Update

Okay, first of all, the country has changed and it didn't even take as long as I anticipated. We took the flight from Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City after spending a few days in Hoi An. Vietnam was rainy and dark and people were pushy so at that state of tiredness we just wanted to get out of the country as quickly as possible. Luckily in this part of the world it is still possible just to fish for some last-minute deals and we got an AirAsia flight to Bangkok around five o'clock. We were joking around about going to Phuket the same evening but as the flight went on the idea started to feel more and more appealing. So rushing through the Bangkok Airport I managed to score two tickets to Phuket on the same evening and immediately after making sure that we had checked in on time I gave a call to Jasu in Pore (the restaurant with best service, food and drinks this side of the equator) and he promised to fix us a room in a nearby hotel. When has your bartender done the same for you?

We arrived in Phuket around ten and took a cab to his restaurant. There we were greeted with our room keys, cold Chang and he was also kind enough to prepare us some food so we were finally more than ready for bed around midnight.

The following day we rented some scooters, drove around different beaches (If in Phuket, check out Nai Harn beach - it's awesome) and toured different sights. Day after that was dedicated to culinary adventures and then we moved on to Koh Phi Phi. One night there was enough and the original idea was to carry on to Koh Lanta towards one particularily nice beach but as the last ferry had gone it was of no use but to stay. After finally arriving it was just pure beach life, not much more to tell. Sun, swimming, food, swimming, sun, swimming, food, beer, swimming, sun, food, beer, beer, beer...

Then we headed towards the notorious Khao Lak but I guess that is worth its own post. Currently in Phuket town, waiting for a bus to Bangkok. So the traveling part is slowly coming to an end for now but there will be Cambodia at least on the list some day before March. And should I see something worth mentioning, I might just give it a post.

Laos and Vietnam

First of all, I wrote a long text but magically the crappy computers in cooperation with the lousy internet connection made blogger dig up some 30 minute old draft of the ready text and I was so pissed off that I really wasn't in the mood of writing it all over again... But here is what is left of it:

Okay, I've been keeping busy. Since last post from Bangkok I have visited Laos and am currently in Vietnam.

I think I am slowly starting to master the art of solitary bus traveling on a crowded bus. Once again deprived of food and sugar ("I'm sure we'll have some time to eat before the bus leaves...") I was feeling a bit grumpy. Well, sitting fairly widely in my seat and listening to kitten-slaughtering metal on a deafening volume did the trick and the guy who sat next to me instead of the other free seat in the back of the bus decided that the rear seat was a better option after all. Of course if the bus had been totally full I would have been nicer but as the other person ahd a choice, I feel that I just guided him in to the right direction. And he wasn't a passenger but an employee of the bus so it's not like he paid anything... :)

But eventually the night bus arrived in Vientiane which was like a small town standing still after the hussle of Bangkok. You wouldn't believe that it is a capital city, so peaceful it was there. But the road was calling and after one night in the countrys administrative central the road took me to Vang Vieng, the local traveller ghetto. One peculiar thing was the amount of bars that were constantly showing episodes of Friends in the area. I wouldn't say that there was one bar for each season but you definitely had some choice when it came to choosing how old Jennifer Aniston you wanted to stare at. Mainly I was just tubing in there for a day before moving on to the 30 hour trip to Vietnam. So most of Laos I saw from a bus window and the main thing that I saw was the colour green. Really beautiful and green country.

The trip from Vientiane to Hanoi was something to remember. We had to leave Vang Vieng at around 1pm, change to a bigger bus in Vientiane after 4 hours and then sit in the bus for about 24 hours with the extra 3 hours that we spent at the border zone, waiting for the departure stamp and filling out forms. As Finland is a country that could easily be described as "mostly harmless" we got our 14 day visas straight from the border and had to pay 1 dollar for it. Fairly nice compared to almost everyone else who had to pay 40-50 US dollars for theirs.

On other news: my camera finally gave in and broke down. Some mechanical failure as the lens won't come out or come in properly. Too bad since I really liked the versatility of the camera and the features that are nowadays almost exclusive to SLRs. Top of the line a few years ago and big by todays standards, but still. I would really like to take pictures from such places as Angkor Wat for example.

