın but such a small ısland gets pretty borıng after a few days. I am certaınly more ınterested ın the mıddle east after vısıtıng Bahraın and hopefully wıll one day see more of the countrıes. I am currently ın Istanbul, Turkey and wıll now be makıng my way through Eastern Europe and eventually on to Western Europe. My trıp ıs more than half way over and I am currently ın the process of fınalızıng my decısıon for a graduate school (I have to let the schools know by mıd next week). Cross your fıngers or knock on wood or say some type of rıtual chant for me, I am quıte an ındecısıve person and all the schools seem lıke a good opportunıty.

The Reflectıon

Don`t spend too much tıme reflectıng or you won`t have any tıme left.

Some wıse words by Aldous Huxley:
- We lıve together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and ın all cırcumstances we are by ourselves.
- Most men and women lead lıves at the worst so paınfuli at the best so monotonousi poor and lımıted that the urge to escapei the longıng to transcend themselves ıf only for a few moments ıs and has always been one of the prıncıple appetıtes of the soul.
-We are for ever attemptıng to convert thıngs ınto sıgns for the more ıntellıgıble abstractıons of our own ınventıon. But ın doıng so, we rob these thıngs of a great deal of theır natıve thıng-hood.
-To see ourselves as others see us ıs a most salutary gıft.

cıao!
Karl

Here are a few pictures from my time in SE Asia:

http://www.travellerspoint.com/photos/gallery/size/M/users/lost%20again/tags/asia/

The Story

What a pleasant surprise Laos has been, it is tied with New Zealand for being my favorite country of the world. The people are incredibly friendly and laid back and the landscape is spectacular. It is an incredibly poor country though, very sparsely populated, communist, and is the most heavily bombed country in the world. The weather has been perfect though: warm sun during the day and a cooler breeze at night.

I believe it was the 6th of March I took a 20 hour bus ride from Hanoi, Vietnam to Vientiane, Laos. I met a fun group of people (five Swedes, two Turks, and two Aussies) on the bus that I would end up traveling with throughout most of my time in Laos. After the tiring bus journey we arrived in the capital city and decided to combine our efforts in finding a guest house. As we found the capital city to be fairly small and not very impressive, we booked a bus for the next day to the infamous southeast Asia chill-out town of Vang Viang. The next day, after exploring a little more of what we agreed to be the smallest capital city of the world, we all headed off on the bus.

Vang Viang's highlight is the river that flows right next to the very small town lined with guest houses, restaurants, and bars. Across the river are large vertical rock hills that spring up through a dense jungle canopy creating a spectacular view from the river. What makes the river so great is that the locals have set up a variety of very high rope swings and zip lines for travelers to stop over and use while tubing (using an inflatable tire tube to float on water) down the river. There are also plenty of bars along the way playing lots of loud music selling a variety of very cheap alcohol (as well as other substances); they also setup volleyball courts next to some small restaurant huts which makes for quite an overall entertaining location. One can imagine what this place turns into when there are groups of 20-somethings all floating in the same direction looking for a day of fun. It was quite the wild place but the aspect I loved most about, other than the 10+ meter high rope swings, was that everyone had the same feeling of amazement at where we were and what we were doing. We were all independent travelers having the time of our lives in this tiny town in the middle of Laos, we came from all different parts of the world with various ways of life and yet we were collectively blown away by the beauty and opportunity we were having in this one day of our lives. No one had to say it, we simply just saw it in each other's smiles and knew everyone was thinking the same thing.

After a few days in Vang Viang I was pretty ready to keep moving. Its a fun little party town, where you can get literal buckets of alcohol for dirt cheap and just about any drug you fancy off a menu at a restaurant, but the place traps people. Many people go expecting to stay three days and end up staying three weeks: partying till all they can do is sit exhausted and watch a Friends marathon all day at one of the TV restaurants. I took a little hike into the jungle with a group of people on the afternoon of my last day and was absolutely amazed at the jungle scenery. The Australian girls we were traveling with decided to stay longer, the Swedes took a bus to Thailand, and the two Turks and myself moved on to Luang Probang.

The bus ride was one of the most beautiful journeys I had taken in Asia. We drove through many rural villages, by jungle laden rivers, and looked over vast cone-shaped rock mountains covered in vegetation. But also on this bus trip, I saw some sights that reminded me of the countries drug problems. (For the readers information, SE Asia is notorious for being a drug tourism region; its pretty easy to get any drug you want for probably one of the cheapest prices in the world). Every once and a while you would glance out the window and notice a dirt road leading up into the jungle and see several men (sometimes kids) standing in front of the road with AK47's around there shoulders - that is a pretty much a sure sign they are likely growing opium poppies, coca plants, or cannabis. The further north you get in Laos, the closer you get to the Golden Triangle. This refers to the triangle border of Burma, Laos, and Thailand where a lot of drug trafficking takes place, especially with opium.

