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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 9, 2023 7:43:36 GMT
I thought I might try this since I am not always very expansive in my photo reports. Obviously, there will be photo reports about everything, but you will have to wait for them a bit. Chapter 1 - HanoiAfter my trip to Saigon in June, I knew I needed to return to Vietnam to get a different experience. Although I didn't regret returning to Saigon, after a hiatus of 21 years, there was plenty of room for disappointment and I knew that I needed to wipe that away. I thought "next time I'll start in Hanoi" but that was just a random idea that might happen in a year or two. However, a more important destination popped into my mind, and I quickly saw that to get there using the sort of tickets that I use, I had to go through Hanoi. Bingo, so I would spend 4 days in Hanoi as a transit stop. This would not erase the need for a future trip to Vietnam because there a plenty of small places that I would like to see again, but it ensures that I will not spend more than a day in Saigon or Hanoi when I want to get to those places (Hué, Hoi An, Nha Trang, Sapa, etc., not to mention Haiphong which I would like to see for the first time). Vietnam Airlines remains efficient and charmless. I do like the fact that they still use real silverware for all meals while companies like Air France and KLM only use wooden implements in my beloved economy class. In any case, the flight went without incident other than a multitude of crying babies, and we landed in Hanoi under stormy skies at 06:45 the next morning. I got a million dong out of an ATM to cover my primary expenses. I knew that a taxi would cost a minimum of 350,000 dong. Okay, that's only 13.40 euros, but still! Express airport bus 86 to the city centre was only 45,000 dong (1.72 euros). It was sitting there ready to leave and I was on it in a flash, if only to get away from all of those people screaming taxi! taxi! taxi! at me, espcially since the airport website itself said that a lot of them are scammers. I had already been scammed in Saigon, thank you very much. The principal downtown stop was "Opera" and I knew exactly where it was, no problem. The bottom dropped out of the sky, and we drove to the city for an hour in the pouring rain. Other passengers were dropped off along the way, none of them Vietnamese but clearly all local residents, because they were happy to hop off in the weirdest desolate places along the road. The Hanoi opera, on the other hand, is perhaps the most magnificent building in the city. I did not take a photo of it, but here it is anyway. It's not impossible that it might remind you of something.  (to be continued) |
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 9, 2023 11:01:53 GMT
I remembered that the Opera was to the right of the lake around which Hanoi is centred. All I had to do was walk over to the edge of the lake, turn right and I would be on the edge of the Old Quarter. I did not have a paper map, but I had studied one and the street of my hotel was only a few streets back from the edge of the lake.
How wrong one's memory can be! The pouring rain and carrying all of my baggage after a 12 hour overnight flight did not help either. The lake was nowhere to be found. I tried to consult the GPS on my telephone but could not connect. After walking around in circles, I was more or less back near the Opera. I finally settled into a very chic café where everybody was hunched on their tiny seats over colouful fruit drinks. I went inside well away from the rain and ordered something from the menu. As I recall, it was a frozen peach and ginger concoction and it did me a world of good. I began to feel human again.
The rain was not going to stop. I paid the very ritzy price of 50,000 dong (1.91 euros) and asked the server "which way is the lake please?" His English was good enough to tell me "you take that big street on the left and go straight ahead. You find lake." That was exactly the direction I had not dared to take because it contradicted everything in my sense of direction.
Well, I found the lake, but everything seemed all screwed up again. After wandering again for a very long time (it seemed), I gave up and took a taxi, embarrassed because I knew it would be a very short ride. Well the taxi got lost too and took me to Hang Gai when I had requested Hang Ga. I should mention that the Old Quarter has a very serious street name problem. Almost every street starts with 'Hang' followed by something stupid. Hang Gông, Hang Da, Hang Chi, Hang Non, Hang Cân, Hang Bac, Hang But, etc. No wonder even the taxi driver got lost. He had to enter the address into his GPS and was clearly humiliated by having to do so. We finally got there and I paid the huge sum of 54,000 dong, which of course included the attempted delivery to the wrong address.
The hotel had my reservation of course but "Check-in at 14:00. We can keep your bag." I was dripping and exhausted so I said "Can I just sit here?" It was about 11:15 by then. "Yes, okay." I was not going to risk getting lost again. It was a very narrow lobby in a very narrow building, and the people coming and going practically had to brush my knees every time they passed. This did not stop me from drifting off.
At about 12:30 the doorman nudged me awake and the receptionist said "You seem very tired. I give you room now." I'm sure the room was ready all along, but rules are rules in Vietnam, and when check-in time is 14:00 you are not supposed to get the room before 14:00. Actually this has happened to me in the United States before. Anyway, I finally got in the room, quite luxuriously appointed but windowless. This often happens in Southeast Asia because hotel keepers do not understand why anybody would want a useless window. Since the hotel was only one room wide (+ corridor), only about 5 rooms on the street side had a window. It was also clear that if the hotel caught fire, I was not getting out alive in spite of the collection of 8 fire extinguishers across from the lift.