And here I had a long description of Hanoi, but basically we just walked around the city, visited the Mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh and the Hanoi Hilton. Go see it for yourself, it is bound to be better than my descriptions of it. And that won't be lost somewhere in the internet.

Tubing in Vang Vieng, Laos information

The national sport of backpackers in Laos is tubing (and boozing) down the river. There is only one operator and they charge a fixed price of 55000 kips (or 5 euros) and you also have to pay 60000 kips for a deposit of the tube. Then the price includes a one-way tuk tuk ride to the starting point where a few bars are more than happy to welcome you to the riverside with a free shot of local whiskey. (Doesn't taste anything like whiskey but is really good and costs 8000 (eight thousand) kips per 0,7l in a store so the price-quality ratio is definitely there).

There are a lot of bars in the beginning and I suggest you do most of your boozing there as when you go downstream the bars get a lot quieter and scarce. The last 30 minutes of floating there are practically no bars and it gets a bit chilly after the sun sets behind mountains (3pm-4pm).

There are a lot of things to do for small-time adrenaline junkies like zip lines and swings where you jump off from around 15 meters and just hold on to a rail. And jump down to the river when you feel like it. Most activities are free when you first buy a beer or some food from the bar.

There are a ton of backpackers there and peace and quiet is something that might be harder to find nowadays. The start is all loud dance music and if you want to party, it is definitely the place to go during the daytime in Vang Vieng. Further downstream you can just sit back, relax and look at the amazing mountainous scenery. The tubing is really far from rafting as the speed averages on about 2-4 km per hour. And as the route is about 4km long, it takes 1 to 2 hours depending on the current.

The exit isn't really clearly marked but it is fairly recogniseable. There are some local kids annoyingly willing to help you and beg for money for that so it is hard to miss. But generally when there seems to be two ways to go and some bamboo huts in the middle, that is the place to get up and return the tube. It is a few minutes walk back to the official tube rental.

Back in BKK

The night bus from Phuket to Bangkok was surprisingly nice, they even offered you a bottle of water, mysterious readily buttered and packed slice of toast and a blanket for free! The seats were superb and I guess the only negative thing about the trip was the Thai "easy listening" radio the driver was blasting through the first three hours of the journey. After that they stopped for 15 minutes and I was finally able to get some sleep. That is until we continued the journey and I woke up to the sound of massive gunfire and car chases. I guess the midnight movie was some local action flick and for some reason it was apparently absolutely necessary to turn the volume up a notch that the effects can be actually felt on the edge of your seat... Hovering somewhere between sleep and the Thai car chase reality the movie finally ended and around 2am the silence finally fell over the bus. So about 4 hours of sound sleep before arriving in some bus terminal somewhere around Bangkok that three locals weren't able to put on a map. Had some coffee and ended up chatting about religion, politics, nasal inhalers and import business with a local entrepreneur for two hours. Afterwards a 10km cab ride to my future University and after taking care of some business and taking a look at my possible future residence I headed back to the infamous Khao San road from where I had to get some passport photos, accommodation and bus tickets to Vientiane. And meet my mother the following morning. :)

We made a quick tour around Bangkok, cruised on the river Chao Phya, strolled around in Chinatown and killed time getting some massages, pedicures and facials. (foot massage, half an hour: 120 baht, facial 200 baht). And blogging of course. If you speak fluent Finnish and would like to follow her journey as well, here is a link to her blog.

Pictures from KL

As I am stranded in Phuket for four more hours and the internet costs only 15 baht an hour, I might as well post some unreleased photos from my camera. :)

Culture shock

I was prepared to sleep in shady bungalows and travel in crappy buses without doors with my knees in my chin. I was prepared to eat indistinguishable meat on a skewer and do my natural needs in worm-infested dunny with only a hole in the ground but in Phuket there was something I wasn't really prepared for. And that is a bar full of Finns.

I remember coming back from India and this reverse culture shock is quite interesting. For me it hit on a bus from Helsinki-Vantaa to my home town as it was a brand new Mercedes bus with floors cleaner than some plates I had eaten from in the previous months. Not to mention the utter silence and lack of movement of the high-tech transport. It was something similar, hearing a lot of finnish spoken around me (there is quite a strong Finnish community in Phuket, it seems) and drinking familiar drinks made by a trusted bartender for eight years and running.

