Laos - "The Gibbons Experience"

Just got back from ‘The Gibbons Experience’ – a 3 day, 2 night, 1 monkey, 1 cat, 4 new friends, loads of cabbage “jungle trek” through central Laos.  It was amazing!

Carlyn and I had been looking forward to (or dreading) the Gibbons Experience ever since we signed up for it – truthfully, reviews were mixed and caused some justifiable alarm (will there be leeches? How big will the spiders be?!).  That said, we both agree the adventure wildly exceeded our expectations on many fronts: food, friends and of course…killer ziplining courses.

We started our adventure on Sunday afternoon with a 3 hour drive from Houyxai (a sleepy border town in Laos) to the Bokeo National Preserve (a 184,000 hectare gibbons monkey and wildlife reserve).  16 of us piled in 2 pickup trucks for a scenic, yet bumpy, ride through rural Laos.  On the drive in, Carlyn and I met 2 awesome couples - the Great Scotts: Naomi & Drew and the Globetrottin' Brits: Cliff & Joyce - with whom we’d hang out with over the next few days. 

After dividing up into 2 “camps” of 8 people for the adventure, we set off on a 3 hour hike/zip-line tour to our first tree house – a double decker treehouse perched 75 meters up in the canopy of the rainforest!  We had an incredible view of the valley and could access 5 different zip-lines around the canopy tree tops. Unfortunately, upon arrival our tree house was infested with bees (Carlyn’s fashion-forward bee suit came in handy), but after the sun went down, the bees & critters subsided and we were able to enjoy a great sunset and some wonderful Lao food (zip-lined into our tree house by our guide – Khampi).

On Day 1 – we also spotted our first and only monkey of the trip!  A black monkey with a white belly and white face.  He was swinging through some tree about 50 yards away from our hut…pretty neat!

On Day 2 – we left our abode shortly after breakfast and hiked 2 hours to a shallow waterfall with a great swimming pond and rope swing.  After a quick dip, we enjoyed another Lao lunch of rice, cabbage and greens before trekking the final 1 km and zip-lining across 2 traverses into our second tree house – a far more comfortable and bee-free hutch on the edge of a valley.  While Carlyn stayed in to soak up the view, I went exploring on some of the high ropes courses.  We had a great dinner with our new friends and fell asleep around 9pm – exhausted from a long day of adventure.

This morning, we trekked out of the reserve and drove the 3 hours back to town.  After a much-needed shower (we stunk horribly after 3 days!), we had a great dinner with some new friends and spent the night playing cards and drinking some beer.  Life is grand.  Tomorrow, we head out on a 2 day boat trip down the mighty Mekong River to Luang Prabang…our final stop in Laos.

zipping in



the boys enjoying sunset at our hotel in Houy Xia (before embarking on the Gibbons experience)

the morning fog over the valley - zipline in the middle

looking out from our treehouse

harnesses on... check.



lunch break after swimming - mmm rice, cabbage, and veggies



Matt ziplining into the swimming hole



view of the valley from one zipline overlooking another

here is a pic of our treehouse where we spent the night. This was taken from the zipline platform across the valley.

Myanmar Part Dos

We are way past due for a blog update... so here goes. (I also went back and added in pictures to the last post on Bagan.)

The second half of our week in Myanmar was fantastic - and soo much better than the first half where we were "chundering everywhere."

After Bagan we flew to Heho, and then drove a couple of hours to Inle Lake - a very wide, very shallow lake filled with floating gardens (tomatoes!) and hundreds of tiny wooden fishing boats. We spent the day cruising around in 2 long wooden boats, with 5 of us in each. We visited a floating silk factory where old Burmese women were using large wooden looms to weave silk into scarves and other textiles (very pretty!), a floating cigar factory, a delicious restaurant which also doubled as a Burmese cat breeding house (random) but happened to have the most delicious banana cake in the whole world, and a floating monastery. Our hotel was comprised of lots of little huts on stilts over the water, connected by wooden bridges. Everyone was in really good spirits as it was the first day we were finally all getting well again from food poisoning, and was so nice to be out cruising around on the water and out of the dust and the heat.

The next day we boated the 45 minute journey up the lake into the village, and then rented bikes to wander through the countryside. We found a winery on top of a mountain, which was a beautiful lunch spot (although the wine was actually pretty terrible.)



