Bun Voyage! @bunvoyagesarah - Tumblr Blog

Kuala Lumpur: Part 2

Monday, March 16 When I arrived back in Kuala Lumpur, I stayed in the same hostel, as it was close to the bus station and I still knew some people there, my Brazilian friends that worked at the desk. I dropped my bags in a room without any windows, and the bed I was assigned to was shoved into a slightly too small space so the mattress curved up at the bottom, but it was just for one night, so I decided to go with it.

I ran into another girl that was still there from before the weekend but was leaving in about an hour. I knew I couldn’t do much about my flight until tomorrow morning with the Emirates office opened up at noon and my flight to Amsterdam was at 5pm, so I joined in with some drinking games and the happy hour special. Tuesday, March 17 Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Except everyone was so stressed and in an Asian country that no one seemed to acknowledge that it was St. Patrick’s Day.

I got up and got my usual breakfast and then headed to the Emirates Airlines office in this massive mall. Luckily the mall was only about a 15 minute walk away, but then I spent about 20 more minutes in the mall trying to find the 9th floor when this building clearly seemed to only have seven floors. Finally, I found an info desk that pointed me down an escalator and around a corner to a bank of elevators that would take me to the “business office” side of the mall. I arrived around 10am, knowing they wouldn’t open until noon but wanting to beat the rush. I had to have my temperature recorded and sign a book to enter the floor after getting off the elevator. I walk up to the office, and it’s packed with people already getting helped. I take a number and sit down. The people being helped are not moving things along. More and more people keep coming in and the numbers are not moving. Finally a new Emirates employee starts her shift and sits at the desk closest to me. She helps one guy and then just randomly calls over the next closest person to her and helps him, completely ignoring the number system. She is at least helping people quickly, spending only about five minutes with each customer. Finally, when the next guy gets up, I pounce and sit in her chair ready for her to help me. I cancel my flight but it’s through Vayama.com and the flight is still scheduled to go to Amsterdam so I can’t get a refund, only a credit through Vayama. I was out of there by about 11:30. By the way- it’s now been over two months and I still have not heard anything from Emirates or Vayama about a credit, a refund, or about the dispute from my credit card company. I head back to the hostel to try and figure out what to do next, but I had already checked out of my room, as I was unsure how the Emirates office situation would go. I grab my laptop and start googling flights. With some friends I met traveling that are now in Bali, and the inside scoop that people in Bali are not panicking, I decide to head there for a month to wait coronavirus out in hopes that by the time the month is over things will be slightly back to normal. I book another night in my hostel and as I sit there waiting for the receptionist to change over his shift, I notice I’m itching a lot. I sat there for at least 20 minutes and then decide to go get food and come back and I’m still itchy. I knew I had bed bugs, again. I tell them and they change my room, as I had already checked out of the one already. I take my bags to the laundromat a couple doors down and throw everything in the dryer and start reading away. I check into my new room with only two girls in a six bed and the A/C on max. I hang out there in the cool air and then finally go get a Bahn Mi sandwich, happy that everything is kind of working out. The one girl doesn’t even sleep there as she found someone with a hotel room that she is sharing. The other girl checked out, but asked me whether she should go check back in, I was like no, just take your friend’s bed. She seemed to be doubting what to do, but I don’t think she ever checked back in.

Wednesday, March 18 In the morning, I have everything ready to go and quietly slip out of the room and walk to a bus terminal where the bus takes you to both airport terminals and is about $4. It’s empty at this time of day and I don’t know if I’m in the right spot but there’s another guy waiting with bags and finally I ask him if he’s going to the airport too. Taxis keep pulling up in anticipation of us choosing a taxi instead. The guy and I decide to split a grab if the bus doesn’t show up. Another guy comes up with his two friends and his friends ask if I’m going to Terminal 1 too and ask me to make sure the friend gets off there too. I don’t think the friend spoke English or had traveled much. Just when the first guy starts talking to the taxi driver and the other guy’s friend is starting to open up grab (the bus was not even five minutes late yet), the bus pulls up.

The bus driver didn’t have change, but luckily my two new friends helped me out by giving me some change as I momentarily had to decide if I ran into 7/11 if the bus would wait for me.

We got to the terminal and I helped my new friend find his check-in desk and then left him hoping he’d make it back to Egypt. I got in a massive check-in line, but had some time. I get to the desk and she asks to see my outgoing flight reservation, which I do not have. I didn’t even think about needing it. I offer to show her my last bank statement and she calls her boss. She had already asked my previous travel history, but again the boss wants to know where I’ve been and I recap the last seven weeks for her again. She hangs up the phone and I think I’m good and she tells me I need an outgoing ticket, but it could be anywhere, on any airline, and I don’t even need to be on the flight, so just book the cheapest one in the next 30 days. I had seen some cheap flights to Singapore when I was booking my Bali flight, and find a $40 flight there in two weeks. I quickly book this via my phone. By the time I’m done booking it to show her the confirmation, she already has my bag tagged and my window seat ticket printed. (The flight to Singapore would go on to get cancelled by the airline and again, two months later I’m still waiting for a full refund by the airline.) I make it through security and board my flight to Bali with an entire row of six seats to myself. #Coronavirus

Singapore

Not a ‘laksa’ to do in Singapore, but eat.

Friday, March 13 I arrived to the Little Red Dot Hostel after an exciting bus ride! There were only about 10 people on the bus. We all had to get off at the border between Malaysia and Singapore. I was following the only person in front of me after we got our exit stamps in Malaysia. She walks and walks, quite speedily all the way down this gangway following signs to Singapore. I look back for our chartered bus, and next thing I know she’s turned in front of some other city buses and disappeared. I finally see our bus and walk back towards it, but she is not on it. We wait about 15 minutes, and I can see the bus driver’s assistant recounting people and tell him it was the girl sitting in front of me that’s missing. We all have to grab our bags out from under the bus and they remove her bag and then we put ours back on. We then drive about five minutes into Singapore and go through immigration there, having to take our bags out again to have them scanned by immigration. We proceed to get back on the bus and there’s the girl! She magically appeared and is talking to the bus driver as her bag wasn’t there. She’s on her own with figuring out how to get her bag out of Malaysia and get herself back to Singapore. The rest of us were sure she knew what she was doing, and figure she was smuggling something into Singapore.

