Category Archives: Asia

Asia, Borneo, Hospital, Malaysia

And Then…Meningitis

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Sometimes things happen that require a change of plans.  Like getting meningitis in Borneo.

Jenni first started feeling sick our last night in Kuching (Sunday), after we returned from a fantastic trip staying at an Iban longhouse.  Her symptoms were not immediately apparent.  I recall her saying “I don’t know, I just don’t feel well.”  This soon became a severe headache and fever with chills plus fatigue and mild nausea.  The next morning we woke at the crack of dawn for a flight to Miri and a drive into Brunei.  Jenni spent the rest of the day resting in the hotel room, and by dinner she was tired but otherwise pretty much fine.

On Tuesday, we were out and about in Brunei and that evening we flew to Kota Kinabalu.  The next morning we drove a couple hours up to Kinabalu Park, where we planned to spend the night near park headquarters before beginning our Mount Kinabalu hike on Thursday morning.  When we arrived, Jenni was tired and spent the afternoon relaxing on the day bed.  Many tears were shed, but that’s because she was watching The Notebook on HBO.

As we went to bed, it seemed like the hike was nearly sure to happen.  But that night Jenni’s fever spiked again, accompanied by horrible chills and a crushing headache.  In the morning, she said she could not make the hike but that I should go for it.  After all, we had come to Sabah only to climb this mountain and we were both thrilled at the prospect.  It is a serious hike that usually entails ascending from ~6,150’ to a mountain lodge at ~10,800’, spending the night there and waking around 2 am in hopes of watching the sunrise from the peak at ~13,500’.  The upper portion of the trail is very steep and requires climbers hold on to a rope.  Less than a month ago, a German girl tragically died after falling from the summit.  We will cover the mountain in more depth in a separate post, since we learned a bit about it despite missing the hike.

I had a couple hours still to decide whether or not to begin the hike.  Given I would have been away from Jenni for about 30 hours and communication would have been difficult if not impossible, it seemed the right choice was to bail on the hike.  Of course had we known then the severity of the situation, it would never have been a question.  We had started to suspect Jenni might have malaria, but we still wondered if she was just experiencing something akin to the flu.

We spoke again with my dad who pointed out to us lay folk that it is one thing to suffer severe headaches, spiking fevers and some nausea.  It is quite another when there is a complete absence of any upper respiratory symptoms, no diarrhea and at that point no vomiting.  Despite that we have been very conservative (spendthrift even?!) in taking malarone our entire trip, her symptoms sounded quite similar to malaria.  And so on Thursday morning we decided to leave the mountain and head straight to KPJ Sabah Specialist Hospital (fka Sabah Medical Centre) back in the city of Kota Kinabalu.

::Sabah Medical Centre::
::Jenni’s first walk post-meningitis at Sabah Medical Centre::

By this time, Jenni was feeling worse and worse.  A doctor examined her in the E.R. and they drew blood for general analysis plus to test for malaria, dengue fever and typhoid.  The results came back negative, but we learned that false negatives are not unheard of, and even more so if the patient is taking malaria prophylaxis and blood is drawn while the fever has come down.  (By the way, this isn’t medical advice and if you’re a doctor and disagree with what I’m saying, then you’re probably right!  I’m only conveying what I was told and what our experience was like 🙂 )

The medical staff sent us home with instructions to return in the morning for further blood work.  Jenni spent the rest of the day near incapacitated, and as we had finally bought a thermometer from the hospital I was able to check her temperature: just shy of 103.  By this time we were growing very concerned because Jenni’s condition seemed to be worsening and as yet we had no diagnosis.  Friday morning was the nadir.

We returned to the hospital and she immediately had to lie down.  The E.R. doctor from the previous day had said he’d just begin treating her for malaria today even if the results again were negative.  She was in so much pain and barely communicating, and I was terrified.  Was it cerebral malaria?  It started to feel to me like seconds and minutes became critical.  I became quite pushy and the E.R. doctor called down one of his colleagues.  At the same time they put Jenni on an IV because she was not eating or drinking anything.

P1070404

I was on the phone constantly with my father, and at one point walked away from Jenni’s bed so she wouldn’t hear me cry.  I knew she needed me to be calm and in control, and if she knew how upset and scared I was that would only exacerbate her own fear and could only make matters worse.  Our new doctor administered some antibiotics and agreed she might have malaria or perhaps it was meningitis.  Jenni was admitted to the hospital and within a few hours we saw the neurologist.

Her second and third malaria tests (the second taken immediately upon arriving at the hospital Friday morning, a third blood test drawn a couple hours later when her fever spiked again) also came back negative.

Next came Jenni’s first MRI, followed a few hours later by her first (and hopefully only) lumbar puncture, aka spinal tap.  Here again I will pretend to possess some medical knowledge.  Meningitis cannot be detected in the blood, but rather it requires an analysis of cerebral spinal fluid (CSF).  And since it’s not that easy to put a temporary hole in someone’s head, the doctor gets the CSF sample from the base of the spinal column.  Or something like that.  By now Jenni was far from well but certainly better than she had been that morning or the previous day.

IMG_2908

After several more agonizing hours, we got the results of the spinal tap and the neurologist told us that Jenni had viral meningitis.  Not usually cause for celebration, but since we at last had a diagnosis and it was not malaria and did not seem to be bacterial meningitis, we were quite relieved.  At least I was.  We found out the next day that Jenni didn’t realize viral is the less serious type of meningitis.  She thought she had the type that could be fatal, and she cried tears of joy when her father mentioned otherwise.

She ended up spending three nights in the hospital, getting poked by a lot of needles and with several drugs administered…antibiotics, antiviral, pain medicine, nausea medicine to counter the nausea caused by the meningitis and the pain medicine, etc.  Luckily the other bed in the room was empty so I did not have to sleep on the floor.

::getting unplugged::
::getting unplugged::

I knew Jenni needed to rest and not think too hard, so I suggested we try to download a movie to watch.  Jenni asked if I thought watching the Bachelor would be OK.  I’m no doctor, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but since meningitis is an acute inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain, it seems logical that shrinking the brain might be advantageous.

Once we knew what was wrong and Jenni started to feel better, we had the chance to begin reflecting on the experience.  What struck us first and foremost is how lucky we were that it happened here.  While it’s hard to say you’re lucky when you get meningitis, we felt that Singapore is the only place we’ve been the past three months where it’s easy to imagine the situation could have been better.  More on this below, but we were working with a tour company for the only time on the trip thus far and they were most helpful, the hospital facilities were modern and clean, and the care Jenni received seemed excellent.  I’ve been to many hospitals in the U.S., and this was at least as nice as several of those.  We also heard this hospital has the only certified neurologist in Sabah, a rather fortuitous fact.

In addition to a crash course in tropical diseases and meningitis, we learned a few other lessons.  Be pushy.  Do not sit back and assume someone else has everything under control.  While it might have worked out the same either way, I believe that constant inquiry and double-checking and pressing led to greater and more prompt focus on taking care of Jenni.  Having travel insurance can be a good thing.  We never have in the past, but for this trip we do.  So we hope to suffer minimal financial loss.  Have a doctor in your life that you can call on any time.  More on that below, but it made a really scary and difficult situation slightly more tolerable.  We have bought SIM cards in most but not all countries.  Having one here was a lifesaver (figuratively, at least).

Many of you have asked about our travel plans in light of this ordeal.  Our flight to Manila on March 1 was obviously out of the question, given that Jenni was lying in the hospital with an IV in her arm that day.  We had made all the arrangements to snorkel with whale sharks in Donsol and then trek in northern Luzon before heading to Palawan.  Those former destinations we will have to skip for now.

To say that Jenni has been a trooper through this is a massive understatement.  It would have been reasonable, if not expected, for her to want to head back home and reevaluate the situation and our plans.  Instead, she has shaken off the emotional impact and we’re ready to get back at it.

We feel very fortunate that Jenni was able to recuperate at the Shangri-La Rasa Ria, a terrific beach resort less than an hour from the city.  Next week we will fly to Palawan and with any luck Jenni will be 100% recovered and ready to proceed with our planned Nepal trek in April.

::these sunsets are definitely aiding in her recovery::

I think a “special thanks” section would be in order here, and this is by no means an exhaustive list.  We appreciate all the love and support of our family and friends   My father has been my first call for any medical issue for my entire life.  Not only because he’s my father, but because he is brilliant.  Unfortunately, this means he had to field calls from drunken frat boys at odd hours of the night during my Tufts years.

He was in communication with us throughout, starting well before we reached the hospital.  In fact, we first appreciated Jenni’s condition could be serious when he said that it didn’t sound like nothing.  For those of you who know Ron, his personality and incredible knowledge conspire to make him shrug off most problems.  Well, he does’t really shrug them off, he just seems unimpressed.  Like, “oh, it sounds like X.  If doing Y hurts, don’t do Y.  I predict a full recovery.”  He knows just about everything, but supplemented that with research of his own since he’s not an infectious disease doctor and certainly not a tropical specialist.  He guided us from afar, including in the middle of the night and at times speaking on the phone with the attending physician.  There is simply no way to overstate the value of a doctor 100% focused on your interests and with a competence level way off the charts.  When Jenni was starting to recover, she said something to the effect of “your dad is a freak of nature.  I am so happy we have him.”  Me too.

We booked our Borneo trip through Hannah G. at Audley.  Their team and local agents/partners in Kota Kinabalu and up at Mount Kinabalu were exceptionally helpful and thoughtful.  We were staying at Kinabalu National Park when we decided medical attention was in order.  The staff at the lodge there were so accommodating (the whole time, not just in sickness), we thought we might be getting punked.  Audley’s local agents are the ones who recommended the KPJ hospital.  When our plan to spend the night on the mountain was superseded by a night in Kota Kinabalu, they put us up at Le Meridien which was first class.  The team was in touch constantly, and one of the guys on the ground even visited us at our hotel and later at the hospital.  I would call out the names of these local agents since they certainly deserve it, but if you want to know just get in touch with Audley.  We had done virtually all our travel independently until Borneo, and boy were we glad that Audley and their team were there to help us.

While we suspected malaria and before we understood the quality of care at KPJ, I reached out to Swimmy and Matt K. in case we decided we should rush to Singapore.  Both assured me I could count on their full support and would not have to touch down blind.  Much love.

When it became clear that our onward travel plans (immediately to the Philippines) required alteration, I started making calls and sending emails.  Expedia’s customer service was very good, as was agoda’s.  Leo at Uncharted Philippines continued to “wow.”  The Philippines is not such an easy place to figure out travel plans for a first-time visitor.  The options seem endless and many destinations are difficult to reach.  I had extensive email and phone conversations with Leo while planning our trip.  I cannot say enough good things about his responsiveness and even more so his diligence.  He is one of the only people I’ve ever worked with who answers all my questions and then answers the four other questions that I should have asked.  His attention to detail is impeccable.  We had booked a couple awesome sounding treks and he provided some other travel services.  Five days before the arrangements were scheduled to begin (i.e. well beyond the 15-day advance notice requirement), I emailed Leo on a Saturday morning explaining the situation.  I offered to provide a medical certificate but did not yet have it.  He replied four hours later, by which time his refund of our payment in full (other than out of pocket expenses he’d already incurred and charges for planning services previously delivered) had already hit PayPal.

Last and certainly not least, the doctors and staff at KPJ were wonderful.  We really couldn’t have been more pleased with the facility nor the quality of care, especially considering this is still a developing country.  By the time Jenni was discharged, we were sad to say goodbye!

It is times like these when it’s hard to describe the soul-warming effect of great friends and family.  I tear up just writing this because it means so much to me.

Alan covered this trying experience in a moving and honest way, but it’s important to acknowledge his incredible support and contribution throughout this ordeal. I’ve had a history of being a slight hypochondriac, so when I was told by multiple doctors that my symptoms could indicate any one of several tropical diseases (raise your hand if you’re familiar with chikungunya) and/or meningitis (none of which I know very much about), you could say I was panicked. (Prior to this experience my knowledge of “lumbar puncture” was limited to “isn’t there a movie called This is Spinal Tap? And didn’t I read somewhere that a spinal tap is one of the most painful medical procedures out there? (turns out, it’s not, but it’s still pretty damn scary when a doctor in a foreign country tells you he needs to insert a needle into your spine)). To be sick is one thing. To be undiagnosed and later diagnosed with a disease you’ve only heard of in the context of college students dying, all while in a foreign country whose health care system you know next to squat about? This is a situation in which you need moral support.  Alan was my rock throughout the entire experience. He fought for my access to the best care I could receive, he wore his bravest face even when he was scared himself, fielded phone calls from my parents back stateside who were understandably terrified and helpless feeling, bought every cracker available in the convenience store when I couldn’t stomach hospital food and got a craving for saltines, and he tirelessly took care of me and all the headaches this disease caused, making phone calls, canceling flights and hotel reservations, obtaining test results and letters from the doctors, reaching out to insurance companies, and so on and so on. I am so thankful to call him my husband and my partner. I’ve teared up several times since this ordeal, at how lucky I am in a number of respects, many of which Alan outlined above, but especially for his love and support. 

::got crackers?::
::got crackers?::
Asia, Borneo, Brunei

Two Royal Sightings in Brunei

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Brunei is a tiny nation of about 400,000, located on the north coast of Borneo and surrounded by Malaysia. It has been a sultanate since the 14th century, and at its peak controlled much of Borneo and part of the Philippines. Brunei gained full independence from the UK in 1984. Coincidentally, we arrived the day after its 30th anniversary celebrations and on the Monday official holiday.