Inle lake fisherman



Local floating cigar factory.
They were using sticky rice to seal up the cigars - resourceful.



One of hundreds of floating tomato gardens



More fishermen on Inle Lake



The little huts of our hotel on Inle Lake



Outside the winery post-biking

Our final day in Myanmar was spent back in Yangon. Most of us checked out a local tea house and wandered around a jewelry market (Myanmar has a large precious stones industry - particularly jade and rubies. I think I read that 90% of the world's rubies originate here.) We ate dinner at an Indian restaurant which was recommended by Aaron's guide book and was pretty delicious, despite the fact that the lights went out 3 different times during dinner. (Rolling black-outs will do that I guess.) As lame as it sounds, after our ordeal earlier in the week, we pretty much only stuck to restaurants in the guidebook. In Laos we will be more adventurous!

First few days in Myanmar

On Friday morning we made it to Yangon, Myanmar. We met up with our other friends we are traveling with (there are 9 of us in total – me, Matt, Jen from Kellogg, then Kate, Marsh, Matt and Kristina from UNC, then Aaron and Carlos, 2 of Matt’s friends from his time in NYC.) Really fun group of folks altogether. We spent about 24 hours touring around Yangon, which is the biggest and most developed city in Myanmar. We saw temples, a big lake, and spent some time just wandering around the city looking at the wide mix of architecture… Myanmar is an interesting place. Very very old with much of their own history, but it was also occupied by the British from the 1880s until WW2 (the result of Burma losing the third of three Burmese-Anglo wars in the 1800s.) During WW2 it was actually a sizeable battleground where Japan fought against Brits and Americans, and much of the main city was destroyed. It is quite a poor country, so it seems they didn’t have the resources to repair a lot of the damage. Therefore,  when you are walking around Yangon you still see a lot of old buildings that are partially destroyed and crumbling, but partially occupied either as apartments or office buildings.

After a long day of touring we did dinner at a “very authentic, non-touristy Myanmar restaurant” which is exactly what we requested… e.g. we had no idea what we were ordering, and we were the only white people in the restaurant. Everything tasted delicious – lots of noodle bowls, delicious sauces, etc. Amazing!

Duh duh duh…. The next morning we took an early morning flight to Bagan, checked into our hotel, took some naps, and proceeded to fall like dominoes…. One by one we all came down with some major food poisoning, and were pretty much out for the count for the following 36 hours. Let’s just say it was a sad day and a half in Bagan. 8 out of 9 of us were totally done for, with Aaron being the sole survivor (also coincidentally the sole person to order fried rice instead of a noodle bowl at the restaurant the night before…)

However, today we are back in action! WOOHOO. Today has been an incredible day. As a bit of background, Bagan is a tiny town in central Myanmar, that has very little by way of infrastructure (e.g. only half a dozen total restaurants, no chains or brands or anything you would recognize, rolling black-outs throughout the day, a handful of small guesthouses, etc.) However, at one point in the history of Burma, Bagan was home to over 10,000 temples. Today close to 2,000 still stand. Most of the entire area is just giant desert fields dotted with temples everywhere. The temples are mostly all connected with dirt roads or paths, and you can just wander into any of them at your leisure. (No one is there at most of them. They are just remains of years ago… most were built between 1000-1200 AD). For $3, we each rented a bike for the day and spent the whole day cruising around, checking out temples, walking up to the top of some of them to get views of the area, etc. A very relaxed day – we ran into a few other tourists, but mostly we encountered only stray dogs, herds of cattle, and local farmers and ranchers. By 2pm we were all pretty templed-out and starting to get hungry (which was exciting, considering that was the first time we had been hungry in close to 3 days.) We found an awesome restaurant called “Be kind to animals The Moon” (something was probably lost in translation) -- a vegetarian restaurant that promised to use all fresh veggies and purified water for everything. Also, it had been recommended by friends who had been here last year, so we felt pretty excited about it. It did not disappoint! We even got amazing guacamole, which was the first time I’ve seen that offered anywhere we’ve been!

That is it so far for Bagan… honestly words don’t do much, so we will try to come back and improve this post by adding pictures as soon as we get reliable internet again. Tomorrow morning we fly to Inle Lake for two days, and then back to Yangon on Thursday.

(pictures have now been added!)