I take the metro into Chinatown. A lot of things are closed due to Coronavirus, but I find an amazing noodle shop. I think they were the best homemade noodles and dumplings I’ve had. Then I walk to the Gardens by the Bay, the typical picturesque Singapore with light up tree structures. I sit down along a bench and within two minutes, an announcement comes on saying to maintain social distancing as the light show is about to begin. I didn’t even know there would be a light show, so I’m pleasantly surprised and lay back to watch the treetops change colors. I could have sat there all night, but walk further into the Gardens by the Bay but due to it now being almost 9:30pm most of the park has closed. I walk back a different way through the gardens and find these amazing floating “egg” globes on the river, which are doing another light show. I climb up some staircase and get a magnificent view of Marina Sands Hotel, another picturesque view. By this time, I head back on the metro to my hostel hoping it’s a little livelier than before, but unfortunately there aren’t many travelers there. Saturday, March 14 Maurice picks me up from my hostel at 9am. He told me to be hungry as we’d be eating a lot. He and his wife, Doris, and eldest daughter Jowyn and I drive back to a hawker village where we get some you tiao, Chinese egg tarts (both carmelized tops and not), and fish balls. The first two I had made for every brunch service at Duck Duck Goat back in 2017, but were much more delicious made by a professional that only sold that one item. Doris and Maurice explained to me lots about Singaporean culture, and how the hawker stations are rented out, often with the owner having a station that only sells drinks (a high profit margin, and easy station to run in my opinion!). We then walked through the market area and Doris pointed out all the vendors she comes to with her mother. They were going to be moving in the next couple months and then they would be walking distance to this market. Also, I was sweating a lot this entire time, which Doris then gave me a little portable fan that she kept in her purse (supermom!). Meanwhile, Jowyn just zipped up her fleece jacket.

After breakfast, we drove to look at their new apartment in the public housing apartment building. They currently live in private housing apartment building, which has a lot of amenities, like a nice pool in the front of the building and a garden area out their back door. But they were able to buy two public apartments for the price of one private. They were in the process of renovating the two apartments by knocking down the wall between them to create one large apartment. The apartment was just getting its first coat of paint when I was there, but should be ready for them to move-in, in the next month or so.

Then we picked up their youngest son from his Chinese lessons and headed back to the apartment where they live now with Doris’s mother and their domestic helper, who had just left for the Philippines for a family emergency the day before. We hung out while the kids swam and watched/recorded a lot of Tiktok videos, and thus began my first ever time seeing Tiktok.

After hanging for a bit, we got Chicken Rice, famous in Singapore and a special request by me, but also a favorite of the kids. We had two huge platers of chicken, including a small plate with some of the innards. The chicken was delicious. I followed what the kids did and ate it with some duck sauce. We devoured most of it and they took a small portion of the remains.

Once lunch was over, the Teos drove me back to my hostel with two of the three kids asleep in the back and Phoebe sitting on the floor of the van watching more Tiktok. Overall, I found the day with them super fun and informative. I definitely wouldn’t have learned so much about Singapore without them telling me all this cool stuff!

In the evening, I went to the Changi Airport to check out the Jewel, the largest indoor waterfall in the world. It was indeed massive. Just sitting there people watching and checking out some of the restaurants in their food hall was enough to keep me busy for an hour or so.

After going back to the hostel, I met another girl in my room, Chloe and we talked for ages about Coronavirus, which all anyone could talk about it. With the virus affecting so many things it was difficult to avoid, but also annoying to continually be on the same topic that was continuously changing.

I got some famous Singaporean laksa from a restaurant close to my hostel for dinner. It was much spicier than the laksa I had in Bratislava with Ganesh last July! Sunday, March 15 In the morning, I wanted to go hiking up at the MacRitchie Reservoir. I found a place to rent a kayak at the bottom of the reservoir. They do a lot of races there, so that section of the water was off-limits, but I did go as far into the reservoir as I could and then back around the coastline in about 45 minutes. I was completely soaked as it was just a little kayak that let water up through the bottom.

Then I walked further into the reservoir for a total of 11km through the Treetops MacRitchie Walk. My choice of flip-flops is not recommended to others. But I thought it would be mostly gravel. The flip-flops were great for the kayaking portion of the day, not so much for the walking on a rocky path. After finishing the walk, I was super hungry and found some duck rice from a hawker. I could definitely get used to Singaporean food- duck rice, chicken rice, etc.

In the evening, I went to this massive shopping center called Mustafa Centre in the Indian district of Singapore. Anthony Bourdain came here when he filmed an episode of one of his shows. He mentioned doing a scavenger hunt in this building because you could find anything. After wandering the aisles for 30-40 minutes, I bought the only thing I really needed, which was some sunscreen. But I do feel like you could have found anything you were looking for here. It was at least five floors, and felt a bit like a maze with things organized by department. But Bluetooth headphones? They had at least 15 brands of them. Sunscreen? Every brand name imaginable. Shoes? They have those too. Board games? Are you looking for the classic or rendition version?

Monday, March 16 I was planning to leave today but had trouble buying my bus ticket online, so went to the office to get what they said was the last seat on the 2pm bus. From there, I walked to Mount Faber, the tallest point in Singapore at 106 meters. Mount Faber was quite the difference from the 833meter peak in Penang, George Town, Malaysia that I had just done a week before. Someone had said at the top there was a very cool walkway called the Henderson Waves. It was a nice activity for the morning, but I wouldn’t have gone out of my way again just to see this walkway.

After the walk, I went back to my hostel via the metro. I had a slight issue as I only needed one Singaporean dollar to get back on the metro, but the machine wouldn’t take cards and I had no money left. After fighting asking the guy in the information booth, I figured out I could use Samsung Pay to tap in and out of the turnstile.

I then walked back to the bus terminal and headed back to Kuala Lumpur.

Kuala Lumpur

George Town

Langkawi

Malaysia: Langkawi, George Town, & Kuala Lumpur

Langkawi Thursday, March 5 In the morning, I woke up with what I thought was plenty of time to eat before I got picked up to go to Langkawi, Malaysia by ferry. There were some other girls eating, so when a truck came by I thought it was mine and it was 15 minutes early. It was for them, but I knocked my whole plate of food over, breaking the plate and causing my ankle to bleed. The owner of the place got a broom and I went to clean up my foot. I still had time to drink my tea, but then as I came out of the bathroom the guy to pick me up was asking the front desk where I was. I went downstairs with him and asked the girl I was eating with to wash out my tea mug for me, which she seemed happy to help me with after witnessing this fiasco of a morning.

What I didn’t realize when I booked the transportation from Koh Lanta to Langkawi, is that it was mostly drive a few hours drive to Satun, Malaysia followed by about an hour ferry ride to the island of Langkawi, Malaysia. Luckily, there were a couple other travelers in the same boat as me (no pun intended). I made a run to a market for food with my remaining Thai Baht and could barely spend the $10 or so I had. The van then drove us to the Satun ferry terminal, where I was able to spend more of my Baht on a cold drink and snacks for the next few days. We had about an hour to kill, while this lady took our passports and returned them with our tickets. We out our exit stamps as we boarded the boat and then had upon arrival had new stamps placed in our passports.

