Back in Laos and Thailand

March 9 - 27

Back in Laos and Thailand

Vientiane
We fly back to Vientiane for a few more relaxing days.  We originally weren't sure where we'd go after Myanmar, but in order to finalize our Myanmar visas we needed to identify when and where we'd go after we left the country. Apparently Myanmar wants to be sure you're actually leaving. I picked Vientiane as our post-Myanmar destination because it's near a Laotian ecolodge I want to visit.  Lucky choice, as we enjoyed Vientiane's relative quiet when we were here on our Intrepid tour. This city's colonial history means it offers good Indian restaurants and French pastries, so we're happy.  We take a long walk along the Mekong, where we see an entire mile of ongoing Chinese financed construction projects.  We stop for coffee at a brand new high-falutin' hotel, where I experience something I've been looking for for months - decaf! We spend 60,241 kip for two coffees - about $7.50.  This is another city that will look quite different in ten years. Now, there are plenty of small shops and many goods are still sold at the day market and at the night market. With Chinese investment continuing, it will change. For the residents, change usually means jobs.

Ban Pako Ecolodge
The owner of the Ban Pako ecolodge picks us up in his well worn mini bus, and we head 30 miles northeast of Vientiane for three nights on the Nam Ngum river. This river contributes 10% to the flow of the Mekong. Ban Pako is very isolated and quiet. It's the only place we've been in Southeast Asia where we can clearly hear the birds. We can also hear stump-tailed macaque monkeys calling back and forth, and some kind of deafening loud cicadas.  The owner tells us that last year a leopard was hanging around, but departed after he broke into the quail house and devoured most of them. There is some new construction at the lodge, but there is some maintenance needed too, like rebuilding the bridge over the trail, and fishing the sunken canoes out of the river.

Our porch at Ban Pako

Our bungalow overlooking the river, Ban Pako Ecolodge

We walk in the forest and stir up the butterflies.  We take a dip in the river, which cools us down - Ban Pako has no air conditioning and it's hot.  We don't really swim though, we hang onto the dock because we're been warned about the current. The current is strong and steady; the dock is in a back eddy and if we let go we'd be pulled upstream instead of shooting downstream. That's somewhat reassuring, but we're not sure where we'd be deposited back into the main current.

We read, play games on our kindles and wait for dinner time.  The most exciting thing that happens at Ban Pako is when our cloth lamp shade gets tangled up in the ceiling fan and sprays lightbulb glass around the room. Our host is Swedish, about our age, and he tells us the lodge is built around an archaeological site. He asks if we've seen Raiders of the Lost Ark and if we remember the character of Marion Ravenswood, the hard-drinking, hard-smoking, brawling love interest of Indiana Jones.  We do, and he tells us that the character is modeled on a real Australian archaeologist, who has done work at Ban Pako.  Our host himself looks a bit like Donald Sutherland, but not as well kept.

A pair of young French women arrive on a motorcycle, and we find we've underestimated our dinner server. His English is quite good, and so, it turns out, is his French.  As we check out, the owner tells us that tourism all over Southeast Asia is way down, due to the ongoing political unrest in Thailand.  Bangkok is the only airport in five countries that can land big jets, so when Bangkok suffers everyone suffers.  We ask his opinion of what may happen next, and he says he fears civil war in Thailand, where he previously lived for twenty years. The king is very well respected and has been a stabilizing influence, but he is elderly and in poor health.  The crown princess is popular, but a woman can not take the throne.  The crown prince is very unpopular and currently married to his third wife.  We are told that he slipped a bag containing heroin into his second wife's baggage in hopes of her going to jail, but the plot was foiled when one of his children said "That bag's from daddy".

Nam Ngum River at Ban Pako

A Series of Unfortunate Events
Next day, we wake up in our hotel in Vientiane and chat about that day's flight to Thailand, making sure we have the right time in our heads. We confirm the time, and suddenly Doug says "Wait a minute, this is Sunday". We've got the time right, but we're a day early. Better to have realized it in bed than while standing at the airline check-in counter with our bags. So we spend one more day in Vientiane, see some art and take a long hot walk. March in Southeast Asia is very dry and very hot. At least we can get one more meal at our favorite Indian restaurant in Vientiane.

Next day we arrive at the airport and fly to Phuket via Bangkok. Phuket is a touristy island with lots of nice beaches.  Too mainstream, so I've booked us into a very nice resort on a quiet island off the coast of Phuket. We're arrive in Phuket too late for the last ferry of the day, however, so I've reserved a room for one night at a hotel in Phuket Town. It's a long cab ride south from the airport to the hotel, but we should be near the dock in order to get to our smaller island in the morning. Not so, we learn in the morning, and I tell Doug I've gotten a bum steer on the hotel location as we learn that we need to take another long cab ride north, back in the direction we came from yesterday. That's the only way to get to the relevant ferry dock.