Sunset over some of the temples in Bagan



One of the thousands of Buddha images we saw



One of the many temples we biked to in Bagan

Matt hanging out with some village children... not sure if they had ever seen a white guy

We rowed across a lake in Bagan to a tiny island and our boat driver walked us up to a really remote village on top.
It seemed like they rarely (if ever) saw white tourists. They were all very excited/friendly/perplexed by us, and offered us food (what they could) and to show us around (using gestures, not English.) This woman was showing us her large crop of peanuts - that is what is shown in this pile.

Group shot on top of one of the temples

Cruising around and checking out the sights

 

Parting Thoughts on Thailand

This week has been pretty slow around these parts. Matt and I finished up our last final on Tuesday, and are getting ready to head out for 5 weeks of travel starting tomorrow (Friday) morning. In between, we have just been doing a lot of lazing around, getting ready to leave.

Yesterday we went to see Zero Dark Thirty, which was both an interesting movie and also just an interesting experience overall... Thai movie theaters are deluxe. You start by picking your seat in advance, similar to an airplane. Each seat is a large comfy recliner chair, with a blanket and a table for your snacks. Pretty cushy. In the beginning of the film everyone has to stand and sing the King's anthem. Oh, and randomly the only movies they seem to play over here are all absurdly violent... where are the rom coms and Pixar flicks??? They seem to play only a combo of the most violent/gruesome/scary American films and equally violent/gruesome/scary Thai films. I don't get it.

Sorry I can't get this to sit vertically... but please see
Pizza Hut advertisement for hot-dog embedded pizza. 

In other news - remember how I mentioned Thai people seem to love American fast food? Check this out. They are definitely one-upping us with this innovative morsel. A pizza hut pizza, in which there is an entire hot dog wrapped in the crust of each piece. Weird.




As we get ready to leave tomorrow, I've been thinking about things I will miss most about Thailand... and the things I will be more than happy to do without.

Thai things I love and will miss dearly: 

Massaman Curry with tofu.  Yum.

1) Curry. In particular, massaman curry, panang curry and pineapple curry. It is so delicious, and somehow never gets old (even though we eat it for lunch just about every day, and sometimes for dinner too.)

2) Mango Sticky Rice. This might be the best dessert ever. Have you ever had this? It is just like it sounds. A plate of sticky rice, a full ripe mango on top, and then all of it covered in coconut cream. Aaaahh so good!

3) The kindness of Thai people. They always seem to be so helpful, polite, and happy.

4) The price of everything in this country. No need to elaborate on this one, I'm pretty sure we already have. (Gist is: We like getting stuff for cheap.)

Things I will NOT miss about Thailand:

this is a weird picture, and I can't
get it to go vertical.... but basically
I was trying to illustrate the half-dollar
sized welts left by mosquito bites

1) Mosquitoes! I HATE them. Their bites turn into giant welts all over my legs... feet... hands.. pretty much anywhere they can find. I've never been more appreciative of Chicago winters (and their ability to kill off mosquitoes), than I have been here.

2) Thai traffic. One time we spend 1 hour going 5 kilometers. True story. It's basically a parking lot on the highway at almost all hours of the day.

3) Smog + humidity + grime in the air... probably due to point #2 above. Needless to say, after walking around for a couple of hours in this city you feel like you need to take about 15 showers.

Happy Chinese New Year!

First off - completely unrelated to Chinese New Year - Congratulations to Jimmy and Elyssa on their engagement!! We are bummed we are not home in the states to celebrate the good news, but will certainly pop some champagne when we get back in March. What exciting news!

Happy Chinese New Year! This is a BIG holiday in this area of the world, with most people getting off work for the whole week and doing lots of traveling and celebrating. 6 of us headed down to Chinatown this evening to check out the festivities and get some dim sum for dinner. Here are a few of the highlights.

Chinatown in Bangkok

One of the MANY street cart vendors making
fresh-squeezed pomegranate juice. Delicious. 

A toast to antioxidants!

some good street cookin'

I think this is illegal...? Although it seems to be on all the menus...

random pup dressed in his best casual wear.
Check out those jeans and kicks!

Of course this prompted us to start singing
"99 red balloons.. floating in the summer sky..."

No one seems concerned about gigantic fires
in the middle of the crowded streets. Whatevs. 

Last Day of Class!