Brunei has been ruled since 1967 by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah. He has pretty much absolute authority. And boatloads of money owing to Brunei’s extensive oil and natural gas resources. In addition to his title of Sultan, he is the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense, the Minister of Finance, and probably anything else that might matter. Our driver said the Sultan is generally beloved by the population, but I think some are less than thrilled he is implementing a Shari’ah penal code in phases beginning in April 2014. Instituting a penal code that includes hand-chopping as a legitimate punishment is rarely seen as progress. I spent a lot of time googling how this happens (e.g., do they do it surgically? Just chop it? Do they stitch it up after?), and making absolute certain to use my VPN whilst doing said research, given the warnings popping up on the hotel’s WiFi network that the government may monitor usage. The nation is predominantly Muslim, but there is a church and a few Chinese temples.

::cheap cheap::
::the hotel had arrows pointing towards Mecca for Muslim prayer::

A few other random observations of Brunei: they are really into their flag. Tons and tons of flags everywhere. You also see basically no motorbikes here, perhaps because gas is so cheap, a gas-guzzling vehicle is not as difficult to afford. Lastly, there are no cigarettes sold in the country (legally at least) and you can’t smoke in public.

Brunei doesn’t have a whole lot of stuff on offer, aside from an opportunity to get your voyeur on ogling the details of the lives of the royal family. And the obsession is full on Britney-during-the-head-shaving-saga, Bieber-fever, Hasselhoff-in-Germany type obsession. I suppose it makes sense, that in a nation of only 400,000 people the most interesting man in the, well, nation strikes a fascination of the people that would fill Brunei’s version of People magazine from cover to cover. I can’t lie, I got bit by the paparazzi bug and found myself wanting more and more of the juicy details on these guys.

We visited only the capital and largest city, Bandar Seri Begawan, and explored the city’s main highlights in a half-day guided tour.  There was a mix-up and the guide was really a driver not a guide, so we didn’t get edumacated quite as much as we’d hoped. We visited the two famous mosques: the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque and the Jame’Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque. The former was closed when we first attempted a visit and so we had to circle back later, and wouldn’t you know it, there was a function (I believe our driver claimed it was a Koran reading contest, I had no idea that was a thing) at the Jame’Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque and so we weren’t allowed in at this one, either.

::Jame’Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque::
::Jame’Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque::
::Jame’Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque::
::Jame’Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque::
::Jame’Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque::
::Jame’Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque::
::Jame’Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque::
::Jame’Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque::
::Jame’Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque::
::Jame’Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque::
::Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque::
::Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque::
::Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque::

It is a very beautiful building though, and we got a little paparazzi glamour and excitement when we heard a member of the royal family was on his way. We camped out by the entrance in anticipation since we’d heard the Sultan himself loves to shake hands with visiting tourists. Unfortunately, it was only one of the princes: the non-crown Prince Abdul Malik. But it was still really cool to see his secret service style brigade of cop cars line up and salute his arrival. We were fascinated to learn that despite being one of the richest people in the world, the Sultan opts to drive himself everywhere, and even flies his own jets when he travels by air. I don’t know, I think I’d want to take advantage of that private 747 lounge if it were me.

::waiting for the prince::
::we’ll never be royals::

We also visited the Sultan’s palace, which is apparently the biggest palace in the world, containing 1,788 rooms including 257 bathrooms. You can’t see much from outside the gates, and we were sad to learn that we were not in town on the three days it’s opened to the public (for Hari Raya at the end of Ramadan). Our more immediate timing was just off as we passed the Crown Prince flying by in one of his baller cars (I think it was a McLaren but can’t be sure) on his way to the palace a few minutes after we left. Too bad, but that technically counts as two royal sightings on our one day in Brunei. The Crown Prince, by the way, has somewhat of a reputation as a bad boy and rumor has it that this is the reason his father has yet to hand over the throne to this grown ass kid. For a country instituting Shari’ah law it’s curious that one or more of the royal princes are known for partying and gambling with their rich and fancy friends over in Londontown. Something tells us they aren’t going to be punished for these alcohol-related sins.

::view of the palace from the water::
::Brunei’s flag::

The royal display of wealth is something relatively new. The former sultan’s palace is maybe 1/100th the size of the current Sultan’s Guiness record holding abode.

You can get a little more of a voyeuristic look into the Sultan’s and royal family’s lives by visiting the Royal Regalia Museum. We really enjoyed wandering around here, checking out the accoutrements and chariots used in royal ceremonies like the Sultan’s silver jubilee. What’s maybe the most fascinating is the insane collection of gifts given by visiting dignitaries. I can only imagine what the gifts he keeps in his palace are like.  We also learned that the Sultan is into sports.  Don’t say anything, but his golf game needs work based on the picture showing the total breakdown of his left elbow on the backswing.

::sultan’s chariot::

Lastly, we visited the world’s largest water village (Kampong Ayer). It’s an entire city built on the water, with overwater homes, schools, police and fire stations, even a mosque. Though we still don’t quite understand why, given that people do not eat the fish from this water and there appears to be plenty of land. Our guide was not so adept at explaining this. Some of the homes were quite modern; the one we visited had two flat screens and a karaoke setup that was just absurd. That said, a number of the homes are quite rustic, and their waste management consists of dropping it into the water below. But photos of the Sultan hang on the walls, and picture books of the royal family sit on the coffee tables. It struck us as a bit mysterious how the Sultan could be so popular when his wealth is so over-the-top and flaunted, yet the resources don’t appear to be generously distributed to the people or the weathered feeling city. Although Brunei is very wealthy on a GDP per capita basis, it doesn’t feel as wealthy or modern as we expected.  It is nothing remotely like Dubai, where Ferraris and five-star hotels run rampant.  We are speaking with very imperfect knowledge, but maybe this is because the Sultan has all the money here whereas Dubai is really a trading and financial hub with a large tourism industry. That said, citizens do reap the benefit of very cheap petrol – roughly US$1.50 per gallon.

::fancy lil water house::
::over water mosque::

Aside from our half-day tour we did relatively little, largely because Jenni was exhausted from what turned out to be meningitis. But let’s be honest, it’s not like we missed a whole lot. Alan did make it out for a bit to peruse Tamu Kianggeh, a small, riverside market with fruits, vegetables and lots of dried fish.  The eating stalls did not call his name. He did grab the nasi katok, $1 chicken and rice meals that are available throughout the city. We skipped the Gadong night market due to Jenni’s physical condition and the fact that we were a bit night market-ed out at this point, but we’d heard good things. We opted in lieu for the Radisson’s buffet dinner. Jenni couldn’t have been feeling all that sick because as she stood in front of about ten dessert options Alan overheard her murmuring quietly to herself, “alright, we might as well get started here,” completely deadpan, like there’s a lot to do here so procrastinating won’t help. We had a great laugh when he called her out on it.

::tamu kianggeh market::
::nasi katok::

We had read that given its petroleum wealth, Brunei has had an easier time preserving its above ground treasures and thus still has much intact rainforest.  Our brief stay did not allow exploration, but we saw a monkey sitting beside the highway on the drive in, and I believe one may find the awesomely hilarious proboscis monkeys elsewhere in Brunei.

Practical Info

The Brunei Dollar is interchangeable with the Singapore Dollar, and the current exchange rate is about 1 USD = 1.27 BND.  We use “$” to indicate Brunei Dollars.

Transportation: We flew from Kuching to Miri (the second largest city in Sarawak, big on petroleum, palm oil and timber) where we had a driver for the ~2.5 hour trip to Bandar Seri Begawan.  We departed on a Royal Brunei Airlines flight to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah.  They are doing construction on the Brunei airport; presumably it will soon be much better than the current version which is weak.  We were told the departure tax is $12, but it is only $5 if you are flying to Kota Kinabalu and I think maybe anywhere in Malaysia or Singapore.

Note that we arrived to Brunei on Monday February 24, a national holiday.  The line of cars waiting to cross from Brunei into Malaysia that morning was insanely long.  Our driver estimated perhaps three hours.  Had our flight into Miri arrived in the afternoon instead of the morning, we might have been waiting behind all those cars when they returned to Brunei after shopping.

In the very unlikely event you are headed from Miri into Brunei and need supplies, there is a huge complex near Miri called eMart that roughly approximates Costco.

Accommodation: We stayed at the Radisson Hotel downtown.  It is quite nice and the WiFi works well, just beware the government may be monitoring you.  Oh wait, they are in the US anyway.  There is a pool and fitness center.  The Empire Hotel is a bit outside the city, and our driver says it is the nicest resort in the country.  It has a golf course and is located on the beach.

Food: Nasi katok is Brunei’s signature “fast food,” basically a packet of rice, sambal and chicken or beef sold for $1.  “Katok” means knock in Malay, and the origin of this dish is said to be the olden days when there were no 24 hour restaurants so a hungry soul had to knock on the door of a food seller and get him out of bed.  I tried this dish at the chain Nasi Kotak Mama.  The sauce is sweet, there is no spicy option.  You pick your piece of fried chicken out of a container.  I didn’t realize I chose neck.  But after eating chicken feet the last two days, I guess balance was in order.

The Gadong night market is said to have ample food options, and there are food stalls nearer our hotel that I think offer “pick your seafood and how you want it cooked” dining.  We opted for the $25 buffet at the Radisson, and it was not bad at all.

After visiting Kampong Ayer we had lunch at Kaizen Sushi at the jetty.  This is a proper Japanese restaurant, the kind of spot where business meals happen.  The menu is incredibly extensive and it was great, and reasonably priced all things considered.

Activities: The Istana Nurul Iman, the official residence of the Sultan and the largest palace in the world. Visit during Hari Raya for a chance to go inside. Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque and Jame’Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque.  Kampong Ayer is the floating village. The Royal Regalia Museum was worthwhile. The Brunei Museum was largely closed during our visit but might be nice when open. The Gadong night market. Ulu Temburong National Park.

February 24-25, 2014 (Monday-Tuesday)

Asia, Borneo, Iban Longhouse, Malaysia

Oooooo-Ha’ing with the Iban

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First of all, just know that despite the fact that when we look at the photos from this trip we are filled with a burning desire to know whether the glass Jenni is holding in each picture is carrying meningitis, we still consider this one of the absolute highlights of our entire trip.

The Iban are a Borneo tribe, a branch of the Dayak people. They are renowned for their headhunting practices and had a fearsome reputation in days past as a tribe successful in war and territorial expansion.

::Iban org chart::
::Iban org chart::

The Iban typically live in longhouses, which (not surprisingly) are long, rectangular buildings housing several families. They are somewhat akin to attached apartments, with separate rooms in the back fronted by a large common room spanning the length of the house, and a large verandah outside where residents dry crops and laundry. The indoor common area is typically used for welcoming guests and communal ceremonies. Of course historically they were quite rustic and many still are today, including the one we stayed at, though even this one had running water and toilets in an outhouse, and televisions in the rooms.

::pepper drying::
::verandah::
::communal room::

We were surprised to learn that for the most part this is not communal living.  Each family tends its own crops and eats its own harvest.  The original purpose of the longhouse was to provide safety in numbers.  Nowadays the allure of the city is too strong for many of the younger generation, and this legendary way of life may not be around so much longer.

To get to the longhouse, we took a longboat up the Lemanak River. These boats are narrow and quite long, like really long canoes. Luckily ours had a motor so the ride wasn’t too long, but our hosts still had to use a bamboo pole to punt the boat forward as we passed through shallow, rocky patches. Lady is jacked, my friends. These rides were surprisingly pleasant. The water is brownish and not terribly inviting, but the scenery is spectacular, the river flanked on either side by massive jungle trees and vines.

Once we arrived at the longhouse we took a quick tour of the property, visiting the house pigs and chickens (which we came to hate when the roosters crowed ALL. NIGHT. LONG.). The Iban grow dry rice (directly on the hillside, without terracing), pepper and a handful of other crops nearby, mostly for personal use, but they also sell their pepper once a month.

::beautiful red dragon flies::

Alan joined the kids for a quick dip at bathtime. While they do have running water now, the laundry is washed, the people are bathed and the teeth are brushed in this murky river.

Once everyone was cleaned up, the real fun began. We joined Eric and Paul (our indescribably phenomenal guide and driver) and our hosts in the kitchen of one family’s living area while Eric and Paul finished cooking up our feast. And our boatman brought out the langkau at this point. Oh, the langkau. So much langkau. Langkau is a drink, which, per Wikipedia, “contains a higher alcohol content because it is actually made of tuak which has been distilled over fire to boil off the alcohol from the tuak, cooled down and collected into containers.” It’s hot as Hades in this little room to begin with, and with the oven going it got sweaty real fast. The men are hanging out shirtless, and the shotglass starts making its way around the room. The Iban believe in black magic and spirits, so they won’t drink something that you won’t drink yourself, and so when they drink the langkau, the person serving first pours himself a shot, lets out a hearty “oooooooh-ha!” cheers before taking it, then pours a shot (using the same glass) for his guest, and makes his way around the room offering everyone a round out of that same glass. (We checked with Eric afterwards and nobody at the longhouse has fallen ill, but doesn’t this just sound exactly like how your parents warned that you would get meningitis in college!?). Let’s just say the “ooooooh-ha’s” got progressively louder and louder as that shotglass made the rounds. We bought a bottle for the group (at the spectacular price of 6 MYR a bottle, how could you not? Perhaps that’s why we bought two over the course of the night). There was another couple staying at the longhouse and cooking in the next room with a different family, and we may or may not have gotten into an “ooooooh-ha” off. Iban drinking contests are the best drinking contests.

::oooooh-ha!::

Our boatman, Bundong, the ripped 57 year old with ab ridges (what!? I don’t know many 20 year olds with abs like that!), was big on the langkau. Relentless with those shots. And his big grin is infectious as he pours himself a shot and says “I first.”

