Madeleine’s Travel Blog

June 12, 2008 - Vientiane, Laos

There comes a point where you just don’t feel like looking at another temple, eating at another so-so restaurant, staying at yet another mediocre guest house/hotel…
I reached that point somewhere around the end of Nepal. 4 months down, 4 to go. Not exactly a stellar time to stop enjoying traveling, then again you don’t exactly get to pick when you get tired of something. It wasn’t that I wanted to go home or anything – I’d just lost interest in my surroundings.
I suppose it was to be expected, especially given our break-neck Nepal schedule and hectic month prior to that in India, not to mention getting sick and not completely getting over it before that. I’d hoped our weeklong vacation on the island of Tarutao in Thailand would alter my apathy, but the unfortunate weather and lack of interesting food didn’t really cut it. I did enjoy it, as well as Bangkok and taking the Muay Thai classes, etc. but I still wasn’t back to my usual self. Constantly tired and without any desire to explore these new countries, I worried that this state of being might continue indefinitely. Then we arrived in Vientiane, Laos.
Vientiane is the capital of Laos (pronounced Lao – the French added the silent ‘s’ for their own sense of aesthetic – there is no ‘s’ in the Lao language). The city is not one to rave about in any sense of the term, but it ended up suiting our needs perfectly.
To begin with, it was comparatively clean & modern – paved roads, sturdy well-built buildings. Due to being the capital, and at the receiving end of a whack of international aid, Vientiane is also filled with ex-pats (working for embassies, NGO’s etc.). Large quantities of ex-pats means a dramatic increase in demand for westernized lifestyle supports (ie restaurants/grocery stores/entertainment.). This in turn means a dramatic increase in supply of westernized lifestyle supports to fill that demand (in following with basic economics!). I think that for us it was perhaps this that really served to make Vientiane stand out.
We were only supposed to be in Vientiane for a couple of days. Then I decided to try to edit a film in time for the Vancouver Film Festival. I’d spent time logging all the footage from India etc, had the camera fixed, in fact had done pretty much everything I possibly could to ensure a smooth editing process. Nevertheless, as one should always assume but never does, artistic endeavours such as editing tend to take way longer than planned.
We reached the end of our proposed stay and after an all-nighter I realized there was no way I was going to finish the project in time to leave that day. Same thing happened the next night. Evy figured she might go on ahead but couldn’t muster up the energy that day, and the next day ended up feeling so sick she went to the doctor to confirm her own diagnosis of tonsillitis. This was a debacle unto itself, but I’ll let her explain that one (basically there’s no medical system in Laos – Lonely Planet recommends you fly to Thailand).
So we stayed in Vientiane. Day after day after day. And even though I was very shortly completely sick of editing, and even though our hotel room was a very basic room with window facing a restaurant stovepipe (constant grease fumes) I started to feel better. Evy still ended up leaving prior to me, and those first few days (I ended up staying 5 days even longer than our 10 together) I spent sleeping, watching movies, and generally doing what most people do on a Sunday after having spent months working on some project – relaxing. It was fabulous. Resting, together with the amazingly good western-style food, I think ended up being the perfect combination. By the time I left Vientiane I was sick of my computer, but totally ready to start traveling again – which made it all worth it.
As for the film, well, we’ll see. There were a lot of problems, but I can always hope that it was possible to see beyond them and think it was a semi-reasonable piece. I haven’t been able to look at it since handing it in – I figure whatever delusional state I might have been in when I termed it finished was correct at that time and I feel no need to go back and discover how wrong I might have been. Always look ahead, right?!