Hard to believe it, but today marks 5 weeks since we got to Thailand, and our last day of class! Man, that went quickly. I have a final exam in Finance tomorrow (Saturday) morning, and then Matt and I both have a marketing exam on Tuesday, and then we are all wrapped up. We will spend a few more days in Bangkok leading up to our finals, and a couple of days after that, and then will leave on Friday for ~5 weeks of travel. The itinerary is:

• Feb 15-22: Myanmar
• Feb 23-March 2: Laos
• March 3-17: Vietnam
• March 18-20: Hong Kong 
• March 21: Quick stopover in Bangkok
• March 22-25: Koh Samui for a few final beach days
• March 27: HOME!! To wonderful America! 

We are very excited about the upcoming travels, and getting to see some amazing and very different parts of the world. I must say, however, I'm not really looking forward to the idea of living out of a backpack for 5 weeks straight... that will be a definite challenge for me. Hopefully we can find a lot of laundromats along the way. :)

Angkor Wats Up?

Sorry for the delayed blog post, but we've been dealing with some finicky internet the last few days.  Wanted to finish off our tales from Cambodia with a quick recap of Angkor Wat...also affectionately referred to as Angkor What?, Angkor Wats Up? or as the Bud Frogs used to say...Angkor Waaaazzzz Up?

Our driver for the day, picked us up from our hotel Saturday at 7am for a full-day of sightseeing at Angkor Wat and the surrounding area.  Contrary to my expectations, Angkor Wat is only ~20 minutes outside of Siem Reap, an easy drive which allows tourists to shuttle back and forth easily between sunrise (the park opens at 5am) and sunset when you get the best pictures.

Admission was $20 which, while more expensive than any siteseeing we've done on this trip, was well worth the price considering all of the historic sites we saw that day.

Carlyn looking out from the top spire of Angkor Wat

We started the day off with a 2 hour guided tour of the main, Angkor Wat temple.  Our guide, Chaya, has been leading tours for 6 years and, while an "official" tour guide sanctioned by the national parks, definitely did not shy away from giving us his "unbiased" opinion on Cambodia's history of war and corruption.  In brief, Angkor Wat was constructed in the 12th century and is the largest Hindu temple in the world! For periods throughout Cambodia's history, the temple(s) has been converted from Hindu to Buddhist and back again many times over. Sadly, a lot of the statues and relics within the original temple were lost/plundered by invaders of the years.

In front of the main temple at Angkor Wat

We spent the rest of the afternoon touring around 2 other temples within the same region.  The first, known as the "Tomb Raider" temple (since Angelina Jolie filmed Tomb Raider here) was Carlyn's favorite.  This old temple is totally overrun with roots, vines & vegetation. It looks like something out of an Indiana Jones movie!

 

Indy!

Our final temple (Bayan Temple) was also built in the 12th century by the Khmer empire. The most notable features are the HUGE stone carved faces of hindu/buddhist gods...there are 54 of them in total (I think).

Thoughts on Thailand: Part 2

A few more things I've noticed about this country...(and Cambodia actually)

Veggie pizza... with corn of course

1. Move over Midwest, Thailand is coming through! This country seems to have an irrational love of corn... in that they use it in ways we never would in the U.S. And to think that we think of Midwesterners as being majorly "corn fed". To date I've seen 1) corn as a topping on veggie pizza, 2) corn as a topping on frozen yogurt, 3) "milky corn drink" for sale in the grocery store (what? ew.) and the list goes on...

2. There are a couple of random US fast food chains that have REALLY taken off here... Auntie Anne's pretzels seems to be weirdly popular (to the point where they are super common and they have all sorts of menu items that we wouldn't normally see in the US) and Swensen's ice cream shops are also on every corner. Weird, right? I think I saw a Swensen's in a mall food court in the US... once in my life. Here, however, they are all the rage. Who knew.

3. Thai Hospitality: We cannot say enough good things about the Thai people as a whole... the people that we have met and encountered have been so kind and so helpful nearly everywhere you go. I rarely feel like anyone is trying to take advantage of us, and even the vendors on the street are not pushy in any way. Thai people in general seem to be much more soft spoken and less confrontational than Americans, and you really do notice this in nearly every interaction.