::shots shots shots shots shots shots::

All that langkau had us working up an appetite, an appetite so great that Alan tried his first taste of chicken feet. We learned that the Iban look forward to these visits from tourists, despite that many of them cannot communicate with us verbally, because they get to hang out, drinking langkau and eating their favorite chicken feet soup. Eric and Paul are serious cooks, too. We thoroughly enjoyed the spread they prepared for us, and we were particularly blown away by the fried bitter gourd. I take back what I said in Penang, that shit is great.

::chicken feet::

Paul, our driver, was perhaps the most hilarious throughout the night. I don’t think he wore anything but a towel once we arrived at the longhouse (I don’t blame him, it’s insanely hot in there). The women wear sarongs.  They are Christian mixed with animist and not socially conservative in terms of dress, which Alan loved because he didn’t have to wear a shirt all night, either. When Paul brought out some bananas for dessert and offered them with a “ba-na-na-na” to the tune of Beethoven’s Fifth, we all collapsed into laughter. Both Paul and Eric were so appreciative of us because it allowed them the opportunity to spend this time with the Iban, and we can totally understand why. Still, it was over the top when Paul sat there insisting that he is there to serve us and fanned us to offer some relief from the heat.

After dinner we all gathered in the common room to watch a few of our hosts perform their traditional dance. The rhythm of the beat was exotic and entertaining, and we adored watching the few guys and gals in costume move to the tunes.

Eric blew us away though, closing the performance with an impressive dance he crushed and then wowing us by lifting the mortar that weighs maybe 10 kilos with his teeth!!

We were invited to join for the dancing, and when you’ve had that much langkau it’s easy to get up there and take part, though we left the oral mortar lifting to the pro.

After the dance we gave our gifts to the chief. It’s customary and expected to bring small gifts for each of the 12 families as an offer of appreciation for their hospitality. We had picked up little boxes of tea and salt for each family at a shop on the way (not terribly exciting, but Eric advised that it’s something they would actually use. Still, had we come directly from the US it would have been nice to bring something more personal). They put the gifts in even piles on the floor and someone from each family gathers the loot. It reminded me of sorting the goodies and comparing your take to your brother’s after a night of trick-or-treating as a kid.

The drinking continued after the dancing, and well into the night. It was such a fun party, and we didn’t feel like outsiders at all. We were even brought in on the inside jokes, like their use of the word “nee-koh-dee,” which translates to “whatever,” and which everyone says with an almost Clueless tone to it and never fails to get people laughing. We became a little obsessed with the riddle games on Eric’s phone, and the guys even got massages from crazy Paul. Alan’s drunken munchies amused the crowd when he devoured half a loaf of cake late night. When it was finally time to hit the sack, Eric even tucked us in our mosquito nets ☺. We slept in the common room on mattresses they laid out. It was not the most restful night of sleep we’ve ever had, those roosters were like a caricature of farm life.

::me and the girls::

Eric and Paul made us another small feast for breakfast, which helped negate the effects of all that langkau 😉 . We tried our hand at the blowpipe after eating, and Jenni nailed a dead-center bullseye on her first try. Beginner’s luck for sure.

::blowpipe::

After a quick walk through the woods where we saw a rubber tree and some traditional animal traps, we hopped back on the longboat to go downriver for a picnic barbecue lunch on a rocky beach. Eric, Paul, Bundong and his wife cooked up yet another veritable feast for us. They cooked the chicken and a handful of other dishes wrapped in banana leafs and stuffed in bamboo shoots, which are then filled with some water and placed over the fire. Delicious. Bundong was back at it and the guys killed another bottle of langkau before continuing down and back to the van. Look at the joy on his face when he’s pouring those shots. Man loves his langkau.

Our time with the Iban was extraordinarily fun, an absolutely amazing experience that we will forever cherish.

On the drive up to the river, we had stopped in Serian, a crossroads and trading post where we checked out a native market with lots of fruits and vegetables, giant bins of catfish and other seafood, and some more exotic treats like soft shell turtle and even a huge python hacked into pieces and the lifeless body of another terrifying snake (we couldn’t snap photos of these as they’re illegal, but it didn’t stop the vendors from showing off their wares to us tourists). Alan was also tempted by the larger than life bacon slices on offer. While Eric was doing the shopping for our meals at the longhouse, we couldn’t help ourselves and had to sample some eats at the prepared food stations, the highlight by far being the “Mexican hats,” a superbly healthy mixture of deep-fried flour and brown sugar at the even sweeter price of three for one ringgit (about 30 cents US).

We also stopped along the road to see some even more impressive species of pitcher plants. Look at the size of those things! They are carnivorous plants with fascinating trapping mechanisms to catch their prey. We briefly explored Liew’s pepper farm and learned a bit about the pepper farming process, a common crop in Sarawak. On the drive back we also stopped to see some palm oil trees. Apparently these palm trees are farmed for their oil in these parts, and the plantations are known to attract king cobras who covet the rats eating the fallen fruits.

After our stay at the real longhouse, we drove a short way then took a boat to stay at a longhouse styled resort, the Hilton Batang Ai Longhouse Resort. The resort sits on the shore of a lake created when they dammed a river and flooded the area back in the 80’s.  The hotel has a nice lobby and grounds, which is great in the evening for sunset cocktails (and watching the fruit bats) and birds chirping in the morning.  The rooms could use a facelift, very 80’s/90’s jungle chic. And the longhouse design is neat and makes the buildings blend in nicely, but it also means your room is cut off from a view of the lake.  The staff were super friendly and the service was great, but we probably wouldn’t recommend going out of your way to stay here. That said, the pool area is pretty nice, and we enjoyed a swim as a relief from the pressing humidity and played a (pitiful) game of Scrabble poolside.  Still recovering from that langkau perhaps.

The resort also has a short jungle walk with a treetop canopy, which we explored with Eric. The tree-top walk is not ideal for those with a fear of heights, as it’s literally a series of ladders (narrow!) with two by fours laid atop it and a little bit of netting up the sides (wobbly! rickety!). Jenni was a real trooper to make it across, even Alan agreed it was a little scary :). Had I been able to look outwards, this is the view I would have seen:

On our ride back to Kuching we stopped for lunch at Ranchan, which is a small park with a swimming hole and waterfalls that kids would jump off up to maybe 30 feet. Lovely spot for a family Sunday, Borneo style.

Back in town we finally checked out the Sarawak Museum that had some good displays on fauna and native traditions and history, including some actual skulls from headhunting days and longhouse displays etc.

Practical Info

I believe that only Audley’s local agent sends guests to the particular longhouse we visited.  There are other day and overnight trips to longhouses, but we heartily recommend ours.  Especially if you can have the Eric and Paul team.

We offered our views on the Hilton above.  It was nearly empty as this was still the offseason.  There are lots of fruit bats and geckos around.  The lake is lovely but you cannot swim in it, I believe for safety concerns but it wasn’t clear whether this is due to a crocodile relative or risk of injuring yourself on the trees that were submerged when the dam was built.

You didn’t hear it from us, but you could buy beers for 5 MYR in advance vs. paying 20++ there.  That said, my Batang Ai Sunset cocktail was well worth the 24 MYR, as was my tilapia (many farms in the area) at dinner for 28 MYR.  Our room included breakfast, which entailed a ludicrous amount of food.  We got bread and pastries then cereal then pancakes then an omelet.  Plus coffee and fresh guava juice.

Back in Kuching, the Sarawak Museum is free and open every day but check the hours.

February 21-23, 2014 (Friday-Sunday)

Asia, Borneo, Malaysia, Semenggoh

Borneo’s Hairy Gymnasts

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On our way out to the Iban longhouse we stopped at the Semenggoh (aka Semenggok) Orangutan Rehabilitation Center to try our luck at seeing some of these awesome creatures in the (semi) wild. Orangutans are another rare primate found in Borneo. You’ll recall from our Bako post that proboscis monkeys are endemic to this island, and orangutans are nearly so.  The only other place they may be found in the wild is the Indonesian island of Sumatra.  They are the largest tree living mammals in the world, and the alpha males have super wide cheeks with concave faces. Apparently these grow larger when they become the dominant male, crazy!

Semenggoh is Sarawak’s main orangutan rehabilitation center for those people of the forest (literal translation of organgutan) that have been injured, orphaned or previously kept as illegal pets. After initial rehabilitation in smaller centers they are brought here for re-introduction to the wild, while they are still monitored. Thus they are semi-wild, and since there is nothing like a cage or enclosure separating us from them, our introduction came complete with a number of warnings that incited just a touch of fear in addition to the suspense and excitement.

We were told not to carry food or even water bottles with us, and after hearing the stories about some of the bouts of violence from these mean lean hairy machines, I’m very glad we listened. Luckily for us, but sadly still, the most violent orangutan died recently. Hot Mama, as she was called, liked to start ish. But apparently she tried to start something with Ritchie, the alpha male weighing in at around 250 pounds, who took matters into his own hands and left Hot Mama for dead, dismembering three of her limbs in the process.

We lucked out and got to see three orangutans right away. A mama and baby plus another that was either a female or young male. This was a fantastic experience. These are such incredible and acrobatic creatures, swinging around on the ropes and trees. They jump around, do cartwheels upside down on the ropes, and hang from various limbs while they eat.  Their flexibility is extraordinary.  It’s like watching really hairy muscular people doing the parallel bars at the Olympics.

::cartwheels::

One of the rangers fed them from a platform, handing them bananas and coconuts. It was crazy to see an orangutan carry a coconut away in its foot while it scurried up a tree. I hadn’t realized their feet are basically like additional hands, shaped almost identically and with opposable thumbs/big toes. They’re smart, too, banging the coconuts against the tree to get the juice out.

Orangutans live quite long, up to about 40 years in the wild or into their 50s if in captivity, and we got to see Semenggoh’s first and only grandmother. She and her son were just hanging out in a tree above the parking area. Grandma was so mellow, and she blinked her eyes real slowly like a wise old grandma, not worried about missing anything. After ogling at her for a while, a ranger came by and gave her a turnip, which she shared with her boy orangutan, while everyone oohed and aahed.

::grandmama’s slow blinks::
::monkeying around::
::like mother, like son::

As we were hustling to get back towards the parking lot when we heard Grandma was out, Alan had a near-miss with a Wagler’s pit viper that decided to chill out in the middle of the trail!!  Foot mid-way in the air he fortunately spotted it in time and so (thank our lucky stars) there was no trip to the hospital (if only we were so fortunate the rest of our trip!) and our guide Eric was able to stop and warn all the other tourists approaching from both sides.

We also saw some crocodiles in little cages. Aren’t they scary looking?! Those eyes… And we got our first peek at Borneo’s neat carnivorous pitcher plants.

::pitcher plants::
::crocs::

Practical Info

Semenggoh is only about a half hour drive from Kuching.  We arrived for the 9 am feeding.  I think there are at least two feeding times most days and your chances of seeing an orangutan are much higher at these times.  Because all our Borneo activities were handled by a tour agent, we do not have many details on how to visit.  But this information should be widely available online and your hotel in Kuching can probably arrange a visit…or see e.g.: http://borneoadventure.com/tours/semenggoh-orangutans/.

February 21, 2014 (Friday)

Asia, Bako, Borneo, Malaysia

Proboscises, Vipers and Muffin Eating Macaques, Oh My!

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Our day trip to Borneo’s Bako National Park (also known as the day a macaque ate my muffin) was our first introduction to the spectacular wildlife Borneo has on offer. Our hilarious guide, Eric, informed us in advance that there are six animals we would search for and with a little bit of luck and a lot of Eric’s great wildlife spotting skills we got to see all six! (They are hard to spot on your own, so while it’s possible to visit the park without a guide, we would highly recommend you hire one! Plus they are great resources for information about the flora and fauna.)

::hey guys, whatchya doin??::

The “big six” were pretty spectacular. First, the monkeys! There are three types of monkeys in the park, in ascending order of coolness: macaques (most common, you see these guys all around Asia), silver leaf langurs, and the jackpot: proboscis monkeys.

Proboscis monkeys are peculiar looking animals, readily identifiable by their epic schnozes. They also have long, thin, whitish tails and the alpha males especially have gigantic pot bellies. These facially phallic monkeys are some of the strangest looking creatures we have ever encountered. They are endemic to Borneo and you can bet we were thrilled and in awe to have the chance to observe these guys in the wild for a while. Apologies in advance to the Dutch, but these fellas are also called Dutchmen. Wikipedia says this is because “Indonesians remarked that the Dutch colonizers often had similarly large bellies and noses.”  I did not realize that the Dutch were known as such, but you learn something new every day.

They are weirdly human despite their bizarre sniffers. Is it the hands? The eyes? The way they sit when they’re just hanging out?

Ok, and yes, this is a very graphic photo of a proboscis penis, but even though it’s essentially proboscis porn, it was just too funny not to share. We literally have dozens of photos of this guy’s frank and beans. In our defense, it was the first proboscis we saw, and we had no way of knowing whether it would be our last, and photographing from below makes proboscis penis appearances inevitable.

The silver leaf langurs are beautiful, and Eric joked that they are also known as David Beckham monkeys because of their spiky hairdos. They are pretty handsome, so…I don’t think it will ever get old watching monkeys clean each other, too cute.

The coolest thing about these primates is that they are a bright orange color when they are babies. We had the pleasure of seeing one youngin who had just a bit of orange coloring left, but unfortunately he moved around too fast for us to capture a photo. It’s pretty unbelievable though to see photos of the fiery newborns.

::hey guys, whatchya doin??::

The macaques are known around here as pirates. And we can see why. Not five minutes into starting our lunch a macaque appeared out of nowhere, jumped on the table and stole Jenni’s muffin, running up a tree to relish his booty. We realized at this point that Eric wasn’t kidding about carrying a slingshot to protect us from these brazen monkeys. Don’t worry, you don’t actually shoot at them, but just holding up the slingshot is enough to make them run. And when the macaque came back for seconds Jenni held up the slingshot, and he ran cowardly away.