Oh well. It was time for a good long nap.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 9, 2023 21:26:56 GMT
Later in the day I went out to explore. Since it is the rainy season in Southeast Asia, it was still raining, but I was equipped with the umbrella that I bought at 7-Eleven in Singapore last year. Vietnam does not have 7-Eleven but is has the identical Circle K everywhere.
Like anybody who recently got lost, I was very careful with my route, especially since the taxi had deposited me there while I was in a daze. I decided to walk up just one major street and not make any turns no matter what happened, and then come back the same way. I finally started taking quite a few pictures, which you will see one of these days on the Vietnam thread. The Old Quarter turned out to be much much bigger than I thought it was. Even though this was my 3rd trip to Hanoi and I had stayed there both times in the past, I was under the impression that it was only about ten square blocks, but it is at least 5 or 10 times bigger. I obviously stayed in a more central part, close to the lake, the previous times.
But the size of it is good news because it is a Unesco World Heritage site and should be mostly preserved. There are obviously thousands of tourists there, but they absolutely do not overwhelm the local population, as often happens in many such places. Life goes on in spite of the tourists -- selling vegetables, metalworking, making bamboo ladders, selling toys, snacks and everything you can think of. As a tourist, one could wish for a few pedestrian streets, but that will be the beginning of the end and the locals would be driven out.
Nevertheless, like in most Asian cities, there is a huge night market that takes over one of the main thoroughfares. It has some things for tourists but mostly it is for the local population with chickens, dishware, produce, gadgets, tools, towels, clothing... It's exactly the way a market should be, adapted to the situation. For example it does not sell uncooked meats or fish because there is no way to keep it refrigerated in these circumstances, but there is plenty of all that already cooked or grilled. Seen through French eyes, one can wonder why there is no cheese, for example. But anybody who has been to Southeast Asia knows that cheese is not a popular item. In fact most Asians are lactose intolerant because it was never part of their diet, and that is only beginning to change in recent years, particularly in China/Japan/Korea. The Vietnamese eat a lot of iced treats but mostly fruity frozen ices and not ice cream.
But for me the charm of the Old Quarter lies in the trees and the other vegetation. Huge old trees dominate everywhere, and when they are in a struggle against a building, the tree usually wins. It really gives a new meaning to the concept of a tree lined street. It is more an issue ot buildings being tolerated in a forest.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 9, 2023 23:24:29 GMT
Absolutely love this very evocative introduction, which really needs no pictures to distract from it! No wonder even the taxi driver got lost. He had to enter the address into his GPS and was clearly humiliated by having to do so.  Either you don't know, or you forgot the old joke that sums up a major facet of most men's characters ~ Q: Why did Moses wander for forty years in the desert?
A: Because he didn't want to ask for directions.I decided to walk up just one major street and not make any turns no matter what happened, and then come back the same way. This describes my entire no-sense-of-direction life. [the night market] does not sell uncooked meats or fish because there is no way to keep it refrigerated in these circumstances, but there is plenty of all that already cooked or grilled. This is really surprising! Dumb question, but surely uncooked meat or fish is sold in the daytime, when people would be buying it to take home & cook, right? most Asians are lactose intolerant because it was never part of their diet, and that is only beginning to change in recent years Pearl Buck includes the comment in one of her books (which are from long ago) that the Chinese did not like to go to the European opera house, even though they liked the music. That was because they couldn't abide the "buttery" smell of the foreigners. Huge old trees dominate everywhere, and when they are in a struggle against a building, the tree usually wins. What a lovely image! Looking forward to more, more. |
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 10, 2023 0:22:20 GMT
Dumb question, but surely uncooked meat or fish is sold in the daytime, when people would be buying it to take home & cook, right? Yes, the night market is after dinner time for the Vietnamese, so they buy that stuff on blocks of ice in the morning. A lot of them probably don't even have a refrigerator big enough to store most of their food. |
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 10, 2023 1:08:41 GMT
Naturally, I became considerably bolder in my explorations the following day and had landmarks to make a mental map -- the big broken tree, the little temple, the flashy phone store, etc. The vast majority of the commerces had nothing to do with tourists, although just about all of them sold crisps and bottles of water for emergencies. There were lots of temples throughout the quarter. I took a few photos from outside but did not go into any of them because I think I have seen enough of them over the years and my mind has only so much space for golden Buddhas.
Studying the map showed me why everything had gone so wrong directionally on my arrival day. The opera isn't far from the lake, but it is on the left side instead of the right. So there was no way for me to go by instinct in the correct direction. My compass points were also skewed. Streets that should have been east-west were actually north-south. People with GPS have it so easy!