The usual line of taxi drivers was waiting to pick us up and one gave me what I thought sounded ok, but then he followed and waited for me to get money out of the ATM. While in the ATM line, I got wifi and looked up the price on Grab, which was slightly cheaper. He agreed to that price. He tried to sell me on his all-day tour for the following day, which included going to ride ATV (but not the cost of the activity) while he waited in his car for me.

He took me the hostel and immediately someone came out and said this hostel had new owners and the hostel I was probably looking for was a couple miles away. He drove me there and I paid him. I got all checked-in and a guy from my room told me about the Thursday night market just down the road and people getting drinks later at the hostel. After settling in a little, I walked down to the market and quickly learned how Malaysia truly was different than the rest of Asia with a large Muslim population, as well as the more traditional Asian. I got some mint lemonade, which I thought had a strange after taste, and a pancake/chicken/falafel type thing that I ate wrapped up in paper.

I went back to the hostel and some people were hanging out, along with one guy, who I’ll call Wakanda because he claimed to be from Wakanda and I missed the joke, having never seen Black Panther, so I asked him what country that was. Wakanda offered to go to the store on his scooter and pick us up some drinks. He came back with beers for everyone, and told us some guy left his whiskey in the freezer and left that morning, so we also had that to drink. Before long, there was a group of us, including Fabio from Italy, who coincidentally looks just like a young, blonde Fabio, the actor.

Friday, March 6 I woke up and the owner of the hostel made the best free hostel breakfast I’ve ever had—eggs, sausage, beans, and toast. Normally, the free breakfast is just make your own toast and a weird assortment of jams, so I try not to let a free breakfast lure me into choosing that hostel when booking. But I digress, I ask to extend another night when the owner informs me they are having a barbeque for some of the people that have been at the hostel for multiple weeks and this is now their last night. I then go rent a scooter down the street.

Once on my scooter, I head up to the Langkawi Sky Bridge, which is said to be one of the best things to do in Langkawi. I drive up there and it’s like an amusement park type setup. I have to buy a ticket for the cable car to get up the sky bridge and then another smaller admission price to cross the bridge. This is apparently the thing to do here, so I buy the cheapest ticket, which also includes a ticket to the 3D Art Museum and a dinosaur “ride”. First, I head up in the cable car/gondola to the view point, get off there and then go up to the Sky Bridge. There’s some glass on the pathway of the bridge to look down the 125meters into the trees. There were some good views, but I found it overpriced for what I paid for. From the top of the cable car there’s a nature walk that goes down another 15 minutes that I also took advantage of, despite it being hot and humid in the middle of the day.

After the trip down in the cable car, I went into the 3D Art Museum, which has huge murals on the walls and if you place yourself in the mural and someone takes a picture of you, the mural becomes lifelike. I asked a few different people to take my picture with some of the murals, but there were so many it was hard to keep asking people. Then I went into the dinosaur “ride”. I had no idea what to expect here and arrived just before it set off, but was ushered into a building and then a “van” where I took one of the last remaining seats on a bench. A bar came down over our laps, a door opened, and then a screen had the dinosaurs on it while the van tilted around to stimulate the features of being on a real amusement park ride.

On the way out of this Oriental Park, I saw a bunny petting zoo. I went in there and there must have been 50-70 big rabbits and their bunnies that could be played with. That was pretty unexpected! I then scootered to Temurun Waterfall. It was only about a five minute walk from where I parked to the waterfall. However, there was absolutely no water coming down or through the river bed. Hello, dry season, but at least I tried!

I then drove up into the middle of the island, where at the top of the hill sits a nature preserve called Gunung Raya. It was a scenic ride up that took about an hour with lots of twists and turns in the road and no traffic. The top should have been a lovely view, but I could barely see 50 meters out due to all the clouds. I didn’t even spend five minutes up there before heading all the way back down the other side of the island to where this place called Legends Park was. It was supposed to have some sculptures that told some Chinese legends. However, I never found this park despite driving past it on Maps.me three times. This wasn’t the first time in the past couple weeks that Maps.me had failed me. At this point, I also was getting hungry and wanted to go back to my hostel to book transportation for the next day to George Town.

I arrive back to the hostel, book the early ferry to George Town and go get food and walk along the beach. It soon begins to rain, so I walk back and sit with my last beer from the night before. Soon the guys that had been living there are cooking chicken and making punch for this barbecue. Most of the hostel was there enjoying this late night feast into the wee hours of the night when the punch ran low.

George Town, Penang Saturday, March 7 I got up pretty early to return my scooter and get some food before I was going to be picked up at the hostel. When I arrived at the scooter place no one was there. I tried contacting them through WhatsApp. Finally someone arrived, only to not speak any English and then go off into another business that I assume she worked at. Another 15 or 30 minutes later, someone came that actually worked there. I told him I was just returning my bike and he quickly gave me my deposit back. I just got a muffin from the 7/11 because no other places were open this early and knew the hostel wouldn’t be serving breakfast until 9am and I am supposed to be picked up right at 9am.

Then I walked back to the hostel, hung out for a little bit, and sure enough the owner asks if I want breakfast before I go. It’s the same delicious breakfast I had the day before and I do my dishes all before the driver comes to pick me up right at 9 o’clock sharp.

I’m squished in the backseat with another couple that is traveling long term while this guy drives us 30 minutes to the ferry station. When we get out, he hands us our tickets to George Town. By this point, I have no idea how long this ferry ride is. Some couple recommended flying to George Town from Langkawi because it was half the time for the same price, but I didn’t know until I already had the ferry ticket.

On the walk to my hostel I am seeing how culturally different George Town and Malaysia is. George Town is one of the only places you can find a Hindu Temple, Muslim Mosque, and Christian Church on the same street. I end up walking this row of holy places on my way to my hostel on accident and then see even more temples, churches, and mosques along the way but not as close in proximity. My German friend, Michael that I met in Koh Lanta had studied abroad in George Town so he gave me lots of tips for where to stay and what to see while I was there. I was at Drippin’ Dragon hostel, which were the same owners as the hostel he recommended that I couldn’t get a reservation for called Tipsy Tiger. I arrived and they didn’t have my reservation but honored the booking confirmation I had. I went for a walk to Pinang Peranakan Mansion, which is a home once owned by Chinese tycoon, Chung Keng Quee. The home is dedicated to the Peranakans, which are considered the first wave of Chinese settlers in the Malay Peninsula and Indonesian Archipelago. It was a beautiful home. On the way back to the hostel, I walked around the streets a bit, finding a fair amount of street art that Michael had also told me to look for. I also cooled down with some of the best unique ice cream I’ve had at Coko. Then I had a more substantial meal from a street cart of some noodles.