We get to the dock, where a Macaque monkey is up to some highjinks in the garbage can. A nice Muslim lady in a bright yellow headscarf explains the monkey business to Doug - in Thai. The southern tail of Thailand borders Malaysia, and there's a strong Muslim presence here. In fact, there's some ethnic unrest, unrelated to the ongoing political dispute in Bangkok. Anyway, we take the ferry, but the surprises are not over.  I'm startled but not dismayed when the tuk tuk drivers at the arrival dock on the small island aren't familiar with the name of our resort. Surely this will be resolved quickly. One of them agrees to take us after I repeat the name of the resort and point to the general location on the map. We're sharing a tuk tuk with a couple of French guys, and after we drop them off at their resort, the driver asks again where we're going and calls a friend (is this a game show?) regarding it's location. I go into the French guys' resort and ask the reception staff to explain to our driver how to find our resort. Everyone, including Doug, the driver and the reception staff are very diplomatic. I hear questions like "Are you sure of the resort name?", and "Could it be on another island?" I'm sure of both, but it turns out that I'm dead wrong on both counts.

There are two adjacent islands, Koh Yao Yai and Koh Yao Noi.  Similar names, right? I thought the name of our resort was  Koh Yao Noi Village, so it would of course be on Koh Yao Noi island. However, it turns out the name of the resort is Koh Yao Yai Village, and we are on the wrong island. The only good news is that the island with our resort is only a five minute boat ride away. Perhaps tropical heat has softened my brain; I don't usually make mistakes like this, and such a sequence of them. Before the day is over we are finally checked into our bungalow, and it is spacious and lovely.

Koh Yao Yai Village Resort

Infinity pool overlooking the beach at Koh Yao Yai Village Resort



Our bungalow at Koh Yao Yai Village Resort

The entire resort is spacious and lovely, with a huge infinity pool overlooking the shoreline and the off shore islands. We spend the next three days swimming and reading and napping and eating and drinking cheap whiskey that we bought in Myanmar. We decide we're not cut out to be the idle rich, as we get bored with this agenda.




We  take a day trip kayaking in the mangroves. As we've found typical, no one asks if we know how to kayak (we do), we just go, and our guide does not speak English. We're on an estuary river, and there's a considerable current. Our guide takes us so far downstream we think it must be a one way trip and a tuk tuk will be waiting at the end. Not so, we get to the end and turn around and paddle back upstream in the mid day sun. It was hot before we turned around, so there is some sweat spilled on the way back. Not particularly enjoyable, but the exercise is good for us.

Kayaking in the mangroves, Koh Yao Yai Island

We return to our idle agenda, but it's clear we're not idle rich, as we always balk at resort laundry fees. Our deluxe bungalow is the one with my sink-washed laundry hanging all over the deck. Doug is even more efficient, he takes his dirty clothes into the shower with him. Over dinner we ask about the loud birds we've been hearing. Their call sounds like "Uh-Oh, Uh-Oh". We learn that they're actually Asian geckos. In addition to the typical small chirping geckos we're used to, this part of the world also has geckos that are almost a pound in weight and close to two feet long. I'd like to see one, but they are elusive and call mostly at night.

Andaman Bangtao Bay Resort
We are down to our final five days of our three month adventure, and we're spending it on the southwest coast of Thailand, back on Phuket island. We're in a small family resort among some pretty upscale places, though this beach is not full of the high rise hotels on other Phuket beaches. Like Vietnam's beaches, there are quite a few Russians vacationing here too. We see restaurant menus in Thai, English and Russian.  It's very hot and sunny, and our thoughts are turning toward spring in Wisconsin. Doug's thinking about the taxes he needs to do, and I'm thinking about the refrigerator - standing unplugged and empty. Makes me hungry just to think about the dearth of food.

Andaman Bang Tao Beach Resort, Phuket Island

Bang Tao beach, Phuket Island

We spend our lazy days here swimming and walking on the beach, reading and lounging and finishing our cheap whiskey. We both get sore feet from walking on the beach - the sand is nice but it must be more abrasive than it appears. We spend most of one day walking to the next beach down the coast.  It's considerably more upscale.  A young tailor comes out of his shop to solicit business. He's experienced at this, his first question is "How long are you staying?'  Our answer (until tomorrow) tells him that we're not going to be ordering any tailored clothing, but it's a quiet day so we have a long conversation with him.  He is ethnically Nepali, raised in Myanmar, and an economic refugee to Thailand.  His English is excellent, he tells us that some Southeast Asians use a type of tongue press to thin their tongues so they can speak English more easily. He says Americans are too casual to order tailored clothing; Europeans are better customers.  It's so hot here this time of year that at mid day we only want to be in our air conditioned room. It's not very well air conditioned, however. The doors and windows don't fit tight and the air conditioner runs constantly with minimal impact. Good thing we're being lazy here anyway.