May 23rd, 2008 - Savannakhet, Laos

It is the evening of my 25th birthday, though oddly enough in Laos time I was actually born on the 24th of May… Maybe that means I can celebrate tomorrow as well!
We took a bus across the newly built bridge from Thailand today, which means that my passport was stamped with all sorts of official stamps bearing my birthdate on it. I was kind of excited by that. Yes, in some ways I am still 5.
In celebration of my birthday Evy had got me a croissant & nutella at the local market, with which she presented me this morning. That was pretty sweet. Also a Hello-Kitty-dressed-up-as-a-mouse candle. You’ll just have to see the photos. We placed it on the cake we went out for (‘kaffee and kuchen’ for those in the know), at a local bakery near our hostel. We also shared a bottle of white wine at a floating restaurant on the Mekong river - Thailand on one side, Laos on the other. You can’t really get much better than that. Especially since wine is a rather uncommon and rather expensive in these parts.
The Hello Kitty candle got another showing on a banana split at our evening restaurant, but unfortunately both times we were lacking in matches or lighters. Oh well. We are now ‘chilling’ on the front verandah style porch of our colonial-era guest house, eating Ferrero Rochers left over from a gift that never got given (meant for Evy’s housemother from her last stay in Thailand, who in the end we didn’t actually get to meet up with). The chairs on this porch are very comfortable. Because we’re on the second story it’s also pretty sweet because it means we can spy on people without them seeing us right away. Did I mention I’m still 5 on the inside?! I’m going to go have another Ferrero Rocher…

May 22nd, 2008 - Khorat, Thailand

We haven’t been up to much in Khorat. I haven’t been feeling well, and I’m also contemplating putting together a film piece in time to apply for the Vancouver film festival. For the most part I’ve been laying around in the room, checking out footage, while Evy’s been meandering around town on her own.
We’re trying to see if we can meet up with some people Evy knew back when she was volunteering near here, but so far it’s been a little more difficult than planned. We did meet up with a former fellow teacher of hers, which was fun - he took us to a night market and out for Thai food. It was her host family that we were really interested in meeting up with though, but they’ve moved in the meantime so we’ll see if it works out.

May 18th, 2008 - Train ride to Khorat

The whole concept of bbq chicken thighs takes on a whole new meaning when they are no longer discreetly separated from their respective feet. Somehow the clawed appendages – fried and neatly skewered on shish kabob sticks – were particularly unappealing to us on the train ride from Bangkok to Khorat today. Though now that I think about it, I’m not sure which was worse, those or the equally neatly skewered squid carcasses (at least, we think that’s what they were). Those came at 5 per stick, a real steal I’m sure, and stunk up the entire train cart immediately upon entrance – even though all the windows were wide open. They and the chicken legs were only a couple of the options proffered by the never-ending stream of on-board food sales agents, each loudly proclaiming their product as they walked by. Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth. I of course had an aisle seat, permitting an up close and personal viewing area of goods – like it or not.
Unfortunately for my lust of photographic documentation, the one ultra hip dude who happened to catch my eye (out of the many selling the skewered squid), either didn’t understand the concept of the camera and my question of whether or not I could take his photo, or simply didn’t want his photo taken. I was sorry to miss out. Somehow his hip tapered-leg jeans, (fake) designer shirt, cap & coiffed hair added a certain panache to his ultra casual stroll up and down the aisles, bucket of squidsticks in hand. Too bad.

May 16th, 2008 - Bangkok, Thailand

I had to spend a day at the Panasonic headquarters in Bangkok today, located in the equivalent of Langley or maybe White Rock. My videocamera’s playback function collapsed on Tarutao island, and after buying a mini-screwdriver set and attempting to take it apart, I realized (perhaps fortunately early on!) that there was no way I was going to be able to fix it. Luckily for me, it seems Panasonic’s main headquarters in this part of the world is in Bangkok, and with a little persuading I was able to get them to fix it the day I brought it in. {I was a little more adamant about it than I might have been, due to the fact that it turned out there was an upcoming long weekend, and my original given option was to have the camera returned to me the following week – a good 4 days after we’d been planning on leaving town.} $100 later, so far so good with the camera – all seems to be working well. Knock on wood…

May 15th, 2008 - Bangkok, Thailand

I’ve kind of enjoyed Bangkok, for all people complain about its dirtiness. We’re staying in an ultra-touristy backpacker section of town, but it’s conveniently located near a local Muay Thai boxing school. We went to 3 classes at the centre there, and it was awesome. I may not have been doing much exercise in a while, but I think one of those classes would give a typical Hapkido workout a pretty good run for it’s money. I was super sore afterward, but it was fun to be active again. I particularly enjoyed one of the instructors, a cute little older guy, who was a good head shorter than me. Whenever he was holding the pads he would call out ‘knockout’ if I did a particularly good punch or kick – it’s always nice to have unequivocal supporters!