Okay, the food at Pore (in Ao Chalong - or Chalong bay) was incredibly delicious. I have been mostly eating local foods in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand but the appeal of bacon stuffed chicken breast, mashed potatoes and one meter ribs was too hard to resist. I wound up sleeping in a nice hotel 200m from the bar and for two days it was just like any weekend in Finland. And actually the hotel was supposed to be quite cheap and crappy, but for me a tiled floor and a real bed with provided bed linen and towels was a luxury. And for 250 baht per night it was quite cheap for Phuket.

There was also a sauna right next to the bar and after countless weeks of cold showers and dusty roads the warmth really hit the spot. And as you could just keep your tab open when going in, it reminded me even more about Sling In and Santa Fe in Helsinki. :)

Jasu doing his magic in Pore
I know that even going to a place like Phuket might strike some travelers as a horrific thing to do but refusing the fact that some times I like to eat good western food, hang out with nice people from my own country and drink excessive amounts of alcohol would be lying to myself. Of course that is not why I came here but sometimes it is nice to take a little break from experiencing new stuff and places and just wind down the way that is most familiar to you.

The famous 1 meter (3,28 feet) ribs
And as you can get one meter ribs with all the side orders for less than you can get a Pedros Blackened Steak in Santa Fe, Helsinki it just seems logical to indulge in a cheaper country where the food is better and drinks are a lot cheaper. Thanks again, Jasu & co. :)

Now I am taking a night bus to Bangkok from where I will be continuing towards Cambodia and Vietnam.

Ko Lanta

The island is in deed almost paradise-like but as the road from the north is being built, more resorts are stretching out towards the southern beaches. You can still find really peaceful and quiet beaches with clean sand and even clearer waters. But as I talked with one local, there has been a huge change in the past ten years. Builders have been poaching the monkeys and previously common breeds such as Night monkeys are pretty much extinct nowadays. Also the bigger resorts have been just pumping their waste water straight in to the ocean, making the snow-white beach sands a pale shade of gray. They are apparently waking up to the situation but it seems that a lot of the damage has already been done, but still towards south you can find some peace and solitude under coconut trees. I'd still say that Palolem beach in Goa is probably the best I've been to, with Porto Katsiki in Lefkada, Greece coming as a close second. But generally the beaches here are easily compareable to the finest ones I've experienced. And I guess in Ko Phi Phi there would be even nicer ones (like the one they used in the Leonardo DiCaprio movie "The Beach") but somehow the ubiquitous 4-5 star resorts were somewhat of a turnoff and finding cheap accommodation there might be hard.


One nice thing about Ko Lanta is that the whole west coast is pretty much one stretch of a road and thusly it is very easy to get along in there. Walking is nice but waving downwards to the passing scooters or cars is really common and I was "stopped" by hitch-hikers a couple of times and when I didn't have a scooter, I was traveling on the back of a pick-up truck or on the back seat of someones scooter. And had the best and most interesting conversations with the locals during those trips as well. So that is definitely a recommended way of moving around and because it is so common, it is not hard to get yourself a ride. You are not expected to pay anything and generally the company is reward enough for all parties involved. Superb way to travel and meet the locals. And because there generally is just one road, you just pick the right side of the street and wave down with your hand. Generally the thumb up is an unknown symbol for them at least in the hitch-hiking context, so just looking at them and with your palm down just wiggle a little and you are most likely to get a ride.

The streets get quite quiet in the evening so don't count on a ride though. But whenever you have a longer distance to walk and you are not necessarily in the mood for it, try hitch-hiking. Works beautifully in Ko Lanta at least. :)

Don't fall asleep in the sun and other things learned

Okay, sorry for the delay in writing. First of all: I'm fine, didn't die in earthquakes or tsunamis. Was in KL during the earthquake but it really didn't cause anything in the capital. Thankfully got out from Sumatra before it hit as there are over one thousand dead and some villages are still isolated it seems. The only things I have noticed about typhoon Ketsana are the massive rains and heavy winds that are hitting Ko Lanta where I am currently. (Oh, and 99% of the islands Internet connections are down so there is also one factor of me not being able to update).

