Food!!!

Wednesday 2^nd January 2011

MP3 track of the day: The One I Love - David Grey

Weather: Hoooot

Before going to bed last night I had a shower and I felt fantastic. I put my head on my pillow and, for the first time today, I lay down without feeling ill.

***

I have to be honest, my nights sleep was intermittent. However once up I felt much better than yesterday. Due to this I reckon I must have had a twenty-four hour bug … however I wasn't going to risk it by eating early. I got up at 9am and slowly got ready before taking my computer into the common room. Whilst doing my normal 'internet stuff' I also, finally, managed to book my Shanghai accommodation for the Chinese GP. The accommodation is out of town, however it's close to the train station (which is how I think I shall be entering Shanghai), it has a metro line into the center within five minutes walking distance and – most importantly – it has another metro line to the GP. It only takes forty minutes to get there too! With that booked I also booked a hostel within Siem Reap – for next week – as I will be arriving there late. I was on a roll and with all my internet stuff done I headed out into town for a quick walk.

Getting a bit of fresh air did me the power of good and I was enjoying walking around. On my walk I met Joe and Rachael having breakfast; I pulled up a chair and purchased another large bottle of water. When their food came I wasn't that bothered about not ordering something myself; sure, as I haven't eaten for twenty-four hours, I was a little hungry but it wasn't too bad. After their breakfast we headed out to the local tourist information office to find out about buses to Champasak. We were told that the bus would be 50,000 kip (£4) however we would have to pay for a tuk-tuk to the southern bus station (because, yet again, the bus station isn't within walking distance). We came back to our hostel to find out that they did a mini-van, from our hostel, directly to Champasak for 55,000 kip. It seemed logical to take the mini-bus to Champasak as it's more convenient and probably cheaper due to the price of a tuk-tuk on top of the bus cost. I feel fine to travel and it's time to move on … therefore we all purchased our mini-bus tickets.

The day was boiling hot; Joe, Rachael and I decided just to chill at the hostel. An Israeli girl joined us and we played cards throughout of the day. Now I can't remember the exact time however, for some reason, everything I looked at turned into food … all at once. The other players were talking to me however their heads had turned into 'burgers'; the cards I was holding were 'Mars Bars' and the fish in the tank in front of me became swimming 'Kit-Kats' … I was hungry. I persisted, even when the others were eating, I held my ground. Tomorrow wasn't that long away. Others joined us and we played a few more card games until the group became so big that there weren't enough cards to go around. It was then time for Joe and Rachael to head for tea and so I came in and … surprise, surprise, went on the internet. I wasn't on the internet for long when three people – who had already eaten earlier – came in and played cards. I joined them in a game or two before heading for an early night. Tomorrow I need to be up for my 8:00am for my mini-van to Champasak.

Tomorrow bread, the day after EVERYTHING!

Toodle Pip!

Feeling rough

Tuesday 1^st February 2011 – (White Rabbits, White Rabbits, White Rabbits … Fat lot of good that did!)

MP3 track of the day: The worst Hangover Ever - Offspring

Weather: no idea, didn't really go out today

Well I suppose it had to happen at sometime; I had been traveling for eight months and I hadn't really gotten ill … until now. In the words o Harrison Ford "...I feel terrible...". Now, not to go into any great detail, I think that I either have a stomach bug, or food poisoning from the Indian meal I ate yesterday. It was 6:15am when I awoke with the sensation of someone punching my stomach repeatedly, and it hasn't stopped all day. Apart from this I've got a temperature and I have been sick a couple of times. On the plus side I haven't spent a lot today and I am in a city with a clinic if needed, though this is Laos and they don't have the best medical record in the world.

I tried to go to sleep, however lying down made me feel even worse and so I sat up in bed. I felt better but it wasn't really comfortable; I took some 'Milk of Magnesia' however that didn't work either. At that point a Canadian girl came into the dorm, who was lovely; we chatted for a while and she had an impressive bust … I immediately felt better, for a little while at least. Soon I felt terrible again, my stomach still felt like someone was using it as a punch bag and I decided to lie on a sofa closer to the toilets.