I went to my tradtional destination -- the post office -- and it was exactly where I remembered. Unlike the seething hive in Saigon, the Hanoi post office was completely empty, i.e. 2 customers including myself, and about 5 employees behind desks doing nothing. I was ushered in by an old man who seemed afraid that I might not come in if he didn't encourage me. I would have gone inside anyway, but I would have been unsure that the door would open since the place looked completely empty in the middle of the business day.
He had a little desk just inside the door and sold me all of my needs in postcards and stamps. He asked me where I was from, and when I said Phap, he immediately switched into rusty French. Did I need any philatelic items? How about old coins? Did I want to change money? Dollars, pounds, euros, yen, won? He had big bundles of everything. No one needs to walk more than one metre into that post office to get everything, but I still went to one of the abandoned writing tables to do my postcards. It was pouring rain, and I was still dripping in spite of my umbrella.
When I finished, it was time to stroll along the lake. The big boulevards on both sides of the lake were closed to traffic for some reason, which was nice. I don't know why because it wasn't even a Sunday, and the streets remained closed on the following day, too. Could it possibly be a new permanent decision?
In any case, it was calm along the lake. There are always people there, especially with the school holidays, but there were no crowds until I got to the bridge for the temple in the lake. I didn't remember if I had ever visited, so I paid my 30,000 dong and went. I'm pretty sure I'd seen it before, because there is nothing to see, and the island is very small. But it a nice little detour from the city.
Then I was at the northern end of the lake, Tourist Central. The Old Quarter starts about two blocks inward. There are electric minibuses for tours, tuktuks, taxis for everywhere. I fell prey to the 'English' children. Sometimes I can get rid of them by playing the Phap card but not today. These are groups of about 5 kids, 7 or 8 years old herded by a teacher. Each one finds a victim and then they read their questions from a list. What's your name? How old are you? Where are you from? Do you have a hobby? What do you like to eat? It can get a bit tedious because the kids know more or less how to read their questions (and some of them are memorised), but it seems pretty obvious that they don't understand the answers if you say more than 5 words. Oh well.
I no longer feel guilty about not doing things on a trip like that. I've seen the Perfueme Pagoda, I've been to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum, I don't need to go again. So I just wandered and that was enough. On a first visit one should put in more effort. I learned to appreciate the Vietnamese custom of drinking beer in a glass full of ice again. I had plenty of pho and fried noodles and all the good stuff. It was much nicer than being in Saigon. I'll be back.
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Post by htmb on Aug 10, 2023 1:21:05 GMT
Quite interesting. I’m looking forward to hearing more about your trip.
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Post by bjd on Aug 10, 2023 6:12:12 GMT
It's nice to read about a trip instead of just looking at photos. More like travel books used to be, leaving more to the imagination.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 10, 2023 8:18:27 GMT
Chapter 2 - Luang PrabangThis was my most important destination and the main reason for this trip. I took the easy way out of Hanoi and paid the 300,000 dong charged by the hotel to arrange the taxi (as opposed to 350,000 dong in the other direction). Anyway, that's 11.45 euros so quite acceptable. Traffic was pretty intense leaving the city at 09:00 but the expressway to Noi Bai Airport was quick. There are a number of high rises under construction along the Red River that you see going over the Nhât Tân cable suspension bridge (otherwise known as the Japan-Vietnam Friendship Bridge in case you're wondering who paid for it in 2015). The bridge is spectacularly illuminated at night, something I doubt I will ever see in person.  The airport is of course considerably calmer than major airports in many other countries, but the international terminal is totally modern, with the necessary Burger King and Popeye's Chicken. I thought it was even more recent than it is -- also 2015 and also built by Japan. If you're wondering why Japan is so nice to Vietnam, think about how much rice the country needs. Anyway, it was spotless and all of the Vietnamese passengers were entralled by the moving walkways to the point of blocking them as they took countless selfies. It was pouring rain again. My flight left about 30 minutes late due to "late incoming aircraft" but the flight is only about 70 minutes (45 minutes in the air). There was nothing to see because of the clouds but I know how breathtaking it is to fly over the mountains there since I flew once from Luang Prabang to Vientiane in a tiny Y-7 turboprop after deciding that there was no way I was taking the bus back over the mountains again. I'm not sure which was more dangerous. The airline back then Lao Aviation (RIP) had the worst safety record and the most crashes of any airline of its category. But the Vietnam Airlines A321 landed just fine. Luang Prabang International Airport did not appear to have changed one iota since the Japanese built it and I last used it, but Wikipedia says it was "upgraded" in 2013. It still has a grand total of 4 gates and I doubt that they ever use more than one at a time. We disembarked directly into the terminal by jetway, so that was an upgrade. You used to have to walk across the tarmac to the plane and go up the stairs. Immigration was pretty tedious, but the plane was half empty so it really didn't take that long. I had my e-visa in advance but I got the impression that the people who bought one upon arrival were processed faster. Go figure. Why do we even still need a visa? Vietnam doesn't require one anymore. Needed money and guess what? There was one single exchange office in operation and every other thing in the terminal building was closed. Things improved considerably after that. All taxi transportation is provided by collective taxis for a flat fee. You buy a ticket for 80,000 kip (3.74 euros), the man writes your hotel name in the Laotian alphabet for the driver and you're off as soon as there are six passengers in the van. Anyway, the airport is only 5 km from the city. I was the first person dropped off. The driver grunted the name (more or less) and motioned up a muddy alley. Huh? Since there were 5 witnesses, I supposed that I wasn't just being dumped in the middle of nowhere and I walked up through the mud confidently. And the hotel was indeed there, as lovely as expected. Of course, even when there is not mud, you take your shoes off when entering the building, which is a good way to know how many people are around. An hour later, it was time to explore.