So the last post was from KL... Here's a quick recap of the things happened since:

I met a friend of mine from Finland in KL and we spent a few days in the city before traveling to Langkawi island and spent a couple of days there. We took the night bus towards Langkawi and the final leg was done with a ferry. The bus itself was quite all-right but 7 hours of sitting and arrival in the early hours of the morning didn't make for a good nights sleep. Quick breakfast and on to the ferry, cab to the Langkawi resort area and checking in to a nice hotel. Two persons paying results in air-conditioning and clean bedsheets for the same price as you'd normally pay alone for a crappy bungalow. (50 ringgit or 10 euros for the room, split in two - haggled down from 70).

The beach was quite near and that seemed like a nice place to spend a part of the day in. I was resting in the shadow at first and actually even said that I'm just gonna stay there because I know I would just fall asleep in the sun. Well, failing to take in to consideration the changing position of the sun I was happily dozing and the result was nicely burnt legs and stomach. Now, about a week later, it is starting to be quite normal again but with the amounts of after sun lotion and aloe vera used it would be a small wonder if it didn't heal.

Langkawi was generally a really touristic resort and the only good thing was the surrounding nature that we explored with a scooter. Mainly the small jungle trek around the waterfalls is noteworthy. And actually the waterfalls are really nice, hopefully I will get to post some photos later on.

After couple of days in Langkawi we headed towards Thailand. Ferry to Satun and a bus to Krabi. In the ferry my seat was a bit broken so not a lot of rest there either and in the bus I was quite pissed off because also there my seat was messed up with the reclining seat only reclining and not holding any position. Low blood sugar and everything led me to blast some Children of Bodom on officially hazardous sound pressure levels with my headphones. It did two things: got some of the vitutus out and kept the seat next to me free. I guess my Sennheisers leak out a little bit more audio on max volume than I had realized... But when arriving to the Krabi bus station I was already back to my normal self and ready to head towards the sunny islands of the Andaman sea. She opted for the city life so we parted ways, me heading first to the Krabi beach resorts and taking a ferry on the next day to Ko Phi Phi and finally to Ko Lanta. I spent the night in a shabby and murky bungalow that - according to the owners - was also a rest place for the Madventures crew on their filming of the first season. And surely enough there was Laughing Gecko mentioned in the thank you section of their book. So I guess I am doing at least something right with this travelling stuff. ;)

The bungalow was dim and moist, the mattress felt as if soiled and the mosquito net was hole-ridden. Thankfully it didn't rain because I really wasn't in the mood of finding out whether the roof was waterproof or not. Slept through the night still and the pick-up service I had arranged the night before was almost on time and I made it safely to the ferry. And without more than merely setting a foot on Ko Phi Phi I was already on the ferry to Ko Lanta. Befriended by a nice middle-aged woman I chose the accommodation tempted by the easiness of free transport to the premises. The bungalow was nice and the price okay (150 baht - or about 3 euros - down from 200). The neighbouring couple said that they had been there for three days and saw only a few drops of rain so the start was in deed promising. Took a few kilometers walk to the nearest city and got some money from the ATM. Early night in and refreshed in to a new day.

Except that two days ago the remains of the typhoon Ketsana hit the islands and it was just pouring rain and heavy winds for two days straight. We managed to take a little hike towards the nearby waterfalls (seeing a pattern here?) but it started to become dark and as the jungle was quite heavy it was definitely nice to get out before the darkness fell. Back in the bungalow I noticed two leeches sucking my right leg after wading through the knee-deep river. Just thinking about the leeches being used for medicinal purposes I tried to convince myself that it was actually nice but after ripping the little suckers out I felt more relieved about not having parasites than the healing features of the creatures. Apparently they do something to prevent your blood from congealing as the wounds just kept on bleeding for really long. But they should be relatively harmless and the wound just looks a little bit bruised. So to justify the headline: don't wade in unknown waters.

Yesterday I was mainly just keeping the rain and playing with the two and a half year old daughter of the place owner. Funny how kids are so open and friendly without any financial reason. With adults here you can never be sure...

Today is a nice, sunny day (so far) and apparently the connections to outside world are reopening. Nice, because I have already read all of my travel readings and the book swapping corner in the guest house is mainly filled with German books. I hired a scooter and found out that the island is in deed a small one and the smaller roads are rendered to muddy pathways by the heavy rains. So it's just cruising the main roads and eating in a small roadside stalls. And I'm enjoying every moment of it.