I had been there most of the day with employees walking past me continually. Time dragged and it was only three o'clock when a lady from the hostel gently stroked my shoulder to wake me up. I found myself surrounded by four of the employees with one asking what was wrong in English. I explained my symptoms to him and he translated it to the others; in a flash the lady was back with a cup of boiling water and four tablets. Now these tablets slightly alarmed me; I asked what they were but the closest description was that they were made from a 'root' of a plant to help with diarrhea. I didn't really have a choice, with four smiling Laos faces looking at me, so I took the tablets. They gave me a bottle of them and said that if I still have problems take four tomorrow morning, and then another four in the evening.

I spent the rest of the day lying around feeling sorry for myself; I wished I was back at home, in my lovely bed, with my huge DvD collection, however that was not possible. I didn't have any tea tonight, as I couldn't face food; tomorrow I will probably stay in and just drink water … see if I can kill this thing. So in one way I'm luckily to be ill at the moment as I have bags of time to get well (nine days if I need, which will hopefully be enough). On the other hand … Bugger!

Toodle Pip!

Researching

Monday 31^st January 2011

MP3 track of the day: fix you - cold play

Weather: hot during the day though not as cold tonight as previous nights

No moving furniture, no Laos people shouting at each other … just piece and quiet. Well almost piece and quiet, I can hear the traffic outside from my dorm. It didn't matter thought and I managed to sleep in later than yesterday. Once up I got on with my researching activities.

First of all I continued my hunt for accommodation within Shanghai. I pin-pointed the circuit within Shanghai, on my map, and then, using 'Google maps' I followed a metro line that I thought linked the circuit to the city. I then went onto 'hostel.com' and sent five hostels an email on how to get to the circuit from their locations. Whilst awaiting for answers I continued to search the world wide web, for more accommodation information, for my next port of call, Muang Kong.

Muang Kong is the biggest urban area within the '4,000 islands', and so I was a little surprised when not much information showed up online. I continued the search and eventually found some places which sounded very good value for money. However, before I go to the '4,000 islands', I want to visit 'Wat Phou'. As I explained yesterday it isn't the easiest of places to get to and so I was looking at accommodation just encase I couldn't do it in a day trip from Pakxe. Once again information on actually executing a successful day trip was scarce, however I found quite a few nice places to stay in at the nearby town of Champasak.

Now it many have only taken me two paragraphs to explain the above, however this had taken me until 1:30pm. Joe and Rachael had just arrived and so we, and two other guys, went out for lunch. After lunch I popped to the local tourist information office to ask about getting to 'Wat Phou' however they were about as useful as a biscuit. I returned to my hostel to have a think about tomorrow. I do want to visit 'Wat Phou' but just like the 'Ho Chi Minh trail' it seems like it's going to be difficult for me to get there. I got myself a drink and had a think about my next move.

Well three hours later and I hadn't made any real breakthroughs. In fact I had spent most of the time chatting to other travelers and it was soon 7:30pm. Joe, Rachael, Claudia (the girl I met in Georgetown ,Malaysia and Vientiane, Laos … what a coincidence seeing her here), an English guy, an Aussie and I all headed out for something to eat. We opted for Indian and after went for a drink before getting back to the hostel around 10pm. Joe and Rachael had been up since 5am and so went to bed; the others also went to the land of nod whereas I stayed up for a little while checking my emails.

So today hasn't been that productive; sure I've found out loads of information but I still hadn't sorted out a battle plan for the first nine days of February. Still, it's cheap here and I'm enjoying the company of other travelers. Maybe I'll stay here one more day.

Toodle Pip!

Swapping email addresses with Buddhist monks … just another normal day in Laos

Sunday 30^th January 2011

MP3 track of the day: Sadness - Enigma

Weather: Currently I'm having to change what I'm wearing three times a day. In the morning it's trousers and t-shirt, as the weather is just right. During the middle of the day I change into shorts and a t-shirt, due to the sun being so fierce. At night I change again to a t-shirt, trousers and a fleece because when the sunsets there is little heat. It's also pretty windy here throughout the day resulting in it not being humid at all. Overall the weather is not bad here in Pakxe, not bad at all.