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Post by htmb on Aug 10, 2023 13:24:01 GMT
What an adventure you’re having! It certainly makes for good reading.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 10, 2023 14:36:45 GMT
It is impossible to get lost in the central part of Luang Prabang because it is surrounded by the confluence of the Nam Khan and the Mekong. There is nowhere to go! (My hotel is located at the blue square at the bottom.) So I had no worries at all the next morning because the main road near my hotel intersects the main street of Luang Prabang. But one of the very first things I noticed already leaving from the airport is that the traffic is completely civilised. Cars, trucks buses and motorcycles drive at a very leisurely pace and never even pass each other. And I never heard a single car horn even when somebody made a driving mistake or a pedestrian crossed the road without looking. I did once, which is inexcusable since traffic is so light and you never have to dodge the vehicles. Tourists are stupid. Traffic was even lighter 25 years ago when I was there the first time, but even rush hour is a laugh. I only saw cars having to stop for other cars at a roundabout twice, and it was no big deal. Naturally things have changed. There is now a huge number of hotels and guest houses because tourism has increased twentyfold since the 1990s. I think I'm very lucky to have come during low (rainy) season, and I fear that the tourists must trample each other during high season, once again because there is practically nowhere to go except the main street and the roads along the river. There are still plenty of tourists right now, mostly European and Australian in terms of Westerners. The vast majority of the tourists are Asian of course. I asked a tuktuk driver with whom I shared a bench, and he said that most of the tourists in Luang Prabang are from China and Thailand. This is kind of good news because it will keep prices down and ensure that authentic cuisine remains available. I did see someone order a burger, but lots of people are travelling with their teenagers, so certain concessions must be made. There is a temple with a monastery in almost every block. There is a huge one right across from my hotel. I did not visit any of them except to walk a bit through the grounds. It's sort of like a university campus except that all of the students are wearing orange robes. Very peaceful. |
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 10, 2023 16:01:32 GMT
One of the very first things I did was to go over to the Nam Khan River. Luang Prabang has magnificent brick footpaths throughout the entire city and on the Nam Khan side they have created an excellent promenade. As you approach the end of the peninsula, you can unfortunately observe the downside of mass tourism. Every single building has been transformed into a luxury resort hotel. They are beautiful and have magnificent trees and gardens. I have not checked the rates along there, but I'm sure that a lot of them are outrageous, naturally depending which rooms have a river view and which do not. In any case, due to low season, all of the hotels have reduced their rates 20 to 40%. I myself got something like 30% off.
But I was there to see the Nam Khan and it did not disappoint. It was raging and rumbling and growling. If you fall in, you are done for. It was full of trees and branches and all sorts of unidentified floating objects. When I was in Luang Prabang the last time, there was a warning about all of the foolish Western tourists coming from some city in the north by boat because it was the cool thing to do. These were small boats and quite a few people drowned or were injured because sometimes the boats would hit submerged logs. Life jackets? Don't make me laugh. Actually today I saw one of the ferries crossing the Mekong which is a much calmer huge river although the current is ultra fast right now, and all of the passengers were wearing life vests just to get across the river.
Anyway, I continued to the point of the peninsula, and the convergence of the two rivers is a magnificent and terrifying sight. The Nam Khan gets gobbled up but not without a fight. I wouldn't want to be in a conoe there or any other boat. In fact, I did not see any boats at all on the Nam Khan right now. There are some little docks below some of the hotels, but they certainly can't use them in the current conditions.
I sat under my umbrella on a wet bench for awhile. I didn't care. I was mesmerized. There were some gardeners cutting huge bamboo poles for some reason, apparently to put some posts in the ground. You wouldn't want to get in the way of their machetes. In one whack, they were slicing stalks as thick as fireplace logs.
Then I wandered up the Mekong side for a bit, but it doesn't have the lovely brick walkway that the other side does. That's because "Mekong view" hotels probably pull in a lot more money than anonymous "river view" rooms on the Nam Khan side. And these hotels have privatised their access to the river for their private boats and docks and bars. So they are deprived of the brick walk. Serves them right.
Then it was time to go to the central street a block over and see what had changed...