Back at the hostel, I had some happy hour drinks, which quickly became drinking games with people. Everyone then left for Antarabangsa Bar, which was just a beer store with a bunch of plastic tables and chairs outside. Michael had also hyped this place up a lot, so I was excited to see it with my own eyes. It was hot though. It had to have been after 10pm and the place had over 100 people oozing out of the “bar” and everyone was just sitting, trying not to move, and sweating.

Sunday, March 8 In the morning, I took a bus to Penang Hill, which was supposed to have a good viewpoint. I figured I would hike up this hill, but when I arrived I couldn’t figure out where the trail was because there was this massive cable car station. I did not want to go up another cable car. I walked around and finally found the start of the trail, which they were clearly not advertising. It was entirely uphill for all 833 meters.

I found one other girl hiking up who lived in Georgetown and was a teacher. Within 30 seconds she asked me my age and if I was married, which I laughed at because of the pressure she has in her own culture to get married. I was extremely hot and sweaty and she was wearing an entire headpiece, long sleeves, and long pants. This entire conversation happened at one of our resting points. Then I continued on and never saw her again. I hope she made it to the top though.

After reaching the top, there was a food court I ate and took a rest in. I walked around a little bit enjoying the view. And then I headed down, a different way, a way that would lead me to the Botanical Gardens. It was so much downhill that I’m not sure which way was worse. Both had stairs for the bottom half. Once in the Botanical Gardens, I walked around a bit, but there wasn’t a lot to see except for the well-manicured grounds.

I bought some more water and asked him about the bus, which he said comes just down the street. As he goes to fetch me change for the water, the bus I need pulls into the lot and starts to loop around. I fear I’m going to miss it, and wave him down, but he waves his hand, flashing four fingers at me. Then he stops at the bus stop just ahead. By the time I get there, the bus is closed up and the driver is gone, and I am thinking, “What did he mean by ‘four’?” I turn around looking for the driver, and see him over on a shady bench taking a nap. I look at my watch and see it’s 3:10pm. I realize he meant he’s on break until 4pm. I figure I can walk another kilometer or so and catch a different bus. I wait for that bus for ages but it finally comes and I arrive back at the hostel to a pool party going on, which is exactly what I needed. I change into my bathing suit and get into the decent sized above-ground pool. A lot of people are hanging out until the shade starts to cover the majority of the pool. I get out for a shower and want to go to Chulia Street, where a bunch of food vendors set up shop at night. A guy says we can go together, but I end up waiting so long for him, I just leave without him. He finds me there with some other people from the hostel and we all sit together. I get more Coko ice cream on the way home then rejoin people by the hostel bar. A much smaller crowd goes out tonight and the bar we went to the night before is closed. This place is more of a restaurant turned bar and we were outside in more plastic chairs and one long table of people from our hostel. There’s pretty lights hanging from above and live music just inside the bar.

Kuala Lumpur Monday, March 9 In the morning, I took a bus to Kuala Lumpur (KL). It took some time, as the bus driver didn’t understand the ticket I had been issued by the office. I had to go to a different office and they didn’t understand either but gave me a new confirmation code. Then I was able to get on the bus, got all settled in and then was told I was actually on the next bus that was arriving in 15 minutes. It did not arrive in 15, but 30 minutes from another station in Penang. Finally, this bus left around noon. Once in KL, I got on the metro to my hostel. I stood in this terminal for the metro for a couple minutes trying to figure out which train to get on, when someone came over and gave me perfect directions for the train I was looking for.

It was just as hot in KL and I knew I had plenty of time to chill here, before the weekend in Singapore. I hung out at the hostel before getting some food at the next street over, Jalan Alor, which had dozens of places to eat. I sat back at the hostel talking to the Brazilian couple that worked there before going to bed, calling the day a travel day.

Tuesday, March 10 The hostel was right next to a restaurant where we could order free breakfast of toast or this roti with curry dish. I got the roti dish every day. Then this girl comes up to me and asks about going on a hike today. I said sure, and she found some more to come to share the cost of the grab, but it became an issue as we were sure if it would be open with coronavirus, and we were half waiting on this guy to find his lost room key. By the end of this whole conversation, we end up walking to Chinatown.

On the way there, just outside our hostel, we could see some monkeys playing on the electrical cables and all this commotion. We look up and there is a monkey, not moving in the mess of cables at the pole. A firetruck is now below it, trying to grab this other monkey that is clearly trying to rescue his friend but also not electrocute himself. The fireman pulls the one alive monkey down and when we return the other dead monkey is no longer there.

Things in Chinatown were just opening and all of us had just eaten breakfast. We walked around a bit and Tilly bought some pants and Linus bought a Blackhawks jersey for cheap. We went through another street market and stopped to get smoothies. Then we walked to the Botanical Gardens and sat by a nice fountain for a while before getting a Grab back to our hostel and seeing the National Mosque of Malaysia from the car on the way back. We had talked about going to an infinity pool, which Michael from Koh Lanta had said I should do. We sat in the hostel trying to research free infinity pools for a bit before deciding we were just hungry and we left to Jalan Alor together for food. We ended up getting a bunch of beers and sharing a bunch of seafood dishes and snails. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten with a group of strangers where everyone was so open to so many dishes. It was all delicious and then I went to use the restaurant’s bathroom and saw a huge rat sneak by my foot. It was too be expected of a restaurant row with all their kitchens opening into their outdoor seating, but still I was happy to have been done eating and glad we were in the process of paying. Overall it was a fun, very unplanned day.

In the evening, I met some new people at the hostel bar, which had unlimited drinks for like $11 for an hour as their happy hour special. Then everyone goes up the street, where ladies drink free. All of these places were completely empty though, so after being with this indecisive group standing outside another empty bar, I left and went home.

Wednesday, March 11 In the morning, Tilly, a Swedish girl she met from our hostel, and I set out in a Grab for Batu Caves. It is beautiful with a huge Buddha standing next to this massive ombre colored rainbow staircase.

The staircase was actually quite frightening if you don’t like monkeys. There are four parallel sections of the staircase and I chose the one with the least amount of monkeys, but they run and hop so much between them that it didn’t really matter which one I chose. I have never bolted up a staircase so quickly in my life. I waited for Tilly and the other girl at the top.