4. The best veggie burger of my life: This really has nothing to do with Thailand, but when we were in Cambodia this weekend I think I ate the very best veggie burger of my entire life. It was so good, in fact, that we went back to the restaurant the next day. We went to Tangram Gardens Sunday night for Kate's birthday, where she ordered the veggie burger, and was kind enough to give me a bite. I then thought about that veggie burger for maybe the next 20 hours straight... and what do you know, we were back at that exact same restaurant again on Monday night for dinner, just in time for a quick veggie burger before our flight. SO so delicious. I wish I could bring them home for everyone as souvenirs  I can't even explain why it was so good - I have no idea what was on it - but the inside tasted like falafel and sauteed spinach all mixed together with all sorts of other heavenly things.

The best $3 ever spent

We have had an awesome weekend in Siem Reap, Cambodia. If you are ever wandering through this part of the world, this city is definitely worth a stop. Most notable, it is home to Angkor Wat (and about 200 other temples) but I'm going to save that for another blog post because there is lots to say and many pictures to share. I'm going to let Matt field that topic.

We got here Friday night, and are staying through Monday evening (at which point we need to hop a quick flight back to Bangkok to get back in time for a final exam Tuesday morning... woops.) Kellogg and UNC joined forces for this trip, and it has been a blast.



Getting to dinner in a tuk-tuk (open-air taxi type thing)

Yesterday we had a long day of touring wats (more to come later), and then did dinner at a really cool "teaching restaurant" which focuses on getting kids off the street and training them for restaurant jobs. Incredible food, really creative and flavorful, and very attentive service as all of the waitstaff are in training and learning English. Matt even ate ant fritters. (Yes, exactly like they sound.... like hush puppies with ants in them.. you could even see the little ant legs sticking out.) The best part of the meal, however, was probably the delicious cocktails... chili lime margaritas, mango coconut daiquiris, etc.



After dinner we went to the night market and wandered around for a bit, and then headed over to "Pub street" which is a small street completely covered in pubs, restaurants, ice cream shops, and.... massage "parlors"!!! This is the best part. You literally just walk along the street, stopping for food or drink, hanging out at tables outside, and then stop at one of many rows of chairs along the sidewalk to get a foot, back or neck massage. Matt and I stopped and got 30 minute back and neck massages for a total of $3 each, which included a free beer!! Best $3 ever spent. There were also options to get fish pedicures (you stick your feet in a fish tank for 30 minutes and little fish nibble away all of your dead skin) but we opted to save that for later...

We found "Kellogg" scribbled on "Angkor What?" bar

Massages on the street, with free beer, for $3!

This evening we drove about 45 minutes outside of town (e.g. down a dirt road through some rice paddies) to a village on a gigantic lake. It was a really incredible experience. For a few dollars, one of the local villagers drove us in his boat down a small river and out to the lake to catch sunset. All along the river we were able to witness life for these villagers. They live in huts made out of wood and bark, built on very high wooden stilts (to avoid getting washed out in the rainy season.) This muddy river is their entire livelihood (fishing, drinking water, sewage presumably, swimming, bathing, etc). There were naked children running everywhere (many of them waving at us and one even doing the "gangnam style" dance which was incredible because they don't even have electricity...). It was peaceful, beautiful, and very eye-opening, as I have no idea how they handle schooling, medical attention, fresh vegetables, or so many other parts of what we consider everyday life.



Our sea worthy vessel

Villager homes built up on stilts



Sunset on Tonle Sap lake

Floating "restaurant" in the middle of the lake

The beautiful UNC crew

Dinner was back in town, at another awesome restaurant, Tangram Garden, which supports a local orphanage. Incredible food, and a birthday cake to celebrate Kate's 27th!! If you are ever in Siem Reap, definitely definitely go to this restaurant. The restaurant is spread out across a big yard, and each table is set up in its own little bungalow, separated from any others. Very intimate, and the staff could not have been sweeter. Since we were the last ones there, when it was time for her birthday cake they turned off all the lights in the entire restaurant and all the staff members came out carrying the lit birthday cake, singing happy birthday.

Mango shakes for the birthday girl

 

Off to bed... we are hoping to wake up early to catch the super bowl at a bar in town that claims to be playing it. (Well, they claim to be playing the "Falcons / 49ers game" but I'm guessing that is close enough.) Starts at 6:30am our time... We hope everyone state-side is having a great weekend, and a great Superbowl Sunday! Eat some buffalo chicken dip for us!