After a few days of seeing all the same people and hearing about the same travel route frequently, we found out it was affectionately named “The Banana Pancake Trail”. Still haven’t found out why, but I have had a lot of really good banana pancakes for free in the hostels. The past week started our actual traveling and the more two to three day stops in cities and then departing that is more common with backpacking.

Chiang Mai’s More Authentic Sibling

We departed Chiang Mai for Chiang Rai. We only had one day there, so we had to make it count. We woke up to the best breakfast I’ve had so far…for free in our hostel. Banana chocolate chip pancakes, score. We utilized our new scooter skills to make it work. There was a much lower population of tourists around Chiang Rai, so scooter rentals were not as frequent as we had seen in Chiang Mai.

First stop was heading to Singha Park. Singha is a Thai beer with a cool lion logo. We head off for their park and saw their giant golden lion. We grabbed some matcha ice cream and decided to ride through the park. It was acres of perfectly manicured grounds. This also included a cool viewpoint of the grounds, ziplining and rock climbing.

Next up was the famous White Temple. This temple is the work of famous contemporary artist Chalermchai Kositpipat. The temple is surrounded by skulls hanging from trees and the initial bridge is surrounded by a lake of hands reaching up from the ground. The entire grounds was covered in some really well done dark art. Hidden throughout were some popculture references, like The Ninja Turtles and their master, Splinter. Arriving at the entrance, there is a bench with Iron Man armor made to look like a buddhist statue. A little further into the grounds is an entire building dedicated to my favorite god, Ganesha. Paintings, tapestries and jewelry adorned the inside of the picture-restricted building. Each year Chalermchai paints a new interpretation of Ganesha raising the Dharma. The room is filled with many coins and other artifacts decorated with the image of Ganesha. The golden building was topped with a giant Ganesha statue. On the way out, the gift shop was filled with more Kositpipat art filled with pop culture references, including George Bush and Saddam riding a rocket and Spiderman slinging near the World Trade Centers.

A quick shoot over to the Black House just before it closed to see some crazy architecture and art made out of dead animal parts. The architecture was Gothic style and was mostly made of bones. A lot of it had restricted access, but it could have been because we got there late.

After the long day of being a tourist, we shot over to the local hot spring and enjoyed some relaxation before we had to return the scooters. The ride back was through rural Chiang Mai which was a fun way to test out some finer scooter techniques. Unfortunately, we ended up driving back in the dark which proved more difficult than we expected with how aggressive Thai drivers are. Between us and the scooter rental place was a very crowded roundabout, which required more faith than driving skill but we made it.

Charlemchai Kositpipat also created a large golden clock tower in the center of Chiang Rai that has a pretty awesome light show at the top of the hour in the evening time. We returned the scooters at 7, so we hopped across the street to catch the show. Music started and the clock tower began changing colors and the Ganesha statue in the center began to raise as a lotus rose from beneath it. The lotus began rotating and then opened before the process reversed. Pretty cool for local art.

We have been jonesing for our own ginger tea since all of the hostels have free hot water but only offer Lipton tea bags and there happened to be a tea shop across from the clock tower so we decided to stop in. As we walked in, I noticed one of my best friend’s college roommate sitting at the table journeying. I haven’t seen her in 5 years and randomly run into her in a tea shop on the other side of the planet. Life is cool. We grabbed dinner and checked out the night market before heading home for some sleep before our big journey.

Slow Ride, Take It Easy

Somehow, I was never able to wake up on time for my 10am job, but I’ve been a very good alarm clock for Ryan throughout this trip. Up at 5am to start our journey, the owner of Grace Hostel was nice enough to also get up that early and make us breakfast and drive five of us to the bus station. A decently long bus ride to the Thai-Laos border and we checked out of our Thai visa and exchanged our Baht for US dollars. I had brought my own, so exchanged it for Laos Kip, but Ryan exchanged his for USD. A quick shuttle across a river and we had to fill out some forms for our Laos visas. They take our passports and I pay for mine. Ryan hands the visa officer the money he had just received from the Thai border exchange and they tell him no. Someone had written “Hawaii, USA” on one of the dollars and they refused to take it. I offered them some of mine, but there was an ink dot, no dice. We tried to exchange it at the exchange office there and same issue. I got out some emergency cash and we got his passport. Pay a big some for our ticket and we’re tossed into the back of a truck with a group and a dog and on our way to the slow boat.

I did an okay amount of research for this, but was mostly going with the flow. They take you to a store beforehand and we got some snacks. At some point, everyone headed to the boat without us so we were one of the last to go. The long tail boat contained three aisles of two car seats each all the way back, with some stair tiered areas. No seats available, we head to the back. A dark engine room filled with supplies and locals and the other tourists unfortunate enough not to get a seat. As soon as the boat started, the room got loud and hot and we were cramped. We paid for a boat trip to be stuck with no view and no breeze. I was raised better. We grab our stuff and head to the front. We post up on the stairs and set my tablet on a stack of backpacks and begin watching movies. Beautiful breeze, astonishing views and we can stand up and move while traveling? Easy choice. Six or so hours later and we hit the halfway point of Pak Beng, Laos.