This cave is open at the top, but massive and hardly anyone is there as coronavirus looms more and more each day. We don’t spend too long in the cave before heading back down, taking some pictures with the cool stairs in the background, and then walking the grounds.

Tilly had heard from her friend that the place to go for an infinity pool is Aloft Hotels. We then head straight there. We weren’t guests but had heard no one checked at the pool, so we walk straight up to the escalator and take the elevator to the top floor which opens up into the pool. We all change and I laid my towel down in the shaded chair. It was another hot day in KL, so the pool felt great. We hung out there the rest of the afternoon, getting lunch from the restaurant inside. Once it started to rain and cooled off around 5:30pm, we went back to the hostel.

The Brazilians, Cristina and Rodrigo, that I had hung out with the first night at the hostel, invited me to go to this bar with them, which I did. First, we went to a nice cocktail, rooftop bar with an amazing view of Petronas Twin Towers. It was pretty empty when we first arrived so we were able to get a good spot to soak in the view. By the time we left, it was pretty full. While a lot of people recommend Heli Bar to see the Towers, you do have to pay to get in there and get one free drink. This bar, Vertigo Bar was free, arguably nicer as it was part of Banyan Tree Hotel.

Then we walked through a bunch of construction for 15 minutes and along the side of highways to reach this strip of bars located in a new complex called TREC. The first bar in the strip was one that someone had recommended to me for its live music. It also had a ladies night deal that had just started, so we started there. The place was called Iron Fairies and was beautiful, with thousands of vials of glitter hanging from the ceiling, bowls of handheld iron fairies in different positions at every table, and huge glass jars of more glitter behind the bar and up the two floors. We staked out a spot to listen to the music. Cristina and I were given the option of two cocktail drinks that we drank for free for the rest of the night. Rodrigo had a few beers that were cheaper outside on the patio, so during the set breaks we went out there. After the ladies’ night special ended and the music was finished for the night, we went into another space they had called the Butterfly Room which had paper butterflies hanging from fishing wire from the ceiling. We took a grab back to our hostel shortly after that.

Thursday, March 12 In the morning, I walked to the Petronas Towers, as I still hadn’t seen them up close or during the day. Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) also has a nice park right in front of the towers that I walked past. I took some pictures and then got lunch in a nearby mall.

At night, I went out with some people from my hostel to Jalan Alor for some bahn mi sandwiches that they knew were good and then we walked to the Towers for the light show at the fountain. We only caught the second half of the show as it only lasted about five minutes and we were a minute late and we also were sprayed with water from the fountain. Some of the girls hadn’t seen the towers yet, so we sat along a bridge taking more pictures of the Twin Towers.

Koh Lanta

Phuket

Islands of Thailand: Phuket & Koh Lanta

Been there, Thai’d that

Phuket Friday, February 28 After flying through Bangkok to Phuket, Thailand, I met this woman at the baggage claim. She mentions sharing a Grab together to the southern part of the island. However, I don’t really see how the Grab driver is going to drop her on southwestern part and me on the southeastern. Google maps is showing me it’s about an hour to my hostel on a public shuttle for a fraction of the cost of this Grab. I’m soon stuck with this woman waiting outside an airport for a Grab that doesn’t let Grabs in. We walk to find him and then we explain we want two different drop-offs and he wants considerably more. I’m out and go to find the shuttle that should be leaving from the other side of the airport in about 15 minutes. The woman is now also going to take the shuttle. There are actually multiple shuttles depending on your location and I’m on a different one than this lady, which I’m now thankful for. I sit at the airport for another 30-40 minutes before we leave. A couple more people get on and then we drive off for about five minutes then switch to another van. Then we drop two girls off at a bus station and switch vans again. We stop and pick people up and then drop them off along the way. I’m one of the last stops this shuttle makes and the only person in the van at the end. I ask them if they can stop closer to my hostel, and they end up delivering me about 100 meters from the hostel, which was great, because it’s now 9pm and I’m starving.

I met a girl in my room at Sleepy Station Hostel, who happens to be meeting up with her brother and his food for a bit. I end up joining them and we eat at a street market with a lot of variety, but I get some spring rolls and fried chicken. After a walk to the beach, we all head back.

Saturday, February 29 I hang out at the hostel for a little bit and meet a couple guys that want to head to the beach. We all walk to Karon Beach together even though we’re closer to Kata beach. It’s pretty hot, even by 10:30am so we all go for a swim and by the time I get back to my towel I’m already dry again. I read for a bit, go for another swim and then decide to head back for some food. I had woken up in the middle of the night, surely sick from the street market food and had decided to take it easy all day.

By afternoon, I felt a little bit better and rented a scooter. I drove inland to the Big Buddha. And man, it was indeed the biggest Buddha I’ve ever seen. Walked around the whole thing and sat in the shade for a bit enjoying the view. On the way back down some steep, curvy roads, there was an elephant park. Some people were riding them, and some of the elephants were being washed. I stopped just to take some pictures of the baby elephant. Then I drove up to the more famous Patong Beach to check out their market. Everything they had I had seen before, as a typical market in Thailand would. I got some dumplings for dinner there and then drove back to my hostel. I sat there for a bit trying to figure out what islands I wanted to go to, as most people were going to Koh Phi Phi, but I also heard it was gross there. I opted to go straight to Koh Lanta and bought my ticket for the later option in the morning.

Sunday, March 1 I woke up at the crack of dawn and drove to the southernmost point to watch the sunrise. Turns out, it’s more of a sunset watching spot than a sunrise watching spot and I couldn’t see much. I did get some good views on the way back and saw the rising sun poking through some trees at one point.

I return the scooter and get some breakfast nearby. My bag is ready to go and I’m able to sit and wait for the pick-up to the ferry port. Another guy from my hostel, Buzz is also waiting for the ride, but is going to Koh Phi Phi. He’s Canadian and we end up chatting while we wait, and then more in the hour ride of picking up more people. We saw goodbye, and then realize we’re on the same ferry to Koh Phi Phi, and then I’ll switch to another ferry to Koh Lanta there, so we awkwardly have a few more hours of hanging out.

Once in Koh Phi Phi, I have about an hour to kill before the second ferry. There is a mass exodus to leave the ferry and people are getting their temperatures taken for Coronavirus, as well as having to pay a $5 “trash fee” to enter the island. I wave goodbye to Buzz as he continues onto the island and I wait at the ferry so I don’t have to pay the fee for an hour to sit in a Burger King. I sat there reading until it got closer. I then go over and ask some people waiting at a desk and they look at my ticket and tell me to wait. I am waiting and waiting and then say to myself, “This doesn’t feel right.” So I go and ask some other people, they show me the line of people getting on the boat and I hop in it.