After the previous two mornings I was happy to have a lie-in. However that only lasted until 8:30am. It wasn't the two British girls who woke me up (they were up early, again, to head out and off to Champasak), it was other noises within the hostel that were out of my control. Firstly people within South East Asia shout at each other when talking. Tourists, who haven't experienced much local communication within South East Asia, might be forgiven to think that everyone here is arguing with each other, however shouting is the norm and the walls within the hostel must be very thin. However, much worse than the shouting, was the noise coming from upstairs; it sounded like furniture was being moved and the method of moving was scraping said piece of furniture along the floor. Having had enough I said goodbye to the two British girls and I headed for the shower.

Once dressed I got out my 'Rough Guides to China' to take a peek at Shanghai. I needed some accommodation for the GP and I wanted to be as central, and as close to the train station, as possible. Looking at the map being central wasn't really an issue, however also being close to the train station was going to be difficult. Shanghai is a lot bigger than I previously thought, however it does seem to have a metro system, therefore being away from said train station shouldn't be the end of the world. I made some notes and decided that, when I visit the internet cafe tonight, I would bring my Chinese guidebook with me for reference. I also decided that I would need a week within Shanghai; I would arrive on the Wednesday, sort out how to get to the race track on Thursday, go to practice on Friday, Qualifying on Saturday, the race on Sunday and then use Monday and Tuesday to look around the city and sort out my onward travel. Flicking through my diary it would appear that, if I spent exactly three weeks within Vietnam, straight after my voluntary work within Cambodia, I would cross the Chinese border on the 2^nd April. This gave me exactly two weeks to do the south of China before making my way to Shanghai for the race. With only Hong Kong as a must within the southern area I hope this time would be enough.

I headed out into town at around 10am. Not feeling very hungry I skipped breakfast and went straight into sightseeing mode. The weather wasn't too warm yet and so I was walking around in trousers and a t-shirt. I visited a couple of 'wats' before taking the river-side road to have a look at the view. I was standing at the point where two rivers met. You could see the heavy brown coloured water of the 'River Sedon' mix (and loose colour) with the much larger 'Mekong River'. The end result was a lovely light blue river flowing towards Cambodia. I thought that if this was the colour of the water at the 'four thousand islands', further south, then they should be pretty beautiful. I also remembered the Mekong river at Vang Vieng and it was strange to see its appearance change so much within such a short distance.

I continued my walk, saying hello to as many locals as possible, before reaching the 'Daoheuang Market'. This place was teaming with life as stall sellers tried to sell their goods to each and every passer by. Heading into the food area I saw the usual and the not so usual. The usual being the fresh fruit and veg on sale. The 'not so usual' being 'ant eggs' and small frogs, which were still alive. People were going about their everyday lives purchasing the necessary; I got quite a few laughs as I think the locals new that, after I had seen flies landing on almost every piece of food within the complex, that I wouldn't purchase anything.

I left the market and headed back into town. On the way I went into Pakxe's local shopping center, which in reality was a glorified market with three floors. I then back to my hostel to change into my shorts before visiting the local restaurant for lunch; I had rice noodles with chicken and vegetables (which wasn't that good) and another coconut shake (which was lovely). I reached into my back pocket to retrieve my map of Pakxe to see if I had missed anything. I had missed a few things; annoyingly I had a Chinese temple at the extreme west off the city and another 'wat' at the extreme east. As I was in the middle of town I decided to head to the Chinese temple first, which involved walking over a road bridge to cross the 'Sedon river'.

It took around thirty minutes to reach the Chinese temple. I had to walk down a road with houses on either side. I don't think the local population see many tourists in their 'hood' and so I got quite a few 'hellos', which was lovely. I also stopped to take a photo of some cows eating the grass outside someones house and a disused building, that looked very artistic. The temple itself wasn't that interesting; it had a few nice statues but nothing I hadn't seen before. The view from the temple was the best bit, overlooking the Mekong River.