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Post by mich64 on Aug 10, 2023 18:20:50 GMT
Fabulous, enjoying the read about your journey.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 11, 2023 1:04:47 GMT
On my first trip to Luang Prabang, I was very happy with the far end of the main street. It had all of the usual ordinary Lao shops for plastic basins, tools, school supplies, vegetables, etc., but it also had some shops of interest to tourists, not too many and definitely not overwhelming. Here and there were also some restaurants with menus in English, which can be necessary when you are not adventurous and don't speak Lao. At that end of the street, all of the traditional Lao shops have disappeared and given way to fabric shops, dress shops, handicraft shops, travel agencies, restaurants, banks and ATMs, to name just a few things. Normally I would be dismayed, but the central area is so small that there are still plenty of ordinary shops for the locals no more than 100 metres away. So I'm sure it is a good thing for the economy of one of the poorest countries of the world. I just hope that they can keep the transformation a bit in check, since it is after all a UNESCO World Heritage site. In any case, I was happy to settle into a restaurant or bar from time to time, and the prices made me even happier. My most expensive luxury meal with two beers cost only 9 euros. I ate only Laotian dishes and drank only Laotian beer, but some of the menus also displayed occidental food at much higher prices. I remember last night I saw something along the lines of 'sirloin steak' on a menu for 298,000 kip ( = 14 euros ). So people who want to spend money can certainly do so. One bar had a full selection of Belgian beers available. And I saw that some of the Spanish and Italian crones with their (usually) younger companions would order drinks like margaritas. No price check on that but probably very reasonable. More than my large (66cl) Beerlao at 1.40 euros. It seemed necessary to do at least one cultural activity, so I went to the Lao National Museum of Luang Prabang. Luang Prabang was the royal capital of Laos until 1946 and the former royal palace is now a museum. They have invested in some technology because the tickets (1.40 euros) actually have a QR code to scan to get through the turnstiles. You have to put your bag in a locker, even ladies' handbags, and you have to take your shoes off to enter. People are so stupid. There were quite a few shoe racks but at least half of the visitors (Asians according to my knowledge of footwear) took off their shoes and sandals right in front of the entrance, so you had to walk over an ocean of shoes to get inside. There is actually only one room worth seeing (one that I would have taken a picture of). The King's bedroom, the Queen's bedroom and the dining room, all of which you just peer into behind the ropes, indicate that the royal family was satisfied with not much in the 1940's. The corridors had a lot of dusty cases of gifts from other nations, the usual dishes and urns from China, Burma, Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan. I saw a gift from Canada and the USSR and Poland, but I didn't see anything from France or the United Kingdom. I suspect that they were too nice to keep in this museum. However, a gift from the United States was on display although there was a period discrepancy. If the kingdom ended in 1946, when did the U.S. give a model of a lunar module? On top of that, it looked like anything you could buy in a toy store. Tacky! Here is the only impressive room, the main foyer.  |
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 11, 2023 2:13:34 GMT
The street markets are excellent of course. There is the morning market which starts at dawn in the alleys off the main street. The fresh vegetables are beyond belief since they were harvested 10 minutes ago. There is fish from the Mekong and all sorts of meats. The flies arrive a bit later, but a lot of the stands use whirly fans with streamers or just a plastic bag to keep pests away. Flies are really not a big deal if you cook your food.
I should mention one speciality which I don't remember encountering in the past, although I probably did because the internet tells me it is popular through much of Southeast Asia. A lot of places sells cartons of eggs. Nothing more normal than that except when you look a bit closer. Each egg had a bit chipped off the top so that you can see the baby chick inside, usually a bit of yellow fluff, but sometimes it looks like the head was trying to emerge.
Balut eggs are savored for their balance of textures and flavors. The broth surrounding
the embryo is sipped from the egg before the shell is peeled, and the yolk and young chick inside can be
eaten.
The internet tells me that they are usually duck eggs, but these look like chicken eggs to me. I will spare you most of the details, but I read that it is polite to make a slurping sound as you suck out that little creature. To know if the egg was "harvested" soon enough, if you can feel the beak, it is too late. These are far more delicious before the beak has hardened. No, I did not try any this time.
The evening market is a totally different proposition. A long section of the main street is closed off starting at 18:00 and the vendors set up their stuff. Most of the stuff now is for tourists -- handicrafts, cloth, lanterns, bolts of printed cotton, dresses, hats, baby items and the inevitable T-shirts. On the 3rd day, I nearly broke down and bought something but I managed to refrain. I still have the embroidered banners that I bought here 25 years ago. That is enough.
There is one high rise in Luang Prabang, at least it registers in my mind as a high rise. There is a hotel that boasts a rooftop terrace, and I finally decided that I had to go up there. I don't know how they got the authorisation to build this place -- probably corruption and bribes. It kept growing in my mind but actually when I got to the Indigo Café, I saw that the building is only 4 storeys tall. It is still shocking when every other building is only one or two floors! But it is a nice place, and everybody goes up there to take photos. To my surprise, the beer was cheaper there than at the places down on the ground, maybe because you have to make the effort of going up the stairs (no lift).
