The north-east of Thailand (Isaan) was amazing. A rare opportunity to be a tourist on a path traveled mostly by local tourists, and a good way to get our travel sea-legs. About a week ago now we went as east as Thailand goes (Kong Chiam) to check out some 4000 year old cliff paintings (I know right!?), though we were more enamoured by the graffiti carved into the bamboo trees and translated signs ("slippers area" instead of "slippery area"). We ventured into one of Thailand's neighbours, Laos. One of the first things you see when you cross the border is the Laotian communist flag, complete with hammer and sickle. Kind of surreal.
One purpose of going to Laos was to explore some fo the country that our hip ancestors - the original "hipsters" - hippies, had first sought out as travelling chill vibe seekers. <History Break!> During the era of hippies the United States was dropping bombs in Vietnam, one of Laos' neighbours, but what isn't talked about as much is how many thousands of tons of bombs were dropped in Laos. One stat goes along the lines of the equivalent being a bomb every ten minutes for nine years. 400 000 of the unexploded souvenirs have been safely detonated by a dedicated group of Laotians, only about a billion to go. Of course this was mostly in the north-east of Laos and we were headed south so we didn't necessarily bear witness to the remnants of this war, but the history certainly deserves recognition.
Don Det... How do we even write about this tiny little island int he middle of the Mekong? Once a hidden oasis for those off the beaten track, part of the 4000 islands ("island" is a loose term, some are literally only big enough to fit a tree or a couple of shrubs), Don Det is easily the most infamously popular. Mini bungalows on the Mekong, bicycles to ride around, waterfalls to explore, even dolphins! For those who might be so inclined, there is also the option of adding a little "happiness" to most menu items at local restaurants. The definition of "happy," we found out (because everyone is really open about it) meant anything from marijuana to Valium. So, as you can see, we were set up potentially to lose ourselves in our bungalow hammocks for days, maybe weeks, as super hip chilled out beach bums. But... then we got bored. After a day and a half, we realized we are terrible at doing nothing! One aspect of our "hipness" we will have to work on, surely. We met a cool French couple... actually we've really only met French people in our travels, and overheard a couple from Quebec yakking away. Who knew that going to South East Asia would provide such an excellent opportunity to improve our French?! Anyway, this couple had just spent a year doing something called "Help Exchange" which is kind of like WWOOFing. There is an internet site you can visit and find requests people have put out there for help around their farm, or doing child care, or teaching, things like that. In exchange for about 20 hours of work a week they give you free accommodation and food, and often the kind of travel experience you'd only get from living with a family/working in the community. Cool eh? So it took us making our whole way to Laos, but we've found some clarity about the kind of world wanderers we are, or at least think we want to be.
The conclusion? Screw this hippy-dippy beach bumming and dolphin watching... we want to go places and see things and work for our experience. Don't worry, this is hardly the end of our adventures in becoming hip, the hip can still accomplish things during the day. We were on the first bus to Bangkok the next day, and about 30 hours later on a plane to where we find ourselves today... KOLKATA!
One purpose of going to Laos was to explore some fo the country that our hip ancestors - the original "hipsters" - hippies, had first sought out as travelling chill vibe seekers. <History Break!> During the era of hippies the United States was dropping bombs in Vietnam, one of Laos' neighbours, but what isn't talked about as much is how many thousands of tons of bombs were dropped in Laos. One stat goes along the lines of the equivalent being a bomb every ten minutes for nine years. 400 000 of the unexploded souvenirs have been safely detonated by a dedicated group of Laotians, only about a billion to go. Of course this was mostly in the north-east of Laos and we were headed south so we didn't necessarily bear witness to the remnants of this war, but the history certainly deserves recognition.
Don Det... How do we even write about this tiny little island int he middle of the Mekong? Once a hidden oasis for those off the beaten track, part of the 4000 islands ("island" is a loose term, some are literally only big enough to fit a tree or a couple of shrubs), Don Det is easily the most infamously popular. Mini bungalows on the Mekong, bicycles to ride around, waterfalls to explore, even dolphins! For those who might be so inclined, there is also the option of adding a little "happiness" to most menu items at local restaurants. The definition of "happy," we found out (because everyone is really open about it) meant anything from marijuana to Valium. So, as you can see, we were set up potentially to lose ourselves in our bungalow hammocks for days, maybe weeks, as super hip chilled out beach bums. But... then we got bored. After a day and a half, we realized we are terrible at doing nothing! One aspect of our "hipness" we will have to work on, surely. We met a cool French couple... actually we've really only met French people in our travels, and overheard a couple from Quebec yakking away. Who knew that going to South East Asia would provide such an excellent opportunity to improve our French?! Anyway, this couple had just spent a year doing something called "Help Exchange" which is kind of like WWOOFing. There is an internet site you can visit and find requests people have put out there for help around their farm, or doing child care, or teaching, things like that. In exchange for about 20 hours of work a week they give you free accommodation and food, and often the kind of travel experience you'd only get from living with a family/working in the community. Cool eh? So it took us making our whole way to Laos, but we've found some clarity about the kind of world wanderers we are, or at least think we want to be.
The conclusion? Screw this hippy-dippy beach bumming and dolphin watching... we want to go places and see things and work for our experience. Don't worry, this is hardly the end of our adventures in becoming hip, the hip can still accomplish things during the day. We were on the first bus to Bangkok the next day, and about 30 hours later on a plane to where we find ourselves today... KOLKATA!
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