Koh Lanta

The hostel, Non La Mer, had written in their “About us” section the approximate cost of the tuk-tuk from the ferry port to the hostel and also mentioned the cost from the town at the end of the island. A man had been on the boat trying to sell taxis to people, but I didn’t like this. When I got off there was about 25 women with signs forming a small passageway to get through all shouting “Taxi, taxi” at you. I made eye contact with one woman and negotiated with her. Once I got close enough to the recommended price from the hostel and the driver found two other people to share the tuk-tuk and we were off.

I loved this hostel with its hammocks and cushions for the floor. I was starving at this point so I walked down the street and got some fried rice with double chicken and a chocolate chip cookie, which I hadn’t seen in ages. Then I walked to the beach for the sunset because even though I was meant to be getting to Koh Lanta by 2pm, it was more like 5pm before I arrived, which limited the number of islands I could get to drastically as it took an entire day of travel to go anywhere. I met some nice Norwegian girls in my room. I met a friend from earlier travels at the Mushroom Bar, which had cool neon paint you could paint yourself or the tables with. We went just for a drink and we got another late dinner together.

Monday, March 2 I really just wanted to lay out on the beach for the day and relax after the day of traveling. I met the Norwegian girls, Isalin and Mae there, and then played some volleyball with them and some other new people.

After an afternoon of searching for my scuba diving card and looking up different companies, I found the cheapest to be with my hostel, as they would give me a discount with Go Dive! I lied on the phone and said it had been five years since my last dive and they said since it was beyond two I would need to do a refresher. Little did they know, it had actually been ten years since my last dive.

By evening, I went to a place that the Norwegian girls had said had really good pad thai. It was a little old man with a cart and a wok and he served the pad Thai in a piece of paper, much like you’d get fish and chips in England. After a beer and hanging out at the beach for a bit, I went back to the hostel and made sure I was ready for the morning.

Tuesday, March 3 I was picked up around 7am from a truck out front. As the last one in the tuk-tuk, we were all driven to the Go Dive! office. They didn’t have my name when I checked-in, the only blank on the page with my hostel next to it. I had spelled my name for her on the phone, so I laughed a little to myself and then went on to do my paperwork. I was never asked for my diving license, just the number, and I’m not even sure they referenced that. Then I was asked to try on some fins and a wet suit (I put my on backwards, like I said it had been a while). Then I got on the boat and the next thing I knew, we were off.

The drive was about an hour and they made an announcement about the day, and how breakfast and lunch were to work, where the toilet was, and where the sea sick medicine was and how it worked as a preventative. We had toast, hot drinks, tuna fish, and other random things for breakfast. After seeing one of the dive masters, I took his idea and made a little tuna fish sandwich with carrots.

My dive master for the day, I can’t remember his name so I’ll call him Steve, as part of the refresher course, he asked me to fill out a quiz to see how much I had remembered. He also said I would be with this older French couple and they spoke very little English, so everything he said he had to tell us twice, once in English for me and once in French for them. I actually enjoyed this, because his body language was the same each time, so I could pick up on what he was saying when he told them in French and I remembered more. Anyway, I sat down next to this French couple just in case I had a question, but their questionnaire was in French anyway and they spoke no English, so that was useless. Steve went over the answers with me, and I actually did ok. For future reference, when in doubt with scuba diving, just go with the most safe sounding answer, because you’ll probably be right!

After the quiz, he had us how we would go re-learn how to put all our equipment together, and then relax until the horn sounded, put our equipment on, jump in and do an underwater quiz, which he had just explained and consisted of finding neutral buoyancy, finding our respirator by reaching our arm behind us, and clearing our masks.

Then we went downstairs and he showed us how to put assemble our tanks to our BCD, which I couldn’t remember what it stood for, but I knew what it was. We also practiced turning our tanks on and off and checking to make sure the gauge was working as well as the tank was full. Then we returned upstairs for a few minutes and left anything we wanted to keep dry up there. A few minutes later, the horn sounded and we went back down to put our wetsuits on, get our fins, and goggles on, and do a buddy check to ensure the tank was secure.

Steve jumped into the water first and I was the last one of the group. It took a second for my respirator to kick in and then it was good to good. We hung out above water for a few minutes before going down for the underwater test. I had another weight added around my tank and then was reminded to exhale going down. As someone had recently told me, its suddenly easy to forget how to breathe when you’re underwater. I had also forgotten how much my own lungs worked in changing my buoyancy.

But alas, we all finish the three things we had to do as part of our refresher and then went a little further down and immediately see a sea turtle! We watch him for a minute before he disappears into the rocks and we keep swimming. We saw a ton of other fish including a lion fish and an eel and various types of coral. Before I know it, the French guy is running lowest on air and we start to make our ascent. Upon reaching the surface, we are a little bit of a swim away from the boat. I didn’t realize my BCD wasn’t totally inflated, so I struggled a little, but eventually made it to the boat and handed over my fins to the boat guy while I went up the ladder.

Back on the boat, we strip off our wetsuits and weight belts and switch out our tanks so we’re ready for the next dive. The next dive site is just a couple minutes away, so we all enjoy a 45-minute break where Steve gives us a breakdown of this dive, we have some fruit and drinks before the horn sounds again and we get everything back on, the boat moves about 100 meters and we jump back in the water.

First, the French couple takes some pictures with their kids in a different group. And then we swim down into this “cave” that has an exit. It was quite cool being in this room with fish swimming in every direction. Then we exit the cave and swim along a wall. Steve is point out interesting animals along the way. When Steve asks us how full our tanks are, mine is already running low, so we begin to make our ascent. I screwed up and ascended way faster than I should have. But we made it back to the boat, no problems stripped our wetsuits off again and left everything there for the staff to put away. Steve went over the log book information with me and gave me some recommendations on where to scuba dive in Malaysia, where I was headed in a couple days. After arriving back at the office, those of us that had to pay lined up, and then got in the tuk-tuk to be driven back to our hostels and hotels.

Log Book Stats Dive 1: Koh Haa Lagoon 3/3/20 Maximum Dive Depth: 15.3 meters Bottom Water Temperature: Above 27C Visibility: 6-12 meters Bottom Time: 53 minutes

Dive 2: Koh Haa 1 3/3/20 Maximum Dive Depth: 18 meters Bottom Water Temperature: Above 27C Visibility: 6-12 meters Bottom Time: 52 minutes

After arriving back at the hostel, I hung out on some cushions with a bunch of people socializing. Then we all went to the beach for smoothies and a game of volleyball, but were joined by some older people that didn’t allow talking during the game. We were too many people anyway, so the group from our hostel hung out in the water for a bit and then went to a different volleyball court further down the beach.