::naughty naughty::
::yeah, i took yo muffin, whatchyou gonna do bout it, huh?::

These bearded pigs were pretty cool, too. I wouldn’t want to piss off one of them.

The most surprising of the big six was the Wagler’s pit viper. I never thought I’d describe a snake as beautiful, but these snakes are absolutely exquisite. They can stay still for days, unless provoked by another animal, the rain, or the need to eat. It makes sense then that the locals joke that if you pick them up and turn them over their stomachs will read “Made in China.” Don’t try it though, these statuesque creatures are venomous and will bite.

The last of the six we found just in the nick of time, as we were getting ready to board the boat and return to town. The flying lemurs are the most difficult to spot. These nocturnal creatures sleep all day so you’ll never see them moving, and to top it off they are masters of camouflage against the trees to which they cling while snoozing. We had to take pictures and zoom in before we even realized this was a mama lemur with a baby in tow!

The rest of the animal sightings were just icing on the cake. We saw tons of fiddler crabs with their lop-sided Popeye-sized claw, and some lovely cerulean colored crabs. We also saw small mudskippers (baby dragon type animals we saw earlier in Penang), and these snake-like sun lizards.

We saw very few birds in the park itself, which was somewhat surprising to us, though we did see some blue kingfishers on the drive in that were quite beautiful.

While the wildlife was clearly the highlight, it’s worth noting that the surrounding environs are quite impressive. The park is accessible only via boat, which picks you up by the Bako fishing village, takes you down the Bako River, and out into the South China Sea before arriving on a wide beach backed by lush rainforest. Don’t expect to swim here though, as the water is brown and muddy, not to mention there are crocodiles and jellyfish.

It is incredibly humid inside the forest. We did a bit of nature walking where we saw lots of jungly plant life. We were surprised how many plants here are spiked. There are more pointed plants here than in the desert! There is also a rare tree called the Bintangor, which is being studied currently as it may be able to cure HIV. Fascinating.

Mangrove trees are sprinkled around the coastline, and we discovered that what appear to be young plants growing around these trees are actually roots of the big mangrove trees that pop up out of the earth so the tree can breathe. Amazing.

Practical Info

Bako National Park is just 37 km from Kuching and occupies a mere 27 square km.  But it feels worlds apart and packs a lot into a small space.  Many of the animals congregate around the headquarters.  There are a handful of relatively short hiking trails and some longer ones.  Most trails are out and back with I think one loop trail.  We took the Telok Paku trail to a more secluded bay, which is where we saw the viper.  We also took the Ulu Assam trail, which ascends to a platform overlooking the main bay.  This latter trail is very steep near the top.

Transportation: We booked everything through our tour company, but you need to get to Kampung (village) Bako, which is about a 30-minute drive from Kuching.  I believe you register there and hire a motorboat for the 20-minute ride to the park.  Depending on the tide, you may have to disembark in shallow water.  If you have one, a small towel is handy.  As is insect repellant.  And your required departure time may be determined somewhat by the tides, as well.

The park is on the mainland but accessible only by boat.  On arrival, you check in at the park headquarters.

::just for fun, because this van was so tricked out::
::just for fun, because this van was so tricked out::

Accommodation: Most people visit for a day, but right by park headquarters you can camp or stay in a “lodge” or a hostel.  I believe all accommodation is very rustic.  And be prepared to battle the macaques.

Food: We had a boxed lunch prepared for us that we ate at the canteen at park headquarters.  I’m pretty sure they sell food and beverages there, and toilets are available.

February 19, 2014 (Wednesday)

Asia, Borneo, Kuching, Malaysia

Welcome to Borneo

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The island of Borneo holds legendary status among travelers.  The name conjures images and thoughts of dense rainforest, mysterious cultures and exotic wildlife.  It is the third largest island in the world, after Greenland and New Guinea (Australia, being a continent, doesn’t count).  Roughly 70% of the island (mainly the southern portion) consists of the Indonesian province of Kalimantan, with the remainder (mainly the northern portion) being the Malaysian states of Sarawak (in the west, where Kuching, our entry point, is located) and Sabah (in the east), plus the sovereignty of Brunei.

This is the first portion of our trip where we booked everything through a tour company (Audley).  Independent travel in Borneo seems quite doable, but we chose to spend less than two weeks on the island and felt it would be a smoother and more enjoyable destination if we had our plans laid out and the benefits of a private guide.

One of the biggest early surprises after doing research and arriving in Kuching is how developed the island is.  Kuching has a population of 650,000 and several buildings at least 15 stories tall.  For some reason, we kind of pictured Borneo as an undeveloped island with perhaps an airport or two and dirt roads and rivers.  I assume there are other landing strips for puddle jumpers, but Air Asia flies its Airbus A-320s to no fewer than eight different airports in Malaysian Borneo alone!

This city has a modern shopping mall with western chains and a Starbucks.  And a Maserati parked out front.  There is a large convention center outside town.  As if to confirm that we are not in the middle of nowhere, walking along the Kuching Waterfront we had our first chance encounter since California: we ran into Sheryl, my friend from Tufts.  Crazy small world.

::is this how you pictured Borneo??::

For a city whose name literally translates to “cat” in the local language, you would think that it might appeal more to Jenni, but it somewhat underwhelmed. The cat thing is played up big time with cat statues all around the city (cheesy but cute) and souvenir and trinket shops selling I ❤ Kuching paraphernalia decorated with cats. There is clearly an effort underway to develop Kuching as a tourism hub for Borneo. It has the potential to become more Cancun than Cassis in class. Fingers crossed that this city can manage its growth well and preserve its character while adding facilities and benefitting locals.

::kitty kitty Kuching::

Kuching is not a bad place at all.  It is pleasant enough and a fine place to spend a day or two to explore or while in transit.  The city is a bit weathered and our expectations were lofty. I think we envisioned a quaint, colonial-style riverfront village and that it is not. Perhaps though if we’d showed up here fresh from Los Angeles, and hadn’t just spent two and a half months gallivanting around other highlights of Asia we’d be more enticed by the Asian flair and the temples and all that. Are we becoming jaded!?

::government building not so shabby eh?::
::India Lane::

We definitely did enjoy the relief from Singapore prices and had a handful of tasty meals, including some fantastic laksa and teh tarik, a traditional spicy Malay noodle dish and tea drink, respectively. Walks along the Waterfront in the evenings were quite pleasant, with a handful of young musicians providing a soundtrack to the families and lovers walking about.  I really enjoyed my visit with Eric (while Jenni was sick) to the non-touristy Premier 101 Food Centre our last night in town. Tsingtao and chicken feet for the soul.

::Eric converted this guy into a chicken feet fan::
::top shop::
::top spot::
::teh tarik::
::pork satay and tea::
::laksa!::

Our hotel was also a highlight, as it was the first place we stopped in Asia that had a bathtub. And not just any bathtub, a big lovely tub with a sliding door that opened to the balcony. Living large at The Ranee in Kuching.

::reading nook at The Ranee::

Granted we are on a tropical island now, but it’s also the first place on our trip that we visited at the edge of its high season, and so we weren’t terribly surprised to experience our first rain on the trip since leaving the U.S.  But an impressive downpour and thunderstorm it was!  And very well-timed as it did not interfere with any of our scheduled activities.

There is much to see and do in Malaysian Borneo, and a comprehensive description is well beyond the scope of our blog.  But we will mention a couple places we skipped, in part because one area was a most difficult decision.  Some of the best places to see wildlife and I think the undisputed best places for tropical paradise islands in Borneo are in eastern Sabah.  This includes the Kinabatangan River and Tabin Wildlife Reserve, and world-famous SCUBA diving destinations like Sipadan and Mabul.  Unfortunately, there have been terrorist incidents on the offshore islands, with the most recent kidnap/murder occurring in November 2013.  The US State Department advises against travel to eastern Sabah.  We read the travel advice of the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, too.  Each is cautious on the coastal regions, though only the US recommends avoiding such a large geography.  Australia’s website warns: “There are recent indications that extremists may be in the advanced stages of planning to kidnap foreigners from locations in this vicinity.”

Most seasoned travelers will tell you that the US State Department is alarmist, and often we agree.  Every single person we asked (meaning Borneo residents and those in the travel industry operating on Borneo) said they would not worry about the travel warnings, or at least would only worry with respect to the offshore islands but not the slightly inland destinations of eastern Sabah.  People said they feel entirely safe there.  We take more comfort in such statements when the primary concern is petty or violent crime, as opposed to terrorism.  There is no right answer, but that is the decision we made.  Plus, we are hopeful that the risk will diminish over time (especially with the recent Philippines peace accord) and now we have a great reason to return.

Another top attraction we are skipping is the Gunung Mulu National Park.  This area in eastern Sarawak (close to Brunei) is famous for its karst formations and enormous caves, including the largest known natural chamber in the world.  We hope to return to visit this area, too.

Practical Info

Kuching is the largest city on the island of Borneo, with a population around 650,000.  It is the typical base for exploration of Sarawak.  It sits on the Sarawak River, a little south of the ocean.  Tourist activity seems concentrated on the Kuching Waterfront.  There is a lot of commercial activity on Jalan Padungan with food, hardware stores, bars, restaurants, etc.

There is a cluster of three banks with ATMs next to the Riverside Majestic hotel, across the street from a 24-hour McDonald’s.

We purchased a DiGi SIM card, and it was less smooth than in some other places.  Nobody could give us a clear answer on rates to call the US.  It seems to work fine.  We found lots of shops selling SIM cards on Jalan Padungan.  You can top up DiGi cards at 7-11, and you can also purchase U Mobile cards there.

Transportation: Kuching has an international airport about 15-20 minutes from downtown.  There is a Starbucks and a Coffee Bean.  Air Asia flies here, and there are direct flights from several Asian cities.  Since we are using a tour company for Borneo, we did not arrange our own transport from/to the airport nor to Bako National Park, etc.  I would imagine it is not too difficult.  You can walk around most of the downtown area.

Accommodation: We stayed at The Ranee Boutique Suites located across from the Kuching Waterfront.  The room is large and well-decorated, with a sitting area and big, modern bath with separate tub.  The location is excellent.  The included breakfast leaves a bit to be desired.  There is a large Hilton and other high-rise hotels on the eastern end of the Waterfront.  I think you would want to stay around the Waterfront, but the central city area seems small enough that it probably doesn’t matter too much.

Food and Drink: Lunch at James Brooke Cafe on the Waterfront was great.  10 MYR for a large, delicious bowl of Sarawak Laksa.  We were a little disappointed by Top Spot food court, a collection of seafood and other stands atop a parking garage.  It is very popular with locals and tourists.  We ate at Ling Loong seafood, and my snapper was neither grilled nor filleted as requested and at 26 MYR the value is questionable.  Though in fairness I inquired at a food stall in town that seemed entirely local and was quoted a higher price per kilo.  We dined at The Junk, a supremely atmospheric restaurant with good food and mediocre service.  Pizza, risotto, a glass of house red and a pint of Guinness cost 113 MYR.  We had lunch at Little Lebanon by the Sarawak Tourism Complex, across from India Street.  The food was pretty good and they have hookahs, which they also call Hubbly-Bubbly.  There is another location on the Kuching Waterfront.

There are many vendors selling popcorn, chicken kebab, laksa and more along the Waterfront.  Waffle stands are all over and smell amazing. There are a couple popular stalls selling pork satay (0.60 MYR each, minimum five, limited hours) across from Hiang Thian Siang Ti Temple (aka Shang Ti Temple) and next to Backpacker’s Stay.  We saw some Chinese noodle shops, dim sum spots and pork leg rice places on Jalan Padungan. Near India Street and the Electra House shopping center are food stalls with laksa, mee goreng, bao etc. for ~4 MYR per plate.

Premier 101 Food Centre is a mainly Hokkien hawker market located 10-15 minutes outside downtown.  There are hardly any other tourists, and perhaps 20-30 vendor stalls.  The spot at one end of the alley serves BBQ chicken feet (among other items) with a great, spicy dry rub (4 MYR).  I tried kolo mee (3 MYR) and kong pia (1 MYR each) and each was tasty.  Char siu bao (2 MYR) was also good.  The highlight was the apam balik, a very thin and crispy pancake that had ground peanuts and butter and was superb.

There are loaf-shaped cakes (Jenni deemed these “Tetris cakes”) sold around town, especially along Main Bazaar.  I hear Secret Recipe is the spot for cheesecake.

Zeus Sports Bar looks like a place you could catch EPL games.  21 Bistro had a more sophisticated menu.  Jambu and the Dyak are higher end restaurants that come recommended.

Activities: Walk along the Kuching Waterfront, which offers views across to the Astana palace (the official residence of the state Governor) and impressive State Assembly Building.  We did not visit any of the Chinese or Hindu temples and skipped a museum or two, but we managed to squeeze in a quick visit to the very good Sarawak Museum.  It has informative displays on fauna, longhouses and headhunting (among more), and it is open every day with free admission.  Walk along India Street, Gambier Road and the Indian Mosque Lane that connects the two.  It didn’t seem like the India mosque was too exciting, but we weren’t dressed appropriately to enter so couldn’t tell for sure.  You can cross the river and we read there are some villages and an orchid garden.  There is a weekend market that I believe is now located outside the city.

Day trips are perhaps the premier activity of Kuching.  We visited Bako National Park, and it was awesome.  We stopped at the Semenggoh Orangutan Sanctuary on our way to overnight at an Iban longhouse, but many visit the Sanctuary on a day trip that includes a nearer Iban longhouse.  You can also visit the Sarawak Cultural Village near Damai Beach.