My last memorable meal was on the banks of the Mekong. First I sat at an establishment on the inner side of the road, but there were too many people (tourists!) so I went to the dilapidated place near the water. No menu, just soup. Long tables for workers and boat pilots. The woman said "Nood soup or Rie soup?" I got the nood soup and in 3 minutes I was served a big bowl of noodle soup with an amazing quantity of chicken and vegetables. I won't go so far as to say "best soup ever!" but it was appropriately excellent, and it cost just one euro. Why don't we have these places in Paris?
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Post by Kimby on Aug 11, 2023 2:17:16 GMT
Wow, K2, your word pictures are very evocative. Your report takes me right back to Vietnam (1993) and Laos (2005). I can’t wait to see where the next chapters take us!
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 11, 2023 11:10:15 GMT
Chapter 3 - VientianeI was ready to leave Luang Prabang after 4 days but I am ready to go back any time. Probably I need to travel to other parts of Laos, most definitely the Plain of Jars of course. We'll see. The collective taxi came to pick me up at 10:00 to go to the train station. Unlike the airport (5km), the train station is at least 20km from the city. Probably the local authorities had no say in the matter since it was a Chinese project, and they decided everything. The road to the station is complete crap and reminded me of why I never wanted to take the bus again. Just that short distance had all six passengers in a frazzle as we bounced over the potholes and swerved to avoid the cracks and collapses. And I finally got to hear a car honk, in fact our car, because a dog was standing in the middle of the road. The best thing about this ride is that it was free -- included in the cost of the train ticket. The Luang Prabang train station is bigger than the airport but it still only uses one platform. All departures are from platform 1. In fact, the train is on a single track line and uses sidings when trains have to cross each other. This does not bode well for the future when you think of various accidents, but we spent so much time in tunnels through the mountains that I understand the Chinese desire to save money. In any case the monumental station is quite impressive. We passed through security to enter the station, just like an airport and evrybody settled into the huge waiting area. This implied that the train would be full, and it was. You have to be careful buying tickets because they only go on sale 48 hours ahead of time. Luckily, the hotels know exactly how to handle this. We were allowed to stand on the platform ten minutes before the train arrived, two metres back from the edge. Employees were stationed all along the platform to ensure that we obeyed. Boarding was no big deal. Most of the passengers on the Chinese Lao-Chinese train seemed to be Chinese. And oh they were so hungry. They had lots of food with them but they also devoured the food from the passing carts. I was seated next to a young Chinese father with his toddler on his knees, and the toddler needed one of the passing grilled sausages. Of course he didn't actually eat it, but he enjoyed pulling the skin off of it. The father was very careful to keep everything clean -- kudos to him since the Chinese have a perhaps unjustified reputation of being messy. The tickets were checked (with passports or ID) during the trip and checked again to exit the station at Vientiane. No fraudsters here! I decided to take it easy and take the expensive 300,000 kip flat rate taxi to my hotel, while I longed to take one of the many buses to the city centre for 15,000 kip. Oh, that taxi ride was something else, since the driver did not speak a word of English and had no idea where he was going.
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Post by mich64 on Aug 11, 2023 20:12:39 GMT
Enjoyed your description of the markets and envious of your 1 Euro enjoyable dinner!
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 11, 2023 21:57:31 GMT
Luange Prabang has magnificent brick footpaths throughout the entire city and on the Nam Khan side they have created an excellent promenade. I continued to the point of the peninsula, and the convergence of the two rivers is a magnificent and terrifying sight. The Nam Khan gets gobbled up but not without a fight. I sat under my umbrella on a wet bench for awhile. I didn't care. I was mesmerized. I ate only Laotian dishes and drank only Laotian beer, but some of the menus also displayed occidental food at much higher prices. Oh, that taxi ride was something else, since the driver did not speak a word of English and had no idea where he was going.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 12, 2023 1:29:10 GMT
I knew that the train station couldn't be as far out of town as in Luang Prabang, if only because Vientiane is more important. The station is a bigger and better version of the one in LP in exactly the same style. Did I mention that all of this just opened in December 2021? I didn't think so.
Back to the taxi. A few lucky souls had drivers waiting for them with signs or tablets like in an airport. The rest of the people flowed out into an ocean of transportation hawkers but strangely more civilised than in most such places because all of the rates were displayed on their signs. I don't know how many private bus companies operate here, but there were 5 different buses saying that they were going to the central bus station with fares from 15,000 to 25,000 -- in other words, practically nothing since 25,000 = 1.17 euros. But I didn't know where the central bus station was and I was also sure that the bus would stop at least 78 times along the way to let people on and off. The 300,000 kip taxi fare (14 euros) seemed a bit steep to me, but it would remove all anxiety about my destination and certain take much less time with no stops.