It was quite fun and we played until the sun went down, and then all went back to shower. We grabbed dinner across the street, which was quite reasonable and delicious. Then we got beers from the store and took them back upstairs to our comfy cushions while someone played on the guitar and the rest of us pretended that we would sing, but no one did.

Wednesday, March 4 Everyone else had already scootered around the island the day before, but said how fun it was. I had the free breakfast at the hostel and got my scooter from them. My intention was to start at the national park on the southern tip, but I missed a turn, and ended up near the Old Town. I found a new pair of sunglasses, as mine had been missing since I went tubing in Laos. I also got a shirt and a milkshake. I then drove down the pier and back to the southern point of the island, thinking I could loop back up, but the road doesn’t connect at the bottom. So I drove all the way up, taking a stop to walk through the mangrove forest, crossing the bridge into the northern part of Koh Lanta, and then walking through the Wednesday market, which I found disappointing and as it was all fresh produce.

I’m now at the top of the island and I drive all the way to the southernmost point to the National Park where I’m stopped and have to pay an entrance fee, which I don’t have. I go back to the first beach and try to park my scooter on this hill. I get my scooter very stuck and am sweating profusely and then the scooter topples over. Luckily, it was fine and I could pick it back up, wheel it down to a flatter surface to park it.

It’s about 2pm and the sand on the way to the beach burns the bottoms of my feet, but the water feels so good. I dry off, trying to read, but it’s too hot, so I jump in the water again and then leave. On the way back, I find an overpriced restaurant with a nice view. After getting some food, I make my way to this waterfall, Khlong Chak in the center of the island. I started hiking in with some people but then realized I left my phone in my scooter, so I go back for it and hike in by myself. What I thought was an obvious path, quickly becomes not so obvious and I see people way below me while I’m up on this hill. I thought I saw the path return, and take it, but then am sliding down the dirt and rock based hill on my butt, which is why there is still a hole in my leggings on my right butt cheek to this day. Eventually, I get to this waterfall and it’s a mere drip coming down, hello dry season. Anyway, I’m hot, so I go and dip in the little pool of water and climb the giant log leaning in front of the waterfall. I meet some people from Amsterdam and they seem so nice, and we agree to meet up when I’m in Amsterdam in two weeks. Little did I know, I wouldn’t make it to back to Europe for quite some time.

I return to my hostel and find everyone hanging there, mostly because they are extremely sunburnt from the day before and haven’t been able to move too much. We hang out for a bit before getting food at a place the Norwegians wanted to go that supports anti-animal cruelty. It was prix-fixed meal and half the group found it too expensive, so we enjoyed a beer there and then split off to go back to the same restaurant as the night before.

We found everyone sitting on the cushions again when we returned and more people had arrived to the hostel, including one girl that had been in the immigration line with me between Thailand and Laos, and then been at my hostel in Vang Vieng, and then the bus to Vientiane. It felt like a very small world. The group went down to drink on the beach, and this girl Megan and I started chatting for a bit as she was just arriving in Koh Lanta, but heading to Malaysia after. Sure enough, she was in the bunk above me, so it felt like fate that we kept meeting.

Vietiane

Vang Vieng

Luang Prabang

Slow Boat into Laos

Laos: Slow Boat, Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, Vietiane

A lot of laughing out Lao(d).

Slow Boat Wednesday, February 19 Nicole and I are supposed to be picked up from our Super Mom Guesthouse between 6am and 6:30am. We had our alarms set for about 5:40am and I go to the bathroom. While in the bathroom, I hear the dog across the street barking, just as it had done every time we came in or out of the house, so we both jump into action. Nicole was ready to go by the time I came out of the bathroom, and halfway downstairs. We get down there and no one is there. We wait and wait and wait. I say to her, “Don’t you have to pee first thing when you wake up?” She finally goes back into pee. We consider texting the Super Mom to ask her what’s going on at about 6:35am. Just then, a guy pulls up in his car, I show him our receipt, which he doesn’t seem to care about.

We don’t have much idea what’s going on, but drive around the corner, thinking we’re at the bus stop to take us to the border and I say, “Well, jeez we could have just walked here.” Really, we’re just picking up another girl, Jana from her hostel, who was equally as worried as we were that she had missed the transportation. Our driver picks up some phone call and then we do a drive by with a guy in a shuttle and our driver gets some cash from him. Then we stop into a gas station for a gas and a 5-minute break. Our driver gets out and we start talking in the car, all equally as confused where the bus is that is supposed to take us to the border and wonder if we’re being kidnapped. Jana mentioned she saw people in the shuttle that she had recognized and wonders if maybe the shuttle was full. Once our driver returns, I ask him if he’s taking us to the bus, and he says no, he’ll take us all the way to the border. We’re all quiet happy with this, as we don’t have to move and can get comfy and sleep better in the air conditioned car.

We arrive about two hours later at the border of Thailand and Laos at Chiang Kong, Thailand. Our driver gives us some badges to put on, so the driver on the other side can spot us. He also gives us the exit paperwork for Thailand and entrance paperwork for Laos. We were pretty thankful for his guidance as a lot of other people coming in were extremely confused. We get our exit stamps and then he tells us to wait for this bus, which will leave in about 15 minutes, and he hands us a ticket for the bus, but would have been another fee if we hadn’t paid upfront. This bus takes us across the Friendship Bridge, a 10-minute journey that you can’t walk or bike across even if you wanted to. We get off the bus and wait in a line in Huay Xai, Laos immigration building. There’s a list of prices for the visa depending on your nationality, the U.S. is $35. I had over my passport and two pictures of my face and then he passes it down to his friend, where I pick it up at the next window. Then we continue through immigration, pay some guy. I had about $100 in U.S. money and the guy would not accept most of the bills because of a small pen mark, tear, or other small defect. He took the last $35 that was worthy. Upon exiting and waiting for everyone else, we were put on a tuk-tuk (another cost we didn’t have in incur) and driven to an office where they allowed us to buy lunch, exchange money, buy snacks, book their accommodation in Pakbeng, and buy sim cards, all while telling us they didn’t serve snacks on the slow boat (they did, and they took my Thai Baht). I found this extremely infuriating and felt like it was a total rip-off. I had read enough to know not to book their accommodation and that it was much cheaper to book it yourself. They seemed like they were being helpful, but the more they pushed us to book with them, the more mad I was for them trying to take advantage.