February 18-21 + 23, 2014 (Tuesday-Friday + Sunday)

Asia, Singapore

Sim Singapore

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Singapore is the anomaly of Southeast Asia: everything is expensive, high tech and functional, and clean. Even the legal tender is clean! Every single place that gave us change handed over crisp, unwrinkled new bills. But the clearest indication we aren’t in Southeast Asian Kansas anymore: there are no tuk-tuks! And as if we needed further proof that the western world has its influence on Singapore…we spotted a tanning salon!

::view from the condo we stayed in::
::looks nice from above, no?::

From the get-go we were impressed with the competence level of just about everyone here. Immigration is seamless, incredibly fast and at one of the busiest airports in the world no less. They even provide mints and hard candies while you wait, which you don’t. And then after you make it through there is a machine with a five second survey on your immigration experience.

Cabs are efficient, with green “taxi” signs on top that change to a red “hired” when occupied. Even the chicken satay sticks at the mall are affixed to a machine that rotates and dips them in sauce for perfectly even distribution. You use a vending machine to pay for your haircut! And the WiFi works! We did in perhaps a few hours what it took us days to do elsewhere. Heaven sent because we’d been in the painstaking process of trying to upload photos to the cloud on slow third-world WiFi so that Jenni can use her computer which is now full to the brim.

::bathroom at the mall!::

Part of why everything is so efficient, orderly and highly functional: there are rules in Singapore. For instance, there is no gum sold in the entire country. Spitting is not allowed. Failure to flush a public toilet can result in a steep fine. There is not much traffic because the government limits the number of vehicle registrations that are available at any one time. It’s a nation run almost like a business. See the following examples:

And they are enforced strictly.

Our good friend (who shall not be named, only referred to by the pseudonym S. Goldberg), made the most perfect analogy of Singapore. Well, he made several. And we haven’t been able to come up with a better way to explain it. His words: Singapore is a real life SimCity, Disneyland (we even heard that buildings are required to emit insect repellant so this tropical former swamp stays mosquito-free!) or peaceful North Korea. This is about as accurate a comparison as we can imagine, though we did find ourselves trying to put our finger on what exactly Singapore reminded us of. The city is decidedly modern and westernized and it boasts a rather spectacular skyline. It’s very unlike pretty much all the rest of Southeast Asia, as noted above.  In ways it’s a lot like Miami, it’s hot and humid and a big city with tall buildings. But it definitely lacks that Miami flavor. In a lot of ways Singapore is similar to Los Angeles, with its clean, wide streets, new buildings and shiny happy people. But only if Los Angeles were the Grove or the 3rd Street Promenade (Los Angeles outdoor malls) everywhere. And if the Wilshire Corridor spanned the entirety of the Westside (hello, skyscrapers with rooftop pools!). It even had a little bit of a tropical answer to Savannah, what with its big beautiful trees lining the roads like live oaks.

::tropic live oaks?::
::the grove??::

I’m not going to lie, we had to do some googling on Singapore to figure out what the deal with a city-state is. There are about five million people living here, many of whom are expats, and it’s multi-cultural in a way that you don’t see too often outside the United States. Singapore has its own government, its own military. It is represented in the UN and competes in the Olympics (well I think just the summer Olympics, but according to Wikipedia they made a bid to compete in Sochi and can’t figure out if that panned out), but it covers a space of only about 275 square miles, there is no such thing as a “domestic” airport, and you have to use your passport to get out of the city for a weekend! Despite being the smallest country we’ve visited on this trip so far, it’s by far the most livable (if you like a western style of living). And it’s the first place we’re going on this trip with a higher GDP per capita than the US (per IMF). Not surprisingly, it’s the first place we’ve been in Southeast Asia where we drank tap water without fear.

::maritime trade clearly helping the economy::

There are a lot of expats here, but not so many Americans (probably because we are the only nation that taxes our citizens no matter where they’re residing and hence Americans can’t reap the full benefits of reduced taxation without renouncing citizenship). It’s easy to see how a Brit or Aussie could call this place home. It’s incredibly safe and you have the modern amenities of a western city, but with consistently warm weather (tropical, hot, humid weather, but it’s never cold), a diverse population and lots of green space.

Singapore is culturally mixed, primarily with Malay, Chinese and Indians. And not surprisingly all of these cultures are well represented architecturally and gastronomically throughout the city. There are several hawker stands dispersed throughout. These range in shininess – from the more typical Southeast Asian style stalls in Chinatown to what is essentially a mall food court in the basements along Orchard Road. We tried them both: decent Chinese food at the overwhelming and hectic Chinatown Complex, where we were the only non-Asians in sight, and nasi padang and a rather impressive Korean kimchi noodle soup in the polished basement of the Takashimaya mall. Something we discovered in Penang is also common around Singapore and we’re fast becoming big fans: barley drinks. So refreshing. The Asians like to chew their drinks huh? Boba tea, grass jelly tea, barley drink…we’re liking it.

::kit kats in millions of flavors, ranging from wine to red bean to several types of tea::
::Chinatown food stall market::
::barley drinks in Chinatown::

There are also western-style restaurants everywhere, and we took advantage of this opportunity to enjoy cheeseburgers for the first time since leaving the US. Though be aware that coffee is absurdly overpriced here. $6+ iced coffees?! What’s up with that?

There are several neighborhoods throughout the city with good food, shopping and entertainment on offer.  And they are somewhat easily accessible via foot (if you don’t mind sweating in that hot hot humid heat) and the MTR. We walked much of what we saw in one day, so it’s quite manageable, and we only took the MTR once, mostly to say we did, and also because Jenni couldn’t stop complaining about the heat. It’s nice and clean and air-conditioned in there. On par with Hong Kong for transport, even matching the extra fast station escalators.

Robinson Quay by the river is a lovely spot to dine or imbibe alfresco. It reminded Jenni a bit of the waterfront restaurants in Melbourne. We ate a handful of meals here. Further down the river is Clarke Quay, which had a very Grove feel to it, albeit on the water.

Orchard Road is a shopper’s paradise with mall after eight-story mall. Don’t expect great deals though, my suspicions that absolutely everything costs more in Singapore were confirmed when I popped into Forever 21 and discovered even they charge prices two to three times what you’d see in the states.

::shopping and efficiency::

Little India is definitely a toned-down version of the sub-continent, but there are still lots of colors, great Indian food, and a bit of Bollywood music. Memories of India flooded back, and we savored our first tastes of Indian food since leaving Varanasi more than a month ago. Oh how we missed that spicy goodness. India over-stimulates in just about every respect, but we aren’t complaining about the taste bud invigoration. Jenni eased her paratha withdrawal pains at Komala Vilas, a delicious veg food spot with superb parathas and other savory Indian dishes.

::ghee selection in little india, obvs::
::parathaaaaa::

We meandered around this area for a while, checking out the shophouses on Decker Street (though to the untrained eye these did not seem all that different from the shophouses on the other streets?). There are also a lot of cheaper hotels and hostels in this area.  We were surprised by signs prohibiting the consumption of alcohol in Little India from Saturday morning until Monday morning.  Only later did we learn this stems from the riots that broke out in early December.  We were also surprised to learn that Singapore otherwise has a fairly lenient policy towards booze.  Walk around Robertson Quay and you might find groups of youngsters drinking on the sidewalk.

The Arab Street area (aka Kampong Glam?) has a nice collection of Middle Eastern restaurants (solid selection of Turkish, Iranian, Egyptian etc. If only we hadn’t just eaten, we would have ordered the borek at Derwish for sure) and shops, with a concentration on the pedestrian-only Bussorah Street that is anchored at one end by the Masjid Sultan. Nearby Haji Lane had some eclectic cafes and bars, as well. Informative plaques are displayed, and we learned that: “Up to the late 1970s, Singapore was where Muslim pilgrims in Southeast Asia would gather to prepare for their journey and board the ships to take them to Jeddah or back home after the haj.  Kampong Glam, in particular Bussorah Street, was where many of these pilgrims gathered.”

Marina Bay and its surrounding environs are full of nice hotels and pricy restaurants.  From Esplande Drive and One Fullerton there is a great view of the Marina Bay Sands hotel and casino and Singapore’s part mermaid/part lion mascot: the Merlion. Pause in the underpass near the War Memorial if you want to see a hodge-podge collection of Singapore’s youth breakdancing and performing traditional Indian dance.

We visited Marina Bay Sands one evening with our friend Swimmy. He was a fabulous host, and after stuffing our faces with some fantastic garlic bamboo clams and chili crab at No Signboard Seafood in Geylang, we partied like rockstars with some Singapore Slings (obvs) at the rooftop bar. Not a bad view from this spot I tell you.

::view from marina bay sands::
::singapore slings at marina bay sands::
::chili crab with swimmy!!!::
::rooftop infinity pool at marina bay sands::
::not a bad view, eh?::

Chinatown is quite the happening spot, despite that we were there on a Sunday when many of the brick and mortar bars and restaurants were closed. Still, we got to check out Ann Siang Hill (which was clove and nutmeg plantations not so long ago), meander down Club Street, and be super mature tourists stopping to take a photo of this place:

P1060489

There are a handful of impressive temples over in this part of town, including Thian Hock Keng (Hokkien) and a Hindu temple (Sri Mariamman) reminiscent of the Meenakshi temple in Madurai, albeit a fraction the size.

Valentine’s Day seems to be a really big deal here, with promotions everywhere. Jenni got a free rose with her morning latte and it totally made her day. After a day full of blogging we snuck in a little romance with a dinner and chocolate lava cake at Wine Connection at Robertson Quay.

::do we order foie every time we see it now that it’s illegal in CA? maybe::

Our last night in town we met one of Alan’s friends from his Latham NY days for drinks at eM By the River.  It was great to catch up and learn more about Singapore’s quirks from an expat.  Among many other interesting facts, Matt confirmed what we had heard from our Airbnb hosts: Singapore apartments are required to have bomb shelters, and some residents have Filipino maids that live in these tiny spaces.  He also mentioned a documentary that I think is called “Meet the Natives – England and USA.”  The idea is to take our traditional notion of anthropology and flip it, i.e. tribesmen from remote South Pacific villages travel to observe people in the US and England.  Sounds fascinating!

Practical Info

Though we did not purchase a SIM card, I read that the major carriers are SingTel, StarHub and M1.  WiFi is not quite as ubiquitous as expected (though it is generally fast and reliable where it’s available). Of course ATMs are widely available and credit cards are accepted most places, though some have a higher minimum than you might guess. If you plan to spend a lot of time here, check out NETS.

Look into whether you need your passport to enter a casino here, as Singapore limits the gambling of its own citizens.

The exchange rate was roughly 1 USD = 1.27 SGD.  We use simply “$” for Singapore Dollars throughout.

Transportation: Changi International Airport is quite the hub, with non-stop flights to almost everywhere.  Immigration was the smoothest we’ve ever experienced.  We took a taxi from the official queue to our Airbnb apartment on River Valley Grove.  In the early afternoon, it took 20-30 minutes and cost $21.

Depending on where you stay, this is a very walkable city.  Public buses and trains have a great reputation, especially the MRT. As with most non-US cities, train fares vary by distance and you need your ticket to exit.  There are several different train lines so you may need to change.  Little India, Orchard Road (at Dhoby Ghaut), Clarke Quay and Chinatown are popular areas all next to each other on the purple North-East line.  The only time we took the train was one-stop from Dhoby Ghaut to Little India.  Each ticket was $1.30, of which $0.10 was the card deposit.  And remember, no durians on the train!

Taxis are very inexpensive compared to most US cities for long distances, though this is less true for short distances due to high flag drops and extra fees.  Taxis are plentiful, though when we tried to hail one at 7:15 pm on Thursday to Geylang we were denied by at least three…I think it had to with shift-change time, but Jenni is a pretty intimidating passenger.

A taxi from our apartment to the airport at 9:10 am on Tuesday morning took half an hour and cost $22.  There is free WiFi at the airport though you may need the ability to receive a code via SMS.  If you don’t have a mobile for this, ask someone to help you.

Accommodation: Lodging is very expensive relative to the rest of Southeast Asia. We opted last minute to go with an Airbnb spot given the price hikes as a result of the Airshow coinciding with our visit. The quality of moderately priced hotels and hostels even over $100 a night (and their pathetic reviews online) made us very pleased to be able to stay at a modern condo with private bathroom, laundry, a gym and a rooftop pool with views of the Marina Bay Sands for about the same price. Our hosts were super friendly and even provided bath products, Evian water and chocolates on our bed! While there are hotels that are a little closer to the action, we enjoyed this opportunity to see what life might be like as an expat living in Singapore.

There are many luxury properties here.  While we did not see a room, the Marina Bay Sands certainly has an amazing rooftop pool and bar.  If you are looking for more budget accommodation, there are hostels and cheaper hotels in Little India, Bugis and Chinatown.  Gallery Hotel, where we had drinks at eM bar, enjoys a nice location.

Food and Drinks: There is very good and ethnically diverse food in Singapore.  Restaurants tend to be expensive (and note that 7% GST and 10% service may be added to the bill), with much cheaper meals available from food courts and hawker stalls.  Alcohol is costly due to high taxation.  Many places have happy hour deals, but this means something like $6-10 for beer or a glass of wine…don’t expect a shot and a Tecate for $3.  Starbucks and Coffee Bean are common.

We did not hear about Dempsey Hill until our last night when it was too late to visit, but this converted British army camp sounds worth checking out.  I think it is near the Botanic Gardens so combining the two sounds like a lovely afternoon/evening.

No Signboard Seafood is famous for its chili crab and bamboo clams with garlic.  We dined at the original in Geylang, a huge place and an experience. Order lots of fried bread to soak up the chili crab sauce. It is expensive.

