You Tube?

Josh and I decided that one night in Vientiane was enough, there was nothing wrong with the town itself, however we feel time is running out and there wasn't really that much more to see. So we took a 5 hour local bus trip off the beaten track, through stunning landscapes and decided to get off in the rural, isolated village of Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng is settled beautifully on the shores of the Nam Sang river with steep limestone mountains shielding it from all sides. I'm not sure if the villagers have seen white people before, but I'm pretty sure not many westerners have made it here before us. Note For all you old farts and/or readers not familiar with the South-East Asian travel route, everything written above is complete bull-shit (sorry Michael couldn't find the asterisk on this keyboard.) Vang Vieng happens to be one of the most popular stops for backpackers and this track is more beaten than Rihanna after a drunken night out with Chris Brown (even after 3 months in Asia, I keep up with the gossip.) "So what does this village have to offer?" I hear you ask. Well their concept is pretty much: Inner-tube of a tractor's tyre + river + copious amounts of alcohol and drugs = the biggest tourist attraction since bread came sliced! (Which is sad because the bread slicing tourism industry in Indochina has plummeted since the introduction of the tube.) We tried the infamous tubing the other day to see what all the hubub was about, and to be honest it was actually rather pleasant. You get dropped off a few kilometers up the river, then you just sit in the tube, slowly drifting downstream, getting pulled into bars, jumping from rope-swings and just relaxing, then 7 hours and about 20 bars later, you arrive back at the same place as you started, one word for you my friends: Genius! If your cup of tea involves drugs I'm pretty sure you can get that here as well, which becomes quite obvious at night, when all the young "tubed out" backpackers lie on mattresses in the T.V-Bars, laughing at endless reruns of "Friends" whilst sipping on dubious milkshakes. As I own the complete DVD box-set of "Friends" it felt rather pointless to stay very long, so after two nights a 6 hour journey by bus northward, once again through incredible mountainous scenery, took us to the Unesco Heritage listed site of Luang Prabang. We haven't been here very long, but what I've seen so far, I like and next time I write I hope to use many superlatives.

Laosy

So after two weeks in Thailand we finally managed to get our bums on a bus up north to the bordering country of Laos. The busride took us roughly 14 hours but after our trips in India this felt like a piece of cake. We arrived this morning in the capital of Laos, Vientiane, which seems to be a nice quiet town, allthough it's quite early and we haven't had time to look around too much. It's funny though that you notice directly when you arrive in a former french colony as all the streetnames begin with "Rue" and you get croissants, baguettes and "La Vache Qui Rit" cheese shoved in your face before you have time to say "fromage." We found a guesthouse just recently, very cheap and conveniently located between "The Scandinavian Bakery" and "The Swedish Pizza and Baking House." I can also confirm that our trip home has been postponed and we will now arrive early morning in Stockholm on the 25th of April, so you have plenty of time to organise the homecoming celebrations at Arlanda Airport. Finally I'd like to end on a sad note... I know how you have all taken to one (or rather two) of the major characters in this blog, my black Havaiana flip-flops, but I can sadly say that despite the work of brave Anthony in Fort Cochin, they did not survive the entire trip. Last week the stitching snapped and I felt it was time to say goodbye so I bought an identical pair and hopefully they will last me for many journeys to come. Rest in Peace!

Wasting Time?

Like Otis Redding sang, wasting time doesn't have to be a bad thing but at the moment it is exactly what we're doing. We've been back and forth to Bangkok now a few times, taking a daytrip to the old capital of Thailand, Ayutthaya,(I understand why they changed the capital, Bangkok is so much more modern with skyscrapers everywhere and Skytrains, whilst Ayutthaya is basically a pile of ruined temples...) after that we took a midweek break to the nearby island of Koh Samet. Our plan was to improve our tans but as it rained most of the time we ended up consuming alcohol throughout the four day stay. Apart from the weather Koh Samet was really nice allthough the spoken language seemed to be mostly Swedish and we also managed to eat way too much Swedish food. Whilst in Bangkok we've spent quite alot of Baht and not really seen much apart from two terrible football games, which have got me thinking maybe I have to go back to India to get United back on the right track... Within a near future though I think we will have crossed the border in the north, hopefully reaching Laos, but we'll see how that goes... Until then...