In Luang Probang, the two turks and myself met a french woman who joined us for our explorations. One night, as I was wandering the streets, I met some Laos guys playing guitar on the street side and was able to join in. I mostly just played along to the thai and laos pop songs they were playing but it was quite a fun experience. After two days of seeing the city sites which was mostly composed of more temples (Luang Probang is a significant religious site for the country) and visiting the beautiful 7 tiered waterfall outside of town (which also had a bear sanctuary there, we all went our separate ways. My two turk friends made there way to Thailand and I arranged for my transportation to get to the much anticipated Gibbon Experience (more to come on this).

I took a long bumpy cramped minibus ride to Luang Namtha, arriving at 2:30 am, and planned to quickly hop into bed at the guest house right near the bus station; I had to catch a bus in the morning to Houayxay which was right next to the Thai border. The few other foreigners and I on the bus came to find the guest house full. So myself and three Israelis wandered the streets looking for a guest house that was still open. Finally we just kept knocking at one and we all got a chance to sleep from about 3:30 am till 6:30 am when someone can knocking at our doors seeing if we wanted a massage. I had to get up at 7 anyways to go and book a bus ticket before it filled up.

Another bus nightmare was about to begin though. There were three small buses all going to Houayxay and far too many bus tickets sold. After about two hours of waiting for our bus drivers and having people rearrange the bus passengers, I was able to sit on the side of a storage area in the bus, luckily near a window to get some ventilation. After a few hours of driving our bus stops to let us buy some lunch. We also find they have to change a tire which takes end up taking about an extra hour. After several more hours of driving the bus pulls over to give us a toilet break on the side of the road. We find again our bus has a problem. No one really tells the few foreigners on the bus what is going on, we just see the driver getting out his tools, crawling under the bus, and begin taking apart the engine. The locals and foreigners on the bus realize after about two hours of waiting, there is no hope for the bus. So an Irish woman I was sitting near, two germans, and I decide to start hitchhiking. We eventually get a lift with a very slow truck heading the direction we need to go. Myself and the Irish gal find out we are both going on the Gibbon Experience and remind each other that we have to check-in in Houayxay before 6 pm to be able to reserve our spot. Eventually we get to the small town before Houayxay and have to thumb another lift. We get picked up pretty fast and luckily find that the Gibbon Experience office is still open (even though its 8 pm now) and so we are safe for keeping our places for the adventure the next day. It was a long day of almost 12 hours of transportation.

The Gibbon Experience is part of a conversation project in the Bokeo National Forest Reserve. What the experience consists of is sleeping in tree houses about 30 meters off the ground deep in the Laos jungle, zip lining (some almost as long as a kilometer) from one platform to the next (sometimes as high as 100 meters off the ground), and hiking through the jungle with local guides. We were a group of 12 that is split up into three three houses, separated by several kilometers. We took a bus from Houayxay to a remote village and then trekked into the jungle where we met our Laos guides who introduced us to our home for the next three days. Our guides wake us up early in the morning to go and attempt to spot the endangered gibbon monkeys which make an incredible howling, almost siren-like, sound. Our whole group meets up for breakfast which is brought via zip line from the guides kitchen and then we are off to go out and zip through the jungle and hike as we please. We meet for lunch as a group and then have our own dinners in our tree houses and then get to do it again the next two days. The zip lines are quite a thrill as you feel like you are utterly flying, sometimes you are high above the jungle canopy and other times you are soaring between trees barely missing you on each side. It was an amazing experience that each one of us will never forget. One highlight was the ability to play with a baby bear that the guides had rescued from poachers as well as the pet monkey they had; the monkey especially liked me because of my hairy arms and legs. She would jump up on me and pick through my hair looking for lice as if I was another monkey - quite a humorous encounter. The majority of the money we spent on the experience goes towards preventing slash and burn farming and keeping poachers out of the reserve, its a highly renowned eco-friendly experience that can't be missed if you are in laos. Its widely known among most travelers in laos and is almost always full unless you have booked two weeks in advance.