Malls often have food courts in the basement levels.  We ate lunch at Takashimaya where options included Chinese, Malay, Indian, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Korean and more.  Meals were $4-8.  Chinatown has multiple food centers, most of which were closed on Sunday.  The Chinatown Complex was open, and it was overwhelming up on that second floor! So many different stalls, mainly Chinese but also Thai, Japanese, Malaysian, etc. Cendol and ice kacang (which we discussed in our Penang post) are here. Jenni’s katsu don cost $4.50 and my soya sauce chicken noodles cost $2.50. I actually ordered chicken claw and was relieved to hear they had run out.

Little India has some food stands and proper restaurants.  We ate at Komala Vilas (there appear to be multiple) on Race Course Road and it was very good and cost $16. The Arab Street area has lots of Middle Eastern food, including some 24-hour options. Check out the intersection of Bussorah Street and Baghdad Street, as well as Haji Lane.

There are tons of options around Marina Bay and Clarke Quay.  Closer to our temporary home, Killiney Road has a handful of spots. Freshly Baked’s $3.50 iced coffee was the cheapest I saw.  Artisan Boulangerie Compagnie has no WiFi but fairly good food and coffee. Killiney Kopitiam is popular for coffee and kaya toast.

We spent a lot of time in the Robertson Quay area as it was nearby and very pleasant.  Boomarang is an open-air Aussie bar that made a nice place to watch the US defeat Russia in Olympic hockey.  My wagyu burger with bacon and egg was $30, a steep price but it satisfied my craving.  Jenni’s spiced lamb pizza for $18 was very good, and a bucket (5) of San Miguel beers was $40.

Ginza Lion was fine, the portion of chicken wings was large for the price.  Wine Connection Tapas Bar & Bistro was happening on V-Day and pretty good.  eM at the Gallery Hotel is a great spot for relaxed after dinner drinks.

Raffles is a classic luxury hotel.  We tried to do high tea but it was fully booked, so be sure to reserve in advance.  The menu at the restaurant looked great but was mega-expensive…like $198 for the degustation plus $138 for four glasses of paired wines.

Activities: There is quite a bit to do here.  Visit the Singapore Zoo, which also has a bird park, river safari and night safari.  The Singapore Botanic Garden is free, though I think you have to pay a little for the Orchid Garden.  There is also Gardens by the Bay at Marina Bay, and Jenni’s friend suggested you can get in free to the flower dome if you have a drink at Pollen Bar.

Walk around Chinatown, Marina Bay, Little India, Arab Street, Clarke Quay, Robertson Quay, etc.  There is a War Memorial monument and little park across from Raffles, a destination in its own right whether for a drink, high tea or just to see the grounds.

We did not make it to Sentosa Island, but Resorts World Casino is there along with Universal Studios and a Hard Rock hotel.  It is said to be a party place.

Should you need a haircut in Singapore, QB House is on level B3 of the 313@Somerset shopping complex.  It costs only $12 (paid to a machine, exact change only).  Plus they have this vacuum contraption to remove those prickly cut hairs before you get up.

February 12-18, 2014 (Wednesday-Tuesday)

Asia, Laos, Vientiane

Vientiane

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Sure it’s not the most exciting city we’ve visited, but we felt that Vientiane was rather excessively hated on by other travelers we met. We’re not advising anyone with limited time to spend a large chunk of their trip in Vientiane, but it’s a perfectly pleasant place to pass a day or so. That said, we didn’t do all that much here. Vientiane is just across the Mekong River from Thailand, but the view is less than inspiring. And there’s not really any one thing that you could label as the main attraction or reason to visit, but like much of Laos there are a handful of beautiful wats, good French eats, and lovely people.  As the capital and largest city by far, Vientiane also houses the Lao National Museum.

::that’s Thailand over there::

We checked out a few temples (it’s Southeast Asia, after all), and we discovered Wat Ong Teu: the wat for monks on mushrooms. Seriously, look at the psychedelic lights in there.

::temple for monks on mushrooms?::

We also arrived at Wat Haysoke just in time to catch the monks sitting down for their final meal of the day (they shall not eat after noon).

Of course, we sought out some good eats of our own. We were pleased with the fruit shakes and Greek salad at Noy’s Fruit Heaven. Benoni Café offered a tasty brie sandwich and solid coffees. Still loving that French influence and the great baguettes. While the service was atrocious, the sushi at Tokyo Sushi Bar (at Mix) was good, and the live music was lovely. You can order from a handful of restaurants surrounding the outdoor seating area, including sushi, Indian, Lao and Thai food. Jazzy Brick’s happy hour underwhelmed with the wine selection, but the half-priced cocktails, agreeable soundtrack and mid-century modern furnishings made up for it. We also enjoyed a nice Italian meal at Lao Luna D’oro.

::cocktails at Jazzy Brick::
::brie baguette & coffee::
::Mix::

We were weirdly most excited by the grocery stores we popped into. Phon Phet grocery had lots of imported goods, and we even found Ziploc bags! We of course re-upped. Another market near our hotel had first-rate snacks, including Funfetti mix!  But it is remarkably difficult to find lotion or face wash or practically any beauty product that does not “whiten.” It’s a fascinating cultural difference (in most Asian countries, actually) from the West, where tall, dark and handsome rules. You can be sure there are no tanning salons in Laos.

Having now spent two weeks in Laos, we can share some parting thoughts.  It has the horrible distinction of being the most heavily bombed (by the US) country, per capita, in history.  Unexploded ordnance remain a problem, though not really for tourists.  Laos became independent in the mid 1950s, but not long after a lengthy civil war ended the monarchy and the communists took over in 1975.  Efforts began in the 1990s to normalize relations with other nations.  Laos remains a very poor country and is one of five worldwide still considered to be communist.

Despite its troubled past and present-day poverty, we observed a peaceful and seemingly happy population that displays no outward resentment whatsoever towards Americans.  We have not been to Cuba, but those who have tell us the communist ideology is palpable to say the least.  Not so in Laos.  Tourism is on the rise, and we read that Laos expects to join the ASEAN Economic Community by the end of 2014.

::getting very used to traveling on these::

If we had more time here, these are a few places or activities that sounded interesting:

  • The Nam Ha National Protected Area
  • The Bolaven Plateau with its coffee plantations
  • Si Phan Don, aka the Four Thousand Islands (said to be a nice place to mellow out, with a chance to see the rare Irrawaddy dolphin)
  • The Gibbon Experience
  • Nong Khiaw and the surrounding mountains

As a final reminder of how awesome the people in Laos are, at the airport Alan forgot to check his Leatherman pocket knife.  Rather than making him throw it out, airport personnel at security, immigration and ticketing all helped us retrieve our checked bags and get the Leatherman on the plane. Everyone was so helpful and friendly. A great send off from this hospitable nation!

Practical Info

Vientiane is the capital of Laos and sits on the Mekong River, directly across from Thailand.  Most tourist wants and needs are found within a compact downtown area.  ATMs are everywhere.  We stumbled upon a couple grocery/multipurpose stores (Phon Phet, and Phimphone on the main drag) with many imported items in case you need something. It is not so easy to find Ziploc bags in developing countries, so…

Transportation: We took a “VIP” bus from Vang Vieng.  It cost 50k Kip each.  You are dropped at the north bus station from where a shared tuk tuk to city center costs 10k Kip each.  This bus was a bit less “VIP” feeling than the one from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng, but it was fine.  The scheduled departure was 10 am with arrival around 2-2:30 pm.  We were picked up at our guesthouse in Vang Vieng by a mini-bus after 10 am, then we made some loops picking up other passengers, and the actual bus didn’t leave until 11 am.  Even with a toilet (1k Kip) and lunch (sandwiches 10-20k Kip) stop, we still arrived at the Vientiane bus station at 2:15 pm.

This bus ride was less hilly, windy and scenic than from Luang Prabang, but we passed more villages.

Note that one may kayak from Vang Vieng to Vientiane, but be sure to inquire about details.  We met someone who did this and it sounded like a few hours of kayaking came with a lot of driving in less comfortable vehicles…like more combined driving hours than the whole bus ride.

Vientiane is the main international air hub for Laos (which isn’t saying much) and we flew from here direct to Singapore on Lao Airlines.  We purchased air tickets from All Lao Travel Service on the main street in Luang Prabang.  Ms. Teep beat everyone else’s price, and was far cheaper than what we found on Kayak.

A taxi from downtown to the diminutive airport at 6:15 am took less than 15 minutes and cost 60k Kip.

Accommodation: We stayed at Ibis, which is an Accor hotel.  At ~$60/night, you can find cheaper, but the room is nice, the WiFi works well and the location is excellent.  Street names are confusing but it seems to be on Rue Setthathilath.  It is close to several well-reviewed bars and restaurants like Joma, Benino, Amphone, Jazz Bricks, etc.

While searching online we also considered Dhavara and Avilla Phasouk.  These are all very near each other, and I would try to stay in this zone.  The downtown is small and easily walkable so a couple blocks this way or that shouldn’t matter too much.

Food and Drinks: We dined at Tokyo Sushi Bar, which I guess is part of Mix at Nam Phou Fountain Square, next door to our hotel.  The food was good but pricy and the service was poor.  The atmosphere was lovely, many tables outdoors with a fountain and live music.  Our brie baguette at Benino Cafe was OK, the coffee was great.  Noy’s Fruit Heaven comes recommended.  A tasty Greek salad cost 40k Kip and you can choose any combo for your 10k Kip fruit shake.  Friendly service.  Dinner at Lao Luna d’Oro was great.  My lasagna was richly delectable and the crust on Jenni’s pizza was superb…thin and doughy yet crispy.  We did not eat there but the owner of Le cafe de Paris in Vang Vieng recommended Chokdee Cafe Belgian Beer Bar.

Our viognier at Wine ’95 was OK but could’ve been chilled more. The service was good, though, and they agreed to happy hour prices before the official 6 pm start. Jazzy Brick’s happy hour cocktails for 20k Kip were solid, and the inside space is cozy and well-decorated with classy and comfy mid-century modern chairs.

Activities: There isn’t so much to do in Vientiane.  There are some temples and museums, we mainly walked around and stopped briefly at Wat Ong Teu and Wat Haysoke.  I believe the night market takes place in or around Chao Anouvong Park by the Mekong, itself something of a sight.  Naturally, there are plentiful massage parlors.  Last but not least, I believe there is a bowling alley, though we did not hear tales of late-night debauchery as in Luang Prabang.

February 10-12, 2014 (Monday-Wednesday)

Asia, Laos, Vang Vieng

“In The Tubing Vang Vieng”

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It’s easy to see why Vang Vieng went from an undiscovered paradise to a hedonistic party pit-stop on the Banana-Pancake Trail. Luckily, it’s been cleaned up quite a bit (including, for example, by removing the zip lines and rope swings that used to exist), and what you’ll find now is a nice mix of adventure tourism in a karst-studded landscape and (mostly) good-natured fun.

::smart man, hammock in the tuk tuk::
::our balcony view::
::karsts::

Vang Vieng is best known for its popular tubing activity, where tourists rent inner tubes and use them as transportation to bar hop among the aptly named Bar One, Bar Two and Bar Three along the Nam Song river. This is a backpacker rite of passage we are very glad not to have missed.

::clearly enjoying myself::
::tubers and kayakers::

You rent your tube in town, and then a tuk-tuk takes you about three or four kilometers up the river. There is a bar set-up just beside the Organic Farm (which we had heard is good and has delicious mulberry shakes, but unfortunately we couldn’t peel ourselves away from the fun zone) where people hang out drinking alcoholic slushies, cheap whiskey shots (free at the door!) and Beerlao. There is a table set up for playing beerpong, blankets laid out on the ground, little cabanas with shaded seating and of course good tunes. This is technically Bar Zero, just getting you warmed up for the long ride down to Bar One. It takes about five minutes. If you’re noticing that the focus is on drinking rather than tubing, you’re very perceptive. Our only complaint with the tubing is there is not enough tubing!

::slushies::

Bar One had a little dirt soccer pitch where Alan played with a veritable United Colors of Benetton group: an American, two Brits, an Indian, a Spaniard and a guy from Brussels. OK, maybe it’s a highly European group but it’s still a diverse crowd. If you had any doubt that the alcohol imbibing was taking effect, know that Alan essentially dove into a brick sidewalk to try to save the ball and barely flinched. Not that he isn’t always this manly and macho 😉 There was also a spirited game of Polish Horseshoes taking place. We played this at Kenny’s birthday bash in Longmeadow years ago. Apparently it’s also known as Frisbeener or Beersbee, among other names.

Another five-minute tube ride takes you to Bar Two, where there is a volleyball court, lots of drunk men in mank tops with necklaces made of beer can tabs (when exactly did the mank top trend explode?), girls in neon bikinis, and some cheap eats.

::please note the guy passed out there::

There are guys standing at the water’s edge at each bar who throw out ropes with water bottles attached to the end to pull you in. They keep your tubes stacked by the river while you get your drink on.

The Vang Vieng locals are smart with their pricing policies, maximizing their chances of capitalizing on drunken tourists’ inability to return the tubes before the six o’clock cutoff when part of your deposit is forfeited (or all of it if you can’t manage to get back before eight). Not to mention it’s nearly impossible to make it back to town before sunset if (read: when) you lose track of time at Bar One, Two or Three. We’re told it takes about three hours without stopping to float from the drop-off point all the way back to town. We’ll never know. We didn’t even make it to Bar Three, as we wanted more tubing during our tubing. And we kicked with fervor trying to make it back from Bar Two via the river before six. We got picked up by a tuk-tuk driver with over a kilometer to go, and still didn’t make it back before six.

We’d heard rumors of how crazy this place used to be. While we can’t compare the present situation to what it used to be, we thought it a healthy mix of non-drinking kayakers and other adventure seekers and partiers who were more or less in control of themselves.