The taxi dispatcher asked the name of my hotel and assigned a driver to me. On our way to the taxi, another uniformed official asked me the name of my hotel, told it to the driver again, so there would be no confusion. Then I was in the very nice taxi and we were on our way. Southeast Asian suburbs often seem weird and this was no exception. Mostly they consist of modest houses and shops and transition to small factories and other industries. But all of a sudden there was a magnificent new manor that looked like it had been built just last week, good enough to be a presidential palace, with a huge golden gate and matching fences surrounding the property. Since it caught me off guard, I didn't get a chance for a picture. Why would anybody want to put a château there? (Perhaps the person owns all of the surrounding area and will have it torn down soon.)
Then we were definitely in the city, which is 99% different from the Vientiane of 25 years ago. Back then, besides the complete lack of traffic except along the main highway, what had impressed me the most was that the streets in the absolute centre of the city were unpaved dirt. And this was the capital of the country! Well, the streets are paved now and seemed much wider, and there were even traffic signals. The large enterprises along such roads either opt for an anonymous 'anywhere' style or they go for the full Buddhist palace style or perhaps Greek columns (very popular here), with a smattering of Louis XIII from time to time. It is grotesque and wonderful. But I was beginning to wonder when we might reach the hotel.
There were some isolated business hotels here and there, but I knew that my place was in the dead centre of the city with a view of the Mekong. Just as we seemed to be approaching (since I could see the strange triumphal arch in the centre), we veered off to go... where? I asked "where are you going?" even though I knew he could not understand me. He started saying the only element common to our language: "GPS GPS GPS!" Well, dammit, I have no idea what the GPS coordinates are. I opened my notebook where I had written the address of the hotel, unfortunately in the Latin alphabet and not in Laotian. "Mixay," I said. "Chanthabouly." Then I added "Fa Ngum" which is the name of the street along the Mekong. I doubt that I pronounced that last name in any way comprehensible to anyone on the planet.
This was getting us nowhere, so he handed me his telephone with a map of Vientiane on it, really not very helpful when everything is written in Laotian. Since that didn't help, he called someone who spoke a little English. I told the person the name of my hotel. He seemed to understand and then told the driver who seemed to understand but clearly did not. He just didn't want to lose face. At least we were headed back to the centre again. At one point we passed the Ibis Hotel and I thought "Maybe I should have stayed there. He could have found it." After driving around in circles, I said again "Mixay. Chanthabouly." He finally pulled up to a place with a name like "Mixay Café" and I said "No! That's not it!" But he got out of the car and motioned for me to stay. In a couple of minutes he came out with a guy who could speak English. I explained to him the exact name of the hotel, which he knew quite well, and he explained it to the driver. I could see that there was talk of "you turn there at the temple and then you go two blocks to the green building and turn right..." that sort of stuff. It finally seemed clear to the driver except for the fact that there were a lot of one way streets going in the wrong direction for him. And all of a sudden, "There! There it is! Stop!" And I had arrived. I was glad it was a flat fee.
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Post by fumobici on Aug 13, 2023 3:29:42 GMT
This is going well so far, the words alone do a pretty good job of painting pictures. Looking forward to the pics nevertheless. I've got two brothers who have spent years in SE Asia and they can't seem to stay away for long.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 14, 2023 12:47:12 GMT
The driver seemed to leave me with regret. His eyes said "Are you sure this is where you want to go? We could have kept driving for a long time!" I got a warm welcome at the hotel, which was populated almost exclusively by Koreans. There was a superb ultra modern elevator for which I nearly needed an operating manual. The vision of the 5th floor was a bit different. I found myself in 1950, which is fine, but no maintenance seemed to have been done since then. There was only one electric socket that worked next to the bed, just barely, because you had to balance the plug precariously at a drooping angle. One thing I found particularly amusing was the electric kettle. It had a full set of coffee and tea but no place to plug it in. Maybe there was a wall socket in the corridor?
But the true masterpiece was the bathroom. The sink was attached to nothing and just balanced -- the pedestal was just standing there with the sink perched precariously on top. And the drain was not attached to anything either -- it just drained out over the floor. (I actually experienced this once before in Kuala Lumpur.) Getting hot water for the shower also required a certain amount of ingenuity. As for the roaches, well I grew up with roaches, no big deal.
But I had a view of the Mekong. How cool is that?
I went out to see the Mekong immediately. There is now an expressway along the river, which you can cross if you dare. There used to be big trees and outdoor bars there. And of course there's not all that much to see at ground level. The Lao side of the river is mostly sand banks with the main flow of the river occurring on the Thai side. But it all has its symbolic importance so I was satisfied with the view.
I did not explore much that day and the only highlight was my trip to a nearby Chinese restaurant. I'm sure that the serving girls were Vietnamese because I immediately recognised their legendary hostility. The kitchen was out front, so I could watch them laughing and joking with the cook but the moment they returned to the customers, they had a mask of painful indignity. My server disapproved of my order. I wanted prawns with onions accompanied by steamed rice, but she turned the page of the menu to try to get me to order the fried rice with shrimp. I stood my ground and did not make a friend.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 14, 2023 17:58:15 GMT
This is somewhat harrowing & rather amusing. Or rather, it would be amusing if I didn't identify so entirely with the grim hotel room situation.