I didn't spend long and I was soon heading back into town. The trip out had been worth it however, as I had been walking all day, I was starting to worry about my skin getting burnt. I 'shadow hunted' all my way to the east side of the city, passing a church, to find this 'Wat'. 'Wat Phonsavanh' was it's name and it was just like any other 'wat' I had seen before. I finished taking a couple of photos, and was about to head out, when a Buddhist monk came up to me and asked if we could have a chat for a while. He was studying English and so he wanted to practice. I had nothing else to do today and so I sat down with him and we chatted away covering all sorts of topics which included what I was doing, what he was doing, what the UK was like, where else should I go within Laos etc etc. I was becoming quite a hit and another monk joined in the conversation. This second monks English was better than the first (though the first guy was still pretty good) and he kind of muscled in the conversation. I didn't mind and I made sure that I gave both the same amount of opportunity to talk. We got onto the subject of money; I was asked how much it would cost to spend a day within the UK, how much hotels were and then how much was education. They began to tell me how much their education costs were, which came to a total of $200.00 US per year for university fees. They said that it was a lot of money to them and that they struggled to get that amount every year. Now I'm sure that they weren't asking me to make a contribution, they were just making conversation; however I didn't like the way the English lesson was turning. I had spent over an hour, chatting away, with them and so I made my excuses to leave, however not before taking a photo, an exchange of email addresses (It looks like I'll have a Buddhist monk emailing me … how cool is that!) and the monks offering me a free trip to some waterfalls tomorrow (which I don't think I take them up on). As I walked away I thought about the price of education here; yesterday I had spent nearly $200.00 on an F1 ticket without really thinking about it. Here was a monk struggling to pay his $200.00 university fees (he's studying business … what a coincidence) … kind of put things into perspective.

I made it back to my hostel and chilled for a little while. The sun was setting and it was turning cold; I changed back into my trousers and took my fleece with me to the local internet cafe. After completing the usual daily internet stuff, I had twenty minutes remaining out of my sixty minute allocation. I decided to have a look at hostels, within Shanghai, for the F1; to my amazement there were loads, which made it quite baffling with so many options. I also went onto 'Google' to find where the F1 circuit was in Shanghai and happily it's just to the north-west of the city center. Before I could pre-book any accommodation my time had run out. I decided that I would come back, to the internet cafe, tomorrow and, before booking somewhere, I would send a few Shanghai hostel owners an email asking how I could get to the circuit (I don't want to end up at a hostel with either a receptionist that doesn't speak English or someone that hasn't got a clue what I'm talking about).

Earlier, whilst chilling at my hostel, I met two other travelers and we all went for dinner together at a place I hadn't tried before. The food was good, but it was a little more expensive than the usual place I ate (and sadly the coconut shake wasn't as good). I paid my bill and left the other two to chat about their plans for tomorrow. My plan for tomorrow was to head to 'Wat Phou'; a 'Angkor Wat' style site with a ruined temple. The only problem is that you need to take five different types of transport to get there (tuk-tuk from the city center to Pakxe bus station … a bus to Champasak … a tuk-tuk to the waterfront … a boat across the Mekong river … and finally a tuk-tuk to the actual site) which could end up costing a lot. Also, whilst checking my 'Facebook' account, I had an email from Joe and Rachael to say that they are coming to Pakxe tomorrow, therefore it might be cheaper if I wait for them.

So tomorrow could be quite a dull day blog wise. I think it'll be an 'information gathering day' within me heading to the internet cafe, again, to send a few emails to hostels within Shanghai. Then I'll head to the local bus station to get information on traveling to 'Wat Phou' before finally reading my book. I don't mind wasting a day here; I like Pakxe, I have the time and apparently the '4,000 islands' are quite expensive compared to here. Lets see what tomorrow brings!

Toodle Pip!

Pakxe

Saturday 29^th January 2011

MP3 track of the day: Littlest Hobo

Weather: hot, but still breezy ... and freezing at night

My alarm went off at 4:45am; I had a beautiful nights sleep, much better than I thought I was going to get, and so I wasn't massively tired when I awoke. We were all ready to go at 5:00am, however the guesthouse wasn't ready to let us go. The main door was padlocked and so to was the side gate. I was already to try to hunt for the owner when one of the British girls said “... well, looks like we'll have to jump the gate...”