Our second day in town we checked out the next most popular tourist attraction around: the Blue Lagoon and Poukham Cave. It’s about thirty minutes away via tuk-tuk on a rough dirt road (including a stop to pick up a monk we passed along the way), though some people do bike or walk it (we got too late a start in the day for this). The Blue Lagoon is a really cool spot where you can swim and rope-swing or jump off a big tree into the water. There are ladders leading up to limbs about 8 and 20 feet above the water. We watched some impressive and far more brave people doing backflips and the like for a while. For those on the spectator side there are tables and shaded cabanas, a volleyball court, and a little restaurant where you can get beers and pretty cheap Asian noodle and rice dishes. All in all it’s a very chill scene and much more mellow (and sober) than the tubing, but if you have only one day in Vang Vieng we’d definitely say you should opt for the tubing.

::good times at the blue lagoon::

The cave is also pretty impressive. It’s a steep, 5-10 minute hike up the hill. You can hire headlamps (torches) or bring your own, and we recommend doing this. For some foolish reason we brought only one and quickly discovered that one torch does not suffice for two people. There is a reclining Buddha near the entrance of the cave, and you can explore deep inside. We didn’t make it too far given the lighting issue, but what we did see was pretty impressive, this coming from two people who visited Carlsbad Caverns only a few months ago.

Lest you think every spot in Vang Vieng is filled with people wearing an “In the Tubing” tank top, we can confirm that there are again lovely French and other restaurants to dine in. Highlights for us were pizza at Luka (looks like a backyard, with a handmade clay pizza oven and a tiny bar. Order the eponymous pizza), and Le café de Paris (a fantastic bistro with jazz playing and a more mature crowd. The duck terrine is wonderful. And the French owner is quite friendly, lending Alan his bike to visit the ATM when we realized we didn’t have enough cash to pay).

IMG_1070

Of course, there are also solid cheaper eats around town. Our favorite find was Phonepadis’ breakfast. They take pride in their work. And Jenni ordered the mango with sticky rice, which came in a portion large enough to feed a small Lao family (Lao families have on average 3-7 children).

::banana pancake trail much?::

We felt that the locals were noticeably less friendly here, but you can’t exactly blame them when it’s necessary to have signs imploring tourists to respect the Lao people for their efforts to be properly dressed and follow their example and warning that your hosts can’t be blamed if some crazy farang comes and steals your shoes. Even the bus station had a sign requesting that people wear shirts. We were surprised that signage to this effect was necessary. We were even more surprised that it didn’t work. It’s easy to see how drunk and drugged tourists dressed immodestly and counter to local culture invading the Laotians’ slice of paradise could have a jading effect. That said, the meatheads on our bus ride to Vang Vieng and the girls wearing no pants in the center of town were among the minority, and in our experience we met a lot of really cool, friendly and interesting people while in Vang Vieng. And given what we’d heard about the town’s former reputation, it seems to have been cleaned up well. We didn’t notice any drug use on the tubing (and were very surprised by this), and the vibe was fun, not seedy or belligerent. This is part of a larger theme we’ve been noticing through Laos. It’s so backpacker and traveler friendly with the cheap and convenient transport, accommodation and food options. This was the first country on our trip where we’ve left our plans so open-ended and we’ve been really pleased with the ease with which we could get around and fill our time. And to top it off, we’ve met many great people during our time here.

We decided to see what all the fuss was about with the bargain hotels, and so we stayed at the deluxe room at BeeBee Guesthouse. For $15 a night we got this view from bed:

::view from bed::

Best hotel room view for $15? We think so. Show us a better one. We had only a few complaints. One: it’s clear that someone punched through the panel in the door next to the handle to break into the room. They barely tried to disguise this, as the panel was actually taped to the door. So, not exactly an inviting place to store all of your valuables, but alas we had nothing stolen. Second: there’s no way to know if this is par for the course or an unfortunate coincidence, but we were staying just down from the main strip of the town where the loud, late-night parties are. In fact, we’d read that this hotel is a good option because it’s a bit quieter at this end. Well, our first night there happened to be what looked like a Lao high school graduation party with blaring cheesy Lao music and a DJ who could at best be described as abrasive. And our last night, there happened to be what looked like a Lao wedding across the street with blaring horrible karaoke style singing of, wait for it, cheesy Lao music. Actually, this might have just been drunken yelling. It’s hard to tell. I’m fairly certain you are required to be tone-deaf to obtain a job with a microphone in this country. It doesn’t help when the door is secured by masking tape. Alas, this is part of the experience, and we thoroughly enjoyed watching the sunset, drinking some Beerlao and listening to the world’s worst concert from our balcony.

That said, we’d probably recommend spending a few extra bucks to stay at one of the river view guesthouses like Elephant Crossing. Before arriving we’d thought the hotels on the opposite side of the river would be inconvenient, but there is a footbridge you can cross that makes them closer to some of the action than even our hotel was.

Practical Info

Transportation: We took a VIP bus from Luang Prabang that departed on time at 9:30 am and arrived at 3:30 pm, also on time.  It cost 130k Kip each and included transfer from our hotel at 8:40 am to the bus station.  We bought our tickets from Ms. Teep at All Lao Travel Service on the main road in Luang Prabang.  They accept credit cards with a 3% surcharge.  The road is hilly and windy but not in bad condition for a developing country.  The bus was pretty nice, the driver was unimpeachable and the scenery varied from good to excellent with stretches of dramatic jagged peaks.  We broke for toilets (2k Kip to use) and snacks at 11:15 am and then stopped at 2:15 pm for the included lunch of hot noodle soup.

On arrival at the north bus station in Vang Vieng, you can grab a tuk tuk for the 2 km ride into town or to your hotel for about 10-20k Kip each.

There are several options each day between Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng and Vientiane.  Mini-buses/vans sound nice but we hear they are crowded and less comfortable than the VIP buses.  There are also non-VIP buses and sleeper buses.  The sleeper bus from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng sounds terrible as it arrives around 2 am, thus offering the chance to see none of the countryside, be on the road when it’s more dangerous and still need a hotel on arrival.  But the sleeper from Luang Prabang to Vientiane would be a time- and cost-effective option, albeit you would miss the scenery.  We inquired only once and did not try to bargain, and we were told a private car from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng would cost 1MM Kip, which is surprisingly expensive.  It is even possible to arrange a kayak trip from Vang Vieng to Vientiane, but be sure to inquire about details.  We met someone who did this and it sounded like a few hours of kayaking came with a lot of driving in less comfortable vehicles…like more combined driving hours than the whole bus ride from Vang Vieng to Vientiane.

Accommodation: We stayed at BeeBee Guesthouse on the main street but a little south of the action.  Once we got past the blaring music the first night it wasn’t so bad.  Until the blaring music on the third night.  In fairness, the music seemed to be from specific Lao events and not from a touristy bar that would be loud every night.  There is WiFi downstairs but not in the rooms.  For $15/night it’s a decent choice.  We requested a front-facing room (got #12) and the view of the karsts out the window and from the shared balcony is superb.  We met backpackers staying at Pan’s Place and at Nana, both near BeeBee, and they had nothing bad to say.

I would recommend staying closer to the river or even across the footbridge that is near Roung Nakhon Vang Vieng Palace hotel because you can walk the whole town area easily.  Chez Mango across the river is well-reviewed.  Riverside Boutique Resort on the town side is #1 on TripAdvisor.  We did not see the interior but from a drive-by the location and pool area look great.  Elephant Crossing is well-reviewed and conveniently located, if unimpressive-looking from the road.  We met a couple who stayed there and they said the WiFi did not work well but otherwise the property was nice.

Food: There are street carts everywhere serving Thai-style pancakes, sandwiches and more.  Fresh baguettes are ubiquitous in Laos.  Pancakes from these carts cost ~10k Kip and sandwiches usually are 15-25k Kip.  Pizza Luka has a handful of outdoor tables and thin crust pies.  Jenni’s goat cheese pizza was OK while my Pizza Luka was great.  Proving yet again that it’s usually advisable to order the namesake item.  Each pizza cost 60k Kip.

Another night we dined at Le cafe de Paris, a bistro with an affable owner and jazz soundtrack.  The goat cheese salad was OK, the duck terrine was great, the duck breast was good but quite gamy, and the Philly cheesesteak was very good.  It is a classier joint with nary an “In the Tubing” tank-top in sight (practically the uniform of tubers), but that didn’t stop Jenni from plopping her Beerlao roadie on the table to avoid littering outside.  And the owner lent me his pink bicycle for an ATM run when I realized I didn’t have enough cash.

Bamboo Tree had pretty good WiFi but mediocre service.  Luang Prabang Bakery is popular though we were underwhelmed at breakfast, especially for the price.  Phonepadis has no sign yet but is on the main street just north of Molina Bungalows on the same/east side of the road…a few spots up from Pan’s Place.  It is basic but the breakfast was very good.  They take pride in their craft.

The Organic Farm and its mulberry shakes come recommended, but we couldn’t tell if the in-town cafe is permanently closed or not.  The farm itself seems to be a few km north, where tubing begins.

Drinks: Tubing without drinking is like Sasquatch. Allegedly it exists, but there is no documented evidence. We covered the tubing bars above.

In keeping with our M.O. of straddling both the backpack and champagne scenes, we never went out after dinner so cannot really comment from personal experience on the nightlife.  But a couple places that seemed popular based on conversation include Fat Monkey’s, Milan Pizza and Kangaroo Sunset.

Activities: Drinking and tubing clearly rank one and two.  There is only one place in town that rents tubes.  I’m pretty sure this stems from the recent clean-up of what had become a legendarily raucous and dangerous scene, and that now it is regulated and communally owned.  Tube rental costs 55k Kip and you must leave a 60k deposit, of which you lose 20k if you return the tube after 6 pm and you lose the full 60k after 8 pm.  I believe you can only commence rental of a tube between 9 am and 4 pm.  Dry bags can be rented for 15k.  With at least a couple other passengers (and in the high season I think that will always happen), the rental fee includes the 10-minute tuk tuk ride a few km up the river to the starting point.

There is also mountain biking, kayaking, caving, go-karting and more.  You could take a hot air balloon ride.  Sunset motorized dugout canoe rides are popular; it appeared these leave from just the other side of the driving bridge, and we could not tell whether the main appeal is viewing the karsts or the drunken tubers trying to return by 6 pm.

February 7-10, 2014 (Friday-Monday)

Asia, Laos, Luang Prabang

Two Falangs in Luang Prabang

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After two weeks in the country, we are still unsure whether the proper pronunciation is Lao or Laos. We have confirmed, however, that this often-overlooked nation belongs on the itinerary of not only a Southeast Asia backpacker, but anyone looking to relax and savor Frasian (that’s French influenced Asian) culture and cuisine. It’s touted as the land of the friendliest people on earth, which in our opinion may be a slight stretch, but it sure does have some of the smiliest and happiest children on earth. And there seems to always be the sound of laughter in Laos. While this landlocked country is lacking in ocean-front views, there are green mountains and rivers running throughout, with the heart and soul of Luang Prabang existing on a tiny peninsula at the confluence of the Mekong and the Nam Kahn rivers. Sisavangvong Road is the main artery of the four-street-wide peninsula, and restaurants, guesthouses, wats and massage parlors are sprinkled throughout the city.

In Luang Prabang, especially, the vibe is decidedly mellow and laid-back (as is the case in much of the country, though Vientiane, the capital, is by comparison a bit busier). The population of Luang Prabang is around 50,000, or just a bit bigger than Walla Walla, so perhaps this is the ideal size for a chilled out but not too sleepy vacation spot with a strong food and wine scene. Expect very limited aggressiveness and bargaining from touts (if any at all), a welcome respite from the questionable sales tactics employed by many Southeast Asian street vendors. Instead, you can lazily meander the palm-tree dotted streets and mingle among the monks, who are plentiful! Probably because there are dozens of wats in Luang Prabang and every Lao man is expected to be a monk at some point in his life (we were told the minimum is seven days).

The wats are beautiful. One of the most famous sits atop Mount Phousi, about 300 steps above the street and popular among hoards of tourists at sunset. We enjoyed the views one evening for coucher de soleil, and also squeezed in a little workout walking up and down those steps another afternoon (gotta work off that French food somehow). Luang Prabang meets two of Alan’s requirements for a place to live: good food and wine and stairs or easy hiking for exercise. Is a life in Luang Prabang in our future?? It’s certainly far from a travel hub that lends itself to frequent and easy jaunts, so that’s unlikely.

We popped our heads into one or two other temples, and you’ll find them throughout the peninsula. You could spend the better part of a day exploring these, if wats are your thing (and if you aren’t quite as temple-d out as we were by this point). There is also a night market on Sisavangvong Road near the Royal Palace Museum where you can buy Lao souvenirs and partake of a street food buffet for just over $1.

Oh, and it’s the first place on our Asian tour in which they drive on the right. Of course due to the size and slow pace of this city you can cross the streets with ease regardless of which way you’re looking. In fact, there might actually be more people biking than driving.

Not for lack of a better word, Luang Prabang just is so nice. It’s one of the most pleasant places we’ve visited so far in all of Asia, and that’s part of the reason we ended up spending seven nights here. Not to mention the Beerlao – the beer of the wholehearted people – is tasty and copious.