Laos has been spectacular, I wish I could see more of the country. I am back in Thailand now (which I actually, at first, illegally crossed over into without knowing - thats how loose their border system is) and will soon be leaving for Bahrain and then Eastern Europe. I will dearly miss South East Asia, it is such a special place in the world; I love so many things about this place. I am out of time as usual and no time for sharing reflections. Pictures to come soon!

ciao!
Karl

From Phom Phen in Cambodia, I took a combination of bus and boat to the border town of Chao Doc in Vietnam. It took over 20 hours of travel to get to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), the first of my many long bus trips in Vietnam. While in transit, I had an interesting experience that hopefully I will remember for some time:

There was this one man on our bus who certainly stood out from the rest. He was quiet, traveling with a german friend, dressed in mostly black, long hair, tattoo's all over, an array of skull rings and sharply pointed necklace ornaments, chain smoking whenever the bus stopped, and a pair of eyes that you simply wanted to avoid. He looked the type that you might find to be a serial killer or a deranged heavy metal fan that has drawings of dead (or dying) people on their walls. He and his german friend kept to themselves and didn't really interact with the other passengers. After the bus stopped in Chao Doc (border of the vietnam side) we had two hours till our bus left to Saigon so I found a bicycle taxi and asked for a place for dinner. After chatting a while with the driver, I arrived at a restaurant where it happened all bicycle taxi's brought tourists (that means the taxi drivers receive a commission from the meals). When I walk in, I see the two german fellows as well as a fairly average english bloke sitting next to them. As I walk in, we recognize each other and both nod and say hello. Before I sit down at an empty table, the three of them ask if I want to join them. I take the last available seat next the supposed mass murderer figuring dinner conversation will be about new places to pierce one's body or etc. But I was soon shocked to find a man with the most pleasant of personalities, laughing about cultural differences in SE Asia and always ready to add a humorous annotation to all conversation topics. He completely contradicted my first impressions. It is amazing how many learning experiences traveling exposes one to; you learn that people you assume to be one way, due to certain characteristics, end up rejecting your assumptions by their other character qualities. You learn to suspend your judgements of people and come to realize that what you think might be contradictions in personalities, lifestyles, or appearances, are really just unique lifestyle choices that make people beautiful in their own manner.

Vietnam was overall pretty rushed. I spent only one day in Saigon: I visited and crawled through the underground Chu Chi tunnels (spelling?) that the Vietcong used during the war, went to the War Remnants museum, explored the city sites, and saw an amazing jazz band play in a posh downtown club.

From Saigon, I went north to the small beach side fishing town of Mui Nei and explored some of the beautiful beachs and amazing sand dunes on a rented scooter. I then went on to the mountains of Da Lat where I spent a day (with the company of a dutch girl I met) seeing the markets, a very odd hotel being built similar to the Madonna Inn in San Louis Obispo, some small minority villages, coffee plantations, and waterfalls. The next day I had a great experience abseiling, which is similar to rappelling but down waterfalls instead of just rock faces. It was a beautiful sunny day as we climbed through the jungle and waded through river streams getting from one waterfall to the next.

From Da Lat, I traveled on by myself (my dutch friend wanted to see more of Da Lat) to the old capital city of Hue where I randomly met the other people I went abseiling with in Da Lat. We wandered around the town, visiting old imperial palaces, and other historical sites. We had a great dinner at this restaurant who's owner was deaf and mute but still able to always make us laugh and had such an enjoyable personality - all, of course, communicated through body language. The next day the four of us hired motorcycle taxis to take us around the outskirts of the city to some beautiful countryside villages which were surrounded by rice fields; we also went to some ancient tombs of past emperors and old palaces.

I took an overnight bus to Hanoi and upon arriving at 6 am, arranged for an immediate trip out to Ha Long bay. It is a world famous site where there are almost three thousand little limestone vegetation covered islands that spring up all over a region right off the coast of north vietnam - it was a peaceful and quite beautiful place to spend two days. I met a fun group of english blokes and canandians on our boat; we all spent the night on board playing cards and drinking to celebrate one of the canadian's 22nd birthday. It was amazing to see, hidden within many bays, small floating fishing villiages composed of multiple houses where families would live, send their kids to school, and prepare fish to sell.

Upon returning Hanoi, I wandered around the town and hired an english speaking motorcycle taxi driver to show me the sites of the city, which ended up being the craziest ride I have ever been on - one of the first times I was actually afraid for my safety on the ride. He knew I was taking a bus in a few hours to Laos and so he decided to make sure we could fit in all the sites that he enthusiastically encouraged me to see (especially the old prison where John McCain was a prisoner of war). So we raced through the streets, weaving in and out of traffic; down side allies almost running into people and all the while he was making jokes and telling me about the city.

I had to rush Vietnam as I am getting low on time in SE Asia and still have Laos and the north of Thailand to see. I am currently in the capital of Laos, Vientiane. I am quite content at this time in my life and am traveling with a group of people from Sweeden and some people from Turkey I met on the 20 hour bus ride from Vietnam here. No time to share my reflections but many new topics keep me busy ranging from mysticism to pluralism to relativism of values etc etc. - I do miss the wise input from friends. I wish you all peace and joy in that which you pursue.

Thank you for your interest!
Karl Smerecnik