“...What!...” I cried, trying not too look like too much of a wimp in front of the ladies. I was searching for a good, and plausible, reason not to jump the gate (like lets see if we can find the owner) but it was too late, one girl was already on the other side and the bags were being passed over. The second girl got over with ease and then it was my turn. I put one foot on a stool we had found to help us up, and then one foot on a ledge handily attached to the gate. I went for it … and failed. I tried again and straddled the gate before swinging my other leg over and jumping to the ground. I have to be honest that I didn't achieve the operation with much dignity or style. To make matters worse, as I was straddling the gate, I looked back towards the guesthouse to see the owner coming towards me … we must have made quite a bit of noise.

I picked up my bags and then we all walked towards the bus station. It was a very cold morning therefore I was wearing my coat, which I thought was odd considering how far south I had come recently. I looked at my right hand to notice that I had cut it whilst climbing the gate (actually 'cut' is a quite strong word to use; there's a pin-prick in the middle of my hand less than a millimeter wide … it still hurts though!) and I was glad that I had taken my tetanus injection before I had left the UK.

We arrived at the bus station, purchased our tickets, and went in search of breakfast. Bread-roll with condensed milk or without. I didn't quite like the sound of bread with sweet sticky condensed milk and so I opted for just bread and put it in my carrier bag, along with a bottle of water that I had already purchased … bread and water, Savannakhet's best, and only food.

The bus left on time almost empty. The girls had brought their bags onto the bus, paranoid about their stuff being stolen mid-trip, and so I did the same. The only problem was that their bags were a lot small than mine, resulting in them being able to lie there's on the floor in front of them with their feet on top. Mine wouldn't lie down and so I stood mine up, to the right of me, hoping that the bus would remain empty so that I could keep my other possessions on the seat next to me.

This was my first 'local bus' within South East Asia and it certainly was an experience. Firstly, as we were driving through Savannakhet, I began to notice that I could actually walk faster than this vehicle was moving. I reckoned that the world did indeed spin faster than the 7:00am bus from Savannakhet to Pakxe; I immediately had flash backs of the Romanian trains I traveled on two years ago. To make matters even more comical the bus lurched forward every three seconds or so, like the driver was continually pressing the break pedal before letting it go just as quickly. It was at this point that two conclusions entered my head; firstly that I would arrive in Pakxe sick and that secondly Pakxe was only three miles away as, with the speed we were doing, that's how far we would go in five hours … the allotted time for this service.

Once out of the city the speed increased and the lurches decreased. However the bus stopped frequently; it appears that local buses don't have bus stops … all you do is wait at the side of the road, with your hand out, and the bus will break from 30KM per hour, then reverse back towards you because 2,000 meters of tarmac wasn't enough clearance for it to stop in time, before finally picking you up. Over a short period the bus became quite full and I had to surrender my spare seat and put my other bags on my knees. Luckily it was a child that sat next to me so I could spread out a little. All sorts of weird and wonderful luggage came aboard; my favorite was a guy who had brought a live cockerel with him. This bird must have been through a few time zones recently as it didn't start calling until 11:15am.

I put my MP3 player on and squeezed into my allotted space as best as I could, however the stops didn't … err stop. An hour out of Savannakhet we stopped for the local village women to come on board with piles of food and drinks within their hands trying to sell them (the meat looked good, however you could tell that it hadn't been cooked recently). The strange thing here was that one woman would aboard the bus and be unsuccessful selling her products; then another woman would come aboard, with the exact same goods, hoping for a different outcome but getting the same (If I didn't want the fried chicken from the first lady, why would I purchase it now?). There were other women, outside the bus, trying to sell goods through the windows, which reminded me of Fiji. The driver then blasted his horn and moved on … only to stop twenty minutes later for the same process to repeat, within another village, while he went for a cigarette. Am I ever going to get to Pakxe, I thought to myself.

I was a little conscious about the time; I really wanted to arrive within Pakxe no later than midday as finding a guesthouse after that gets difficult. After a toilet break, and another food stop, I looked at my watch to see that 12:00pm had been reached. Fortunately, after another thirty minutes, we arrived at Pakxe bus station. Just like most other places within South East Asia the bus station was miles out of town (further than the airport) and so we squeezed onto a tuk-tuk at the cost of 20,000 kip (£1.75) per person. We were the last three to board the tuk-tuk and so we had to sit on the back with the road beneath our feet (it's amazing how many people they will try to fit into a tuk-tuk) holding onto our bags for dear life.