Title Tributed to Two Sisters!

So two months just flew right by, and our tour of India is now officially over. India was amazing and I know that I have to go back at some time in my life to finish up what I couldn't manage this time around. The Indian heat was unbelievable, making me reach levels of perspiration I thought only possible at double my age and four times my weight. My addiction to "snus" has been replaced by an addiction to "Chaini Khaini" which is the Indian equivalent to snus in smaller sachets but I guess they pack a much more lethal punch, as they can sometimes leave me with blistering gums, I Like! The smells in India are a constant factor, mostly ranging between shit and shit which has been lit on fire, but it's not as bad as it sounds and I think I will actually miss them. Pondecherry was a really nice town but more surprisingly so was Calcutta. The 34 hour trip from south to north (bus and train) didn't cause much trouble as I slept through much of it. However we did get one pleasant surprise as Miriam and Isabelle managed to get tickets on the same train as us and thus our farewell was once again postponed. By coincidence we arrived in Calcutta on the second and final day of the holy festival "Holi." I don't really know what significance the festival has but it does give the locals an excuse to get hammered and cover eachother with different coulored paints, we all managed to turn the coulor pink for the day (and partly the day after as it prooved quite difficult to get the paint out of your skin and hair.) We strolled around Calcutta for two days, seeing some touristy bits like the Victoria Memorial and Mother Teresas so called motherhouse and even managed to get the first real rain in over two months when the skies opened producing a surreal lightning show. But as it goes all good things must come to an end, and on Thursday night we eventually said our goodbyes to the two fantastic sisters who have accompanied us since Palolem, without whom I can't imagine how the trip would have gone but I can guarantee you it wouldn't have gone down this well. So now it's just the two of us, back on Khao San Road in Bangkok, which is still as chaotic, but it's nice to know that some things don't change. Marcus and Isabelle (devoted readers may remember these characters from my last epic travels in Siam, female character not to be confused with the younger sister whom I just met recently in India) are on their way north from Phuket to Bangkok as we speak, and it will be nice to meet familliar faces which we haven't seen since 2008.

Rockbottom

The title this time is not as depressing as it might sound, just a way for me to tell you all that after spending two weeks in Varkala we have now reached the southern most tip of India and are now heading north again. The town on the south cape is called Kunyakumari (or Cape Comorin) and can't boast with many things except for being the most southern point in India. 400 metres off the coast we visited the Indian equivalent of "The Statue Of Liberty." Located on a small island is a 40.5 metre (or 133 foot, you can google the reason why if you're interested as I can't be bothered telling you the dull story) tall statue of one of Indias most famous poets called... beats me... and it dates back all the way to the year 2000!!! Its amazing to think that I was only 14 years old when it was erected, the world can be mindboggling and really makes you feel small some times doesn't it! In Kunyakumari we also visited India's first (and as we speak only) wax-museum. It doesn't quite reach the heights of Madame Tussauds but can boast with it's fascinating fifteen or so skillfully sculpted dolls of Indian celebrities like Mahatma Ghandi (who has to the easiest historical character, bar Wallace from Wallace and Gromit, to recreate) and for some reason Jackie Chan and Saddam Hussein. After a few days in the small coastal town, we eventually managed to get out of there and catch a few buses and a train to get to Chennai (or Madras), however Chennai doesn't feel like the kind of place where you want to spend more than 1 day so we decided to jump train in Villapuram with the rest of the Swedish crew, were we could catch yet another bus to get to the former French colonial town of Pondecherry (or Puducherry). What we've seen of Pondecherry so far is nice, finding accommodation wasn't the easiest of tasks but eventually we got it right. We won't be staying here for long though and no matter how long we postpone our goodbyes we know it will very shortly have to be done as Joshua and I have to catch a train from Chennai to Calcutta (or Kolkata.. why can't they just stick with the names they've been given by their colonial overlords) on Tuesday morning. The journey will take 27 hours and it's funny to think that the distance we covered in over 2 months we will by Wednesday have covered more than in about 3 days!! The east coast has really been neglected but as I've said before you can always come back! I can finish by telling you that we have also just booked our tickets to Thailand (on Friday the 13th... how's that for pushing my luck), so by the end of the week I should have an Indian summary and start of a new chapter in this fantastic blog, read with great anticipation!