Pak Beng is an interesting, little town. By all accounts, it seems its only purpose is to stand as the halfway point for the slow boat trip between Chiang Kong, Thailand and Luang Prubang, Laos. A number of guest houses, restaurants and convenient stores line the single street up the hill. Our guest house suggested us a local bar that would serve Laos and Indian food. I am always down for Indian food, but don’t like heading to places suggested by tours/guest houses as they tend to be tourist traps. We checked out all of the restaurants on the street and noticed it was all the same stuff at the same prices. Oh yeah, Laos is a communist country. We head to the bar to eat with people we had met on the boat. The Indian food at the bar was delivered by the Indian restaurant we had seen on the street. We order enough food that they assume it’s for the whole table. Nope, just two Americans.

Day two of the boat trip and we arrive early enough to snag some good seats. This boat had a cargo hold for the bags and two aisles of seats, one three or four seats and one two seat aisle. Bags under and we have another seven hours to check out the views and enjoy the breeze. Our boat arrives about ten kilometers outside of Luang Prabang and a young kid climbs into the cargo hold and starts pulling the bags out alone. All of the tourists are just watching him lift their heavy bags out of the boat. I step up and start helping him move the bags. Passengers are pushing through to stand in the way as they wait to see their bag. This is why people don’t like tourists. They get the last bag up and we hop in a tuk tuk to the city. A short ride with some drunk Englishmen yelling about Baker Mayfield and we arrive at our hostel.

France in Laos

The French colonized areas of Laos, so baguettes and crepes are in abundance in Luang Prabang. The city is pretty light on things to do but we were just passing through. Our hostel was a good place to relax. The popular bar was about a hundred meters from our hostel and the internet said there were sand courts there, but no one updates these things and it’s been gone for over a year. There were some cushion beds on a cliff overlooking the river, so we enjoyed that at least. The following day, we took a tour to the bear sanctuary and Kuang Si waterfalls. The entrance is lined with areas for the bears to hang out. After the bears, you get a view of some pretty majestic blue water. As we hiked up the trail that ran along the waterfalls, we got glimpses of the different tiers of waterfalls. A harder path takes you to the top of the fifty meters of waterfalls. Danger signs can be seen behind the spiked fences from when tourists were able to walk all the way to the edge, but now you can’t even get a view of the falls from the top. We hop in a pool at the top and then make our way down. A little more swimming and we head back.

The Canadians we met at the waterfalls wanted to check out a waterpark, so we went on a long walk to check it out. Again, things don’t get updated online, so the park was closed for improvements. Oh well, we had a freezing pool at our hostel. The only thing open in Luang Prabang after midnight is a bowling alley, so we decided to check that out. An interesting place to say the very least. There’s an archery range as you walk in and an assortment of alcohol is sold alongside laughing gas balloons. Two quick games (which I won and tied for first) and we headed back to the hostel.

The next day we decided to check out the Phou Si mountain in the center of town and the temple on top. We’re a bit burned out on temples, so a quick run through and a mountain sunset view and we were off to dinner. Everyone makes their way down to Vieng Vang after Luang Prabang and it was closer to our motorcycle lessons, so we booked a bus.

Party Town Revitalized

Our mini van took off at 7:30am, so we grabbed breakfast and got in. The driver was a bit of a mad man but that was nothing new for this trip. I managed to fall asleep for a minute before waking up to us heading towards a sharp turn on a gravel road on the side of a mountain while we were above the clouds. Needless to say, I didn’t get any more sleep on the trip. I was sitting far enough up to get a good view of the driver whizzing past trucks on sharp turns while answering his cell phone, no big deal. Three hours of horror and we arrived in Vieng Vang.

Vieng Vang used to be the place to party in Laos. Hundreds of people would drunkenly tube and cause general mayhem in the city. When death became pretty common due to the high consumption of alcohol and drugs, the local authorities shut down tubing altogether. In the past few years, it reopened with more regulation. The shutting down of tubing killed the tourism in Vieng Vang, and it has slightly recovered with higher quality tourist attractions. This seems pretty easy because the area is the most beautiful we’ve seen so far, so a bit confusing why that attribute seems to be annoyed.

We decided to check out the tubing. I have been tubing before in Texas down the San Marcos river and had a blast. It’s mostly just drinking while going down a river. That’s what I thought we signed up for. My stomach was upset from dinner the night before so I was just excitged to sit in a river. Most of this tubing was short stints in the river between long intervals of sitting at riverside bars. The tubing itself and the area were beautiful, but I didn’t come to Asia to be trapped in small areas with drunk white people. Lesson learned we made the most of it.

Patiently Waiting

That’s a week. It feels like months. Ryan and I are both getting antsy to play so will likely maneuver some things to head to the islands early. For now, we have a few more days until we head to Kasi to do our motorcycle lessons and do a short road trip.