We were dropped off near 'Sabaidy 2' guesthouse, which was the one my guidebook recommended. 25,000 kip (£2.00) for a very clean dorm bed, with hot showers, was more than welcome and I felt lucky that I had managed to secure a place this good as it's normally full. The girls and I went for lunch before they went off exploring (as they want to move on tomorrow) where as I went back to the guesthouse to chill for a while.

Getting itchy feet I finally went out, to sight-see around the city, at around 4pm. I went to look at a hotel which my guidebook described as a 'hideous concrete building shaped like a giant wedding cake' … however I quite liked it. Heading out of town I visited a 'wat' (recently my day wouldn't be complete unless I had visited a 'wat'), a Chinese temple, a war memorial and a very modern 'arty' building still being finished off. As I looked around two things became very apparent. Firstly the landscape had changed dramatically from the lush forested mountains of the north to a more dessert dry plains feel. As I looked around I saw piles of sand built up along the side of the road. The second, slightly odd thing, that I noticed were the buildings erected within this city. I'm standing with a very posh hotel in front of me and a brand new architecturally artist building behind me. Pakxe seems to be just as developed as the capital and yet I can't understand why. Pakxe doesn't have any outstanding tourist sites and it's not a major city; the only thing Pakxe has going for is that it is Laos' closest major city to the Thai, Cambodian and Vietnam borders and that's it. I wondered if that was enough to warrant the high quality of development that I saw before me.

As I walked back into town I bumped into the two British girls and we exchanged notes about Pakxe. I then proceeded to an internet cafe where I spend three hours (yes count them, three hours) getting up to date with the world, mainly uploading all of my photos from Vang-Vieng onwards. I also managed to book my F1 Shanghai race ticket.

The problem with booking my ticket previously was that I needed an address for them to post my ticket to. As race tickets aren't normally printed until two, to four, weeks before the race I had no idea where I was going to be at that time. I emailed 'BookingF1.com' to explain the situation and they said not to worry, when they had my ticket they would email me and I could give them an address. I purchased a seat in a stand, right near corner one (due to it being a long corner, the cars should be going quite slowly around here so therefore I should get a great opportunity to get a few photos of Hamilton … though I will need a new Mclaren hat as mine is falling apart). £109.00 later (£84.00 for the three day ticket and £25.00 for worldwide delivery) I was feeling all excited, my second GP in as many years … I'm very lucky.

As I hadn't got a map of Shanghai with me (my Chinese guidebook was back at my guesthouse) I decided to skip pre-booking accommodation until tomorrow. I did find some information about getting to the circuit and it all seems pretty straight forward with both taxis and buses going from the city center.

I left the internet cafe around 8pm and managed to bump into the two British girls, plus two British guys, in a restaurant. They had just placed their orders and so I added mine to the list. Due to not returning to my guesthouse from the internet cafe I was only wearing a t-shirt. As it was now dark it was freezing and so I ate my dinner quickly before leaving to get my fleece. I really don't get this; I'm heading south and so I thought that the weather would be getting warmer. I'm almost on a parallel with Bangkok and I remember the weather there being very hot at night so why isn't it here? I'm not complaining, I just want to know why. It's not like the ocean is close by either as Laos is a land-locked country. If anyone knows please can you send me the answer, on a postcard to:

one otter around the world,

around the world somewhere,

Earth.

On the other hand you could just leave a comment on my blog. By the time I got back to my guesthouse, and sorted myself out, it was 10:00pm. For me it was time to sleep and I was rather pleased with myself. Firstly I had my China F1 ticket but more importantly – for the moment anyhow – it seems like I've found a nice place to hang out for a couple of days. The guesthouse here is cheap, warm and has hot showers. There are plenty of good places to eat within the city and a good internet cafe. Okay the tourist attractions are lacking a little but there are quite a few things to look at outside of the city. All-in-all I'm rather pleased with this town, however I've only been here eight hours so lets wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Toodle Pip!