The milky bar kid and stamp collecting

Hi everyone!

Quite a lot has happened since I last posted.  I've travelled through a whole other country (Loas) and am now back in Thailand (trying my hardest to) give Bangkok a second chance!

Having said I didn't anticipate on finding love in my previous blog, I think I have!  (No Eamonn, not with a Vietnamese chap, they really just aren't tall enough), I'm in love with Loas!  I knew nothing about this country before coming here (didn't even really kow where it was), but it has been the hi-light of the trip so far.  The landscape is absolutely stunning, it has not been over commercialised by tourism (yet), it has a small population (just 6m in the whole country)  and the people of Loas do not live their lives around tourism.  If you want to visit Loas then you will be welcomed, but the people don't really speak much English just to accommodate us Westerner's.  In all the other countries I have been to, everyone believes the only way to make money or get a good job is to speak English so that they can be involved in the tourism, and they are all giving attention to the Westerners to try and make money.  In Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, local people always make a comment about how pale my skin is, they always say "white skin, white skin" as they stroke my arm!  In Loas, not one person said this to me, they don't really mind whether we are there are not, they just continue to go about with their daily life.  Just to go back to the white skin comment, in Asia, it is the opposite to Europe.  Everyone wants to have pale skin as it is linked to the class system.  If you have dark skin, you are poor because you have a manual job outside.  So all the local people are always covered up head to toe to avoid catching any rays.  Based on the the colour of my skin (I haven't changed colour since I left) , they must think I am up there with the Beckham's in terms of wealth!  That is probably why local people always approach me in the group, if only they knew the truth!

Crossing the boarder into Loas was quite eventful.  After the 9 hour drive to the Vietnam/Cambodia boarder, we reached the boarder at about 3.30pm, in plenty of time before it shut at 5pm, or so we thought.  We all duly handover our passports and the usual $1 'fee' and the immigration officer starts stamping away.....until he gets to Ben's passport.  It turns out when we entered Vietnam, the immigration officer failed to give Ben an 'entry' stamp, so effectively it appeared as an illegal entry.  The officer ordered him to go back to the boarder we came in on to sort it out, it was 10 days of travel since we were last there!  The rest of the group had all now been given 'exit' stamps from Vietnam, so could not re-enter and were in no mans land until we could enter Loas, Ben was stuck on the other side, with the tour leader in the middle trying to negotiated the situation, which he had never come across before.  Despite only all knowing each other only a few weeks, we really came together to try and help each other, there was no way we would continue without Ben, so we all just sat on the steps in no mans land and waited.  After some tense negations, calls to embassies etc (quite difficult as we speak no Vietnamese and English at the boarder was limited) Ben was given an exit stamp.  By this time, the Loas border had closed, so we had to pay some additional 'overtime fees' to the officer to all get through.  It was quite a stressful day, so we all certainly deserved our first 'Beer Loa' once we got to the first town across the border, where we ate a restaurant called 'the only one', it is as it is exactly called.  As I said, the people of Loas don't make many additions for tourists, they live on about $1 a day, so do not go to restaurants, so there are not many available.  Lesson learned,  I will always check for an entry stamp when going through a boarder from now on.  To Ben's credit, he handled the situation really well and played 'the game'.  If it had been me, the thought of having to make my own way back across Vietnam, on my own, would have had me in  crying hysterically I think!

The elephant riding, (and falling off!) was quite an experience.  I was really looking forward to this, but felt a little sad after.  Despite being told this was the best place to do it, in terms of animal welfare, I wasn't comfortable that one elephant had to carry around 4 adults on its back (including two "fat girls.....you not thin...."......yes, one of them was me) and plodding round the same route 3 times a day.  I also get the feeling they may have been sedated also.....so to be honest, I don't really blaming the elephant for getting a bit agitated and throwing me off, I wouldn't want to carry around 40 stone in 35 degree heat. 

Since entering Loas, our group size has reduced from 15 people to 8 which has been really nice.  Travelling with 15 is just too many, it takes an age to do anything and make a decision.  So in Loas we have bonded well as a group and had a few good nights out drinking the famous 'beer loa'.  Our tour leader, who is Australian, lives in Loas and is married to a local lady so one evening we were lucky enough to go to his house and see how a real Laos family live.  8 people in a really small house, with not a lot of furniture, and the house also doubles up as tehir way of making income with the sister operating her hair dressing business and the brother operating his goldsmith business.  This was great as it was not something many people have the opportunity to do.  They were very hospitable, and shared their 'rice whisky' with us.  This is drunk by the locals as it is very cheap, and is real potent stuff.  It is fair to say there were several headaches in the group the following day.

So to sum up, I'd like to recommend Loas to all of you, but I'm not going to!  If it starts to make its way on to the tourist track, it will totally loose its appeal.

So I'm now back in Bangkok, and the answer is no, I don't like it much more the second time round.  I've just said goodbye to the group I have been travelling with and join a new group tonight so spend two weeks making our way down to Singapore.  I'm now 1/4 of my way through the trip.  Despite the first week or so going slow, the last couple have zoomed by.

Lots of love

Katrina x x x x x