You may recall that the apartment in Rome had a nice little coffee service area set up on the kitchen bar. The cord for that dangled tantalizingly near a wall socket on the other side, but alas, did not reach it.
Yes ~ view of the Mekong ~ yes, immensely cool!
re: Vietnamese waitresses & their "legendary hostility". Were I reading this cold, so to speak, I would immediately interpret that as a reaction to you as a French/US person, thus a member of the warmongering invaders. However, having just yesterday read a psychological explanation of hostility toward customers* by Chinese service personnel, I'm wondering if it might be more caused by something similar.
How were the prawns?
This is great stuff. Are you keeping a journal, or rushing to record it here while it's all still fresh?
*Explanation was that since China is supposed to be a classless society, a service worker might feel the need to flaunt his/her importance in the scheme of things.
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Post by htmb on Aug 14, 2023 19:21:05 GMT
Sounds like you’re living on the edge, Kerouac.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 14, 2023 23:07:32 GMT
*Explanation was that since China is supposed to be a classless society, a service worker might feel the need to flaunt his/her importance in the scheme of things. Actually, the no tipping culture in France dates from the revolution, too. Service workers consider themselves to be the equals of the customers and it is insulting to show one's superiority by tipping. |
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 14, 2023 23:46:38 GMT
My first destination the next morning was the Black Stupa (That Dam) in a small central roundabout. The first time I went to Vientiane, my hotel was right next to it and it fascinated me in the dawn light, in the midday sun, in the moonlight. The spirit of a seven-headed naga lives inside. I didn't see my old hotel (didn't really look for it either), but I knew that the U.S. embassy was right next door, so I took a look. I received an immediate outraged shout from a Laotian guard when I raised my camera, so I gave an apologetic shrug and moved on. But I got the picture.
Next was a long trek up Avenue Lane Xang, the widest boulevard in the city. It is quite nice, but the reason for it is a bit trivial. After independence from France, the government decided that it needed a monumental avenue just like the Champs Elysées in Paris to show that Laos is just as good as France. And so they built everything the French way.
I dipped into a shopping mall along the way. There is no risk of the international brands moving in any time soon. Laos is having an economic crisis, so the upper levels are abandoned (probably never rented) and most of the rest of the shops look like a flea market. In the area, one can also see the concrete shells of unfinished buildings.
My destination was in sight -- the Patuxai. It wan't enough to build a Laotian Champs Elysées. They finished it off with the Arc de Triomphe de Vientiane. It is a relatively recent construction and was built from 1957 to 1968, but the urge to show France how important Laos is clearly continued to burn brightly. To its credit, the artistic embellishments are quite different from the Parisian version. Otherwise it would just be sad. Under the arch, I was surrounded by Chinese tourists in total selfie mania. I sat against a pillar in the shade and was fascinated. My signal to move on is when the sweat stops dripping.
I wandered back to a more central area and settled into an empty fruit juice café. The old woman in charge of the place ran up to me and made me stand up. She replaced my plastic chair with a wooden one. The word bubble over her head said "You fat fuck you gonna break my chair." I ordered a passion fruit smoothie and even though I never turned around to look, I followed every step of the process -- slicing the fruit open, scraping out the pulp, straining the seeds, chipping a block of ice, finally putting everything in the blender. I felt that it was a lot of work for 1.88 euros. I felt much better once it was in me.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 15, 2023 3:37:00 GMT
Thanks for the detail about tipping culture in France. Stands to reason!
What is the deal with local guards & the US embassy? They were all hot & bothered about no photos of it in Havana, but why should they care?
Your descriptions and explanations are great. I can see the not very successful shopping center. What I am fascinated by & dying to see picture of is the Arc de Triomphe de Vientiane. Don't worry -- your word pictures serve admirably, but I know your extra talent for photographing Chinese tourists.
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Post by bjd on Aug 15, 2023 6:17:18 GMT
Bixa, US embassies everywhere are complete bunkers, so the guards outside always chase away people taking pictures. That is their job.
As for the old woman at the juice café, Kerouac, maybe she was being considerate with a wooden chair? Wood doesn't make you sweat like sitting on plastic.
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Post by fumobici on Aug 15, 2023 13:59:29 GMT
I was told off once by an Italian guard in front of the US Consulate in Florence for taking a photo of the Garibaldi statue in front of it. I bet those guards just love doing that.
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Post by htmb on Aug 15, 2023 14:26:45 GMT
I was told off once by an Italian guard in front of the US Consulate in Florence for taking a photo of the Garibaldi statue in front of it. I bet those guards just love doing that. The same thing happened to me in the same place. Very annoying.
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