The French influence in Luang Prabang (and much of Laos, for that matter) is palpable. This UNESCO World Heritage city was part of the French colony of Indochine, and you often hear people speaking French. Not surprisingly it seems to be a very popular destination among French tourists. In addition, a number of the older locals speak better French than English. In fact, Jenni had to reserve a room en français one night from the kindest Lao lady whose English was lacking. And oh, the food and wine. First, there is freshly baked crusty French bread served practically everywhere. Gone are the toast and cold butter breakfasts of most Southeast Asian hotels. Expect instead a warm, crunchy on the outside, airy on the inside mini-loaf with practically every meal. You can also find a number of “fancy” (though were you to lose consciousness, upon reawakening you would be unlikely to mistake your surroundings for Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée) French restaurants and some Frasian fusion menus. In Jenni’s humble opinion, the Asian spin on French food often just meant destroying perfectly delicious French foods with the addition of cilantro (coriander in these parts). (I’m looking at you, Tangor – your goat cheese salad and duck breast would be delicious if you just didn’t ruin them with that dreadful herb). You can also find decent cheese here. We had hardly seen a menu with goat cheese, feta, or brie anywhere on this now six-country tour, until Laos. And we were possibly happier than Liz Lemon with her night cheese to be reveling in these rich and indulgent treats.

::Laos knows whats up::
::eating, blogging::

Restaurants are everywhere, particularly on the river side of the road along the Mekong, where they also seem to be on the cheaper side (especially compared to the main street restaurants), albeit not as nice.

The accommodation options in Luang Prabang are abundant and we tried out quite a few. Due to a combination of extending our stay, returning to the city for a night after our hill tribe trek (more on that coming soon!), and leaving fully open our itinerary for the first time which coincided with the Chinese New Year in a popular Asian destination, we ended up staying in four hotels over the course of seven nights in Luang Prabang. While we met lots of people who told us they found nice accommodation for around $10 a night, we stayed in places ranging from $45 to $80. Our consensus is that $60 is the sweet spot.

And, lest we miss out on the long-term traveler’s quintessential experience of searching fruitlessly for a bed to lay one’s head for the night, we got our fill, jumping for joy when the 28th place we asked had one room left, for one night only. “We’ll take it!”

We arrived in Luang Prabang on Jenni’s birthday and so started the visit off with a delicious dinner at Apsara to celebrate (after a little bubbly and FaceTime with the family in the hotel room, of course). We highly recommend the starter taste plate with dried buffalo and the slow cooked buffalo cheeks entree. By the way, “buffalo” in Laos always refers to water buffalo, not bison as back home in the US. The chef and his wife who waitresses were very friendly and even created a special dessert concoction for us when we couldn’t decide between two options. Oh, and we had a Côtes du Rhône. How I missed you, delicious fine wine.

::excited about Laos and birthday eats!::
::birthday sweets::

We actually ended up returning to Apsara on our last night, this time seated in the garden perched above the Nam Khan river, and shared a meal with a lovely couple from Australia whom we were put in touch with when researching our travel options for Papua New Guinea. They just happened to be on a holiday in Laos at the same time. Love the small world feelings when you travel! The buffalo cheeks were so good that both of us ordered it again on our second visit.

Other dining highlights included a small lunch at 3 Nagas (try the lemongrass iced tea and the spicy eggplant dip) and L’Elephant with its fantastic eggplant feta dish, wild boar pate, and pork and herb stuffed fish cooked in a banana leaf (though skip the buffalo steak here and head on over to Apsara). They also sell seasonings, including bee pollen, which they recommend you sprinkle over cereal or fruit salad. We had never seen that before, but it sounds like something people in Los Angeles would buy ☺. While we didn’t taste the food, the view at the Mekong Riverview Hotel restaurant is hard to beat. It’s situated at the tip of the peninsula where the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers meet, and marks a perfect spot to enjoy lime mint shakes.

You can also try your hand at cooking Lao dishes, and we did so by taking a class at Tamnak Lao.  We might have been better at watching the Lao chefs make the four dishes than we were at preparing them at our own workstation.  We whipped up the chicken and pork with coconut milk and cooked veggies with a spicy tomato dip. We also tasted jeow bong here for the first time – a spicy chili paste that’s used to add heat and flavor to many Lao dishes. Good stuff.

Some of our classmates amused us with a great illustration of how everything is relative.  They are Brits and Aussies living and teaching in Vietnam and half-jokingly spoke of fabricating alternate identities because teaching is so common and they want to seem exotic.  We think most of us would view moving to Vietnam to teach as a rather exciting and adventurous life and career path!  No matter what you are doing in life, someone will always be going bigger.

While out searching for a hotel one night the city had a short-lived but full on blackout. We pulled out the iPhone torch and made our way to the nearest stop selling Beerlao, where we got excited about the prospect of drinking in the candlelight all evening. The lights came back on, but it didn’t stop the fun. And just because we’re grown-ups now and we can, we ordered nutella-banana pancakes for dinner. Well, Alan ate his meat before his pudding, but Jenni couldn’t be stopped from pancakes and beer.

The backpacker scene is in full force in Luang Prabang (and much of Laos). We made many new friends here, and it seemed as if we bumped into someone we’d met at least once a day. To be sure, we were a bit taken back by how many tourists there are in town, but the city is so small you begin to recognize everyone and it feels more home-y than tourist-y. The bar scene is more than adequate considering that local laws require bars to close around 11:30 pm. Probably the most popular watering hole is Utopia, which true to its name, offers a really cool place to drink your Beerlao. Note: if it seems like we mention “Beerlao” a lot, don’t judge until you’ve been to Laos. Utopia is located down a side road, there is a large open-air room with seats on the floor and videos of what looks like Youtube’s best-of-random-shit-drunk-people-like-to-watch playing in the background. There is also a variety of seating in the riverside garden area, and a full beach volleyball court. It’s backpacker’s paradise. And it was here we met the crazy firefighter from New York who regaled us with some seriously impressive stories, including one in which he literally impaled himself on a metal rod while trying to catch a Frisbee. And then he bought us beers. Huge props to you, man. (See, we told you we’d mention you!). To Jenni’s delight, a group of backpackers we met also referred to Alan as ALAN! ALAN! ALAN!  And a Swiss couple said they used to call an Irish exit a French exit, but now they just call it an Alan exit in honor of their routinely disappearing friend.

There are a handful of other bars near Utopia, though none seemed quite as happening. We also popped into Icon Klub just up the peninsula, which had a very chill vibe and a slightly older, more wine-and-cocktails, less beer-and-well-drinks, crowd. For the true backpacker’s party experience, head to the bowling alley after the bars close. It’s the only place allowed to continue serving. We never did make it, but heard it’s quite the scene. Aussie Bar is supposed to be the place to watch sports, and we postponed our trek so that we could come at 6am local time to catch the Super Bowl here. Unfortunately, a combination of too much Beerlao and/or some bad street food meant we couldn’t force ourselves over there in the wee hours and completely missed the game. We heard from others it was packed and a great time, despite the game being a complete blowout.

While recovering from the party scene, we highly recommend you take advantage of the cheap massages on offer. We tried L’Hibiscus, which as one of the fancier places in town still cost less than $15 for a one-hour aromatherapy massage. Great. And Le Banneton, a café next door that we’d read is owned by the same Lao-Frenchman, offers lots of great pastries, quiche, salads and paninis. The food is good, the service lacking. Maybe they are serious about emulating the French? 😉

::post-massage tea::
::L’Hibiscus::

Practical Info

Luang Prabang is fairly condensed and easy to get around, though it is not easy to understand the names of streets, which at times change midway.  Most of the action for tourists is on the peninsula, and that is where we slept…in four different places over seven nights!  The northern end is quieter.  Sisavangvong (or Sakkaline) is the main road and much of it is jam-packed with restaurants, boutiques, travel agencies and massage parlors, plus the Royal Palace Museum and several temples.

Transportation: We flew on Lao Airlines from Chiang Mai.  Air connections with Laos are limited, and Vientiane has more options.  The airport is just north of town, a 5-10 minute van or tuk-tuk ride away.  A pre-paid shared van costs ~$6 total for 1-3 persons.  There are also international buses, and a somewhat popular option is the slow boat from Huay Xai at the Thai border.  The slow boat down the Mekong takes two days, with a night in Pak Beng.  Reviews are mixed.  There is at least one luxury boat option now.  There is also a one-day speedboat with a much maligned safety profile.

Walking all around the peninsula is very easy.  Tuk tuks are available for longer trips, as are bicycle and moped rentals.  Boats can take you to certain destinations up or down river.

For onward travel to Vang Vieng, we booked a VIP bus through Ms. Teep at All Lao Travel Service on Sisavangvong Road.  She came correct.  They accept credit cards with a 3% surcharge.  We also bought our air tickets from Vientiane to Singapore through Ms. Teep and she beat everyone else’s price.  The bus cost 130k Kip each (including transfer at 8:40 am from our hotel to the bus station) and took six hours (9:30 am to 3:30 pm).  The road is hilly and windy but not in bad condition for a developing country.  Ms. Teep got us seats 1&2, and our front-row view made it easier to avoid any motion sickness.  The bus was pretty nice, the driver was unimpeachable and the scenery varied from good to excellent with stretches of dramatic jagged peaks.  We broke for toilets (2k Kip to use) and snacks at 11:15 am and then stopped at 2:15 pm for the included lunch of hot noodle soup.

There are several options each day between Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng and Vientiane.  Mini-buses/vans sound nice but we hear they are crowded and less comfortable than the VIP buses.  There are also non-VIP buses and sleeper buses.  The sleeper bus from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng sounds terrible as it arrives around 2 am, thus offering the chance to see none of the countryside, be on the road when it’s more dangerous and still need a hotel on arrival.  But the sleeper from Luang Prabang to Vientiane would be a time- and cost-effective option, albeit you would miss the scenery.  We inquired only once and did not try to bargain, and we were told a private car from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng would cost 1MM Kip, which is surprisingly expensive.

Accommodation: There is an impressive array of lodging options, from $5 hostel rooms to $800+ at Amantaka.  We stayed our first three nights at Villa Somphong, across from the Nam Khan river on Kingkitsarath Road near the northern tip of the peninsula.  The room was nice enough and staff were very friendly.  It cost ~$45/night with good breakfast above the Nam Khan included and AC.  The WiFi was spotty.  Unfortunately, we cannot recommend Villa Somphong because the bathroom smelled so foul, so often.  We came to realize that wafts of sewage are all too common in this otherwise delightful town, but still the odor at Villa Somphong was next-level.

Our fourth night we stayed in the Issada building which is part of the Sala Prabang family.  Our room was good-sized, the shower was enclosed, AC and WiFi worked well and there was a huge balcony.  We liked the location, on a quieter street one block off the Mekong and near the Royal Palace Museum and main street action.  We can recommend this place at $65/night.

Our fifth and sixth nights we stayed at Villa Chitdara 2 Guesthouse on the Mekong.  It cost $45/night with a decent included breakfast and was perfectly fine if uninspiring.  Our seventh night we stayed at Villa Laodeum Nam Khan, pretty near Villa Somphong. If you stay here, beware the original Villa Laodeum is located across town and folks may try to direct you there. The WiFi was good, it had an enclosed shower and a nice large balcony (in the back with no view).  But at $80 there is better value elsewhere.

Though we did not see the interior of Mekong Riverview Hotel, the location is great at the tip of the peninsula, and the restaurant where we had shakes one day would be a splendid place for breakfast each morning.  It is also #1 on TripAdvisor.

We looked at a room at Burasari Heritage but passed due to budgetary constraints.  The room and lobby area were very well-decorated in the boutique style.  We walked into Amantaka to inquire about last-minute discounted rates.  While we did not see much of the property and there appeared to be an inviting pool, we were not blown away by what we did see.  The rooms would have to be extraordinary to justify a quoted price of $800++, considering there seem to be very stylish options on the peninsula for less than one-third that price.

I would probably opt to stay on the peninsula but there are also a couple places just across the Nam Khan river that could be nice.  And well-reviewed spots like La Residence Phou Vao that are off the peninsula. We preferred the Nam Khan river side to the Mekong side, but there are so many lodging options around Luang Prabang and the peninsula is so small that it’s nearly impossible to pick a place with a “bad” location.

Food: There is quite a bit of high quality food on offer here, plus good wine and omnipresent Beerlao.  As noted above, we really enjoyed Apsara and some of the dishes at L’Elephant were very good.  3 Nagas has a good reputation (and our lunch there was fine), as does Tamarind (which also offers a cooking class). Tangor has good food and an ideal location for people-watching on Sisavangvong Road.  We spent the better part of a day working at Le Cafe Ban Vat Sene, where the food is OK and the WiFi works well.

Drinks: Utopia is the spot, at least for the under-50 crowd.  We covered it above.  Hive Bar gets good press but it seemed a bit slow compared to neighboring options.  There are several bars in the small area around Hive, Aussie Bar, Utopia, etc.  Icon Klub is closer to Sisavangvong Road and featured a more mature crowd.

As noted, late-night bowling is a rite of passage for the backpacker crowd.  It is outside of town and requires transport.  We hear it goes very late and involves very large quantities of cheap whiskey and beer.

Activities: We found Luang Prabang a great place to relax and just walk around (aside from our two-night hill tribe trek), but there are plenty of things to do. Visiting wats (including Mount Phousi for sunrise or sunset) and the night market are popular in-town options. One of the most famous activities is early-morning alms giving to passing monks, though we did not partake. There are countless places to get a massage, and classes for massage and cooking are available. Re cooking classes, they seem to be unavailable on Sundays, and other days some offer a choice between a longer morning class that includes a visit to the market or a shorter afternoon/evening class.  And I believe Tamarind’s class takes place outside of town, but the price includes return transport.

We very briefly saw part of the Royal Palace Museum complex, which may have operatic performances on certain nights. It also houses the revered Buddha image for which the city is named. There is a bit of beach area on the Mekong near the tip of the peninsula, as well as a footbridge there that goes somewhere…we didn’t check it out, but you might.

We will cover hill tribe trekking in our next post.  Other activities outside town include the Pak Ou Caves and Kuang Si waterfalls. This visit to a nearby rice farm gets great reviews: livinglandlao.com.

January 29 – February 4, 2014 (Wednesday-Tuesday) and February 6-7, 2014 (Thursday-Friday)