After 30-40minutes at this “office” they drove us in the tuk-tuks to the Huay Xai dock where a slow boat was waiting for us, mostly full already. Nicole, Jana, and I ended up in the very last row of the boat, which is considered the worst place to be because the motor is so loud. We threw our bags in the massive pile with all the other bags in the motor room. And snuggled in for our seven-hour ride to Pakbeng.

The scenery was beautiful, and every time I looked up from my book, it was different. I took a nap. And I was able to get a beer. A bunch of the backpackers had started hanging out in the tail end of the boat with music. It was fun to hang out with them a bit. Before I knew it, we had arrived in Pakbeng.

Jana’s phone had said our hostel was an hour walk away. Mine said it was about one kilometer, which it was. We even took a shortcut up a hill. The three of us shared a room, albeit very sketchy, but it had a shower. We first went to an ATM that luckily worked for Nicole and I, as it did not work for a bunch of other people. Then we found a restaurant to eat in and bought a lot more snacks for the next day, including the best banana chocolate chip muffin I’ve ever had.

Thursday, February 20 This town is nothing but a stopover for the slow boats that come through the town, so we went back to our hostel. Our slow boat the next day was leaving at 10am, so we got up around 7:30am to watch the elephants bathing in the river across the way (a side perk that we learned about on arrival), eat breakfast, and order lunch sandwiches to-go. After paying and then walking down the street to get cold beers for the journey, I ran back to the hostel as I had left my kindle in the bed. Very thankful that I remembered it, as it would have been a very long day and year without it! We were some of the first group on the boat, and this day our bags went under the floor of the boat, therefore inaccessible. We sat with Jana behind us and discussed turning out seats (like airplane seats that were connected to each other but not attached to the floor) around so we could face each other. A few minutes later, some guys joined us, making a group of six. Nicole and I turned our chairs around 180 degrees, while Jana and Steven turned their chairs 90 degrees, and we had a nice little half-circle with Leon and Aaron.

This day went a lot better, as we could actually hear ourselves talk. We played some card games and had a lot of snacks during the seven-hour ride. Nicole booked another dorm room for the two of us and Jana stayed at the same one (I still didn’t have a sim card). We arrived about 10 kilometers away from Luang Prabang, which I had read was where we were meant to get off, ya know, so we can all pay these tuk-tuk drivers to drive us into the town that the boat could have dropped us off in.

I had read that we should walk away from the dock and to the major road about 100meters away and the tuk-tuk would be able to negotiate for a tuk-tuk half the price. Nicole and Jana were all for this idea until they saw the 100 meters of road in front of them with no cars and turned around to pay with everyone else. I was determined and confident though. Everyone passed me in their tuk-tuks as I walked to the road, but as soon as I got there someone stopped in a tuk-tuk. He was too much. The next one came along and after haggling a bit, I got in. Another man and his wife were in the tuk-tuk and he spoke enough English to tell the driver where I was going. The driver drove right past my hostel though, so I figured we were dropping off the other people first. Then he stopped and wanted me out. He drove a little more and got me a little closer and I said he should take me to my hostel. He did not, but he gave me the original price I had bargained for and I got out and walked the last 100meters. I arrived, maybe 15 minutes after Nicole and Jana.

Luang Prabang Jana was hanging out by the pool with another girl from our slow boat, Celene from Switzerland. After hanging out for a little bit, we all went to get food together at a place Celene had found. We were joined by a couple she knew, and then Tanja from Germany. The food was amazing and so cheap, yet I’m not sure the restaurant has a name. After dinner we walked around the night market, which at this point, as pretty much the same stuff as all the other Asian markets. It was more merchandise than food, but Nicole and I shared the largest cup of sugar cane juice ever for $1.

We went to the bar nearby our hostel, Utopia. It was a very comfy, but massive bar with cushions and bean bags all over the floor to sit on. We all hung out there for a while, meeting up with the guys from our slow boat before we were all kicked out and headed home.

Friday, February 21 The group had discussed all going to the waterfall together in the morning. I had kind of wanted to sleep in for a day and relax, but sure enough, I was up in time to go. We walked out the street and quickly found a tuk-tuk for the six of us that would take us to the waterfall, butterfly garden, and Buffalo Grove Ice Cream for the same price as the our hostel would only take us to the waterfall.

We piled into the tuk-tuk and drove about 40 minutes to the Kuang Si Waterfall while our driver waited for us. He collected money from us to pay the National Park fee. The path to the waterfall went by a Moon Bear Sanctuary, which was unexpected but cool. We passed the first lagoon and went to the top of the waterfall before coming down the other side and then going for a swim in the lagoon. We all jumped off the big tree that says no jumping. There was also a very cool swing at the top of the waterfall, hanging just over the water.

We walked back found our driver playing cards for money with a bunch of other guys. We could figure out what game they were playing though.

Then we drove to the Butterfly Garden, where we got a little refresher on the life cycle of butterflies, saw them in all stages, and dunked our feet in the natural fish spa for a few minutes. We weren’t there long before going to get ice cream made of buffalo milk. The couple that owns the place started it as a mid-life crisis and rents the buffaloes from locals to get the milk. They had some funky flavors like basil, lemongrass, and black sesame.

The group went back into Luang Prabang and hung out for a bit, getting a late lunch at a nearby restaurant with lots of games and a pool table. A couple of us left to go rest after lunch, but met up again later at Utopia. After getting kicked out of Utopia again at 11pm, we went bowling, which is apparently where everyone goes because it was almost full when we arrived. We played one game and all found out Nicole is secretly a boss at bowling. Then we took a tuk-tuk back around 2am and walked to the Night Market again to find very little open, but were able to get some sandwiches and crepes for late night food.

Saturday, February 22 In the morning, I slept in, hung out, took my laundry up the street to be done by the corner shop. I wandered around Luang Prabang looking in different shops, I bought a dress. And found a postcard for my collection. I walked pasted a few temples and hung out by the pool for a bit.

We then all met up to cross the bamboo bridge, check out a jewelry shop on the other side of the bridge, and then walk up Phousi Hill to watch the sunset. It was definitely crowded up there, but the sunset was beautiful. There was an older man sitting next to me and after hearing him describe the sunset to his blind wife, I thought “Man, that’s the sweetest thing ever.”

We grabbed dinner at a nice restaurant with 2-for-1 cocktails and in typical Asian fashion were all served at random times, so some of us were done before others had their food.

Sunday, February 23 In the morning, the girls- Nicole, Jana, Celene, and I got up early to watch the offering to the monks. It is supposed to be one of the best places to watch as there so many monks that come here. I found out later, it’s a huge tourist thing, and the monks give most of the food they receive to the homeless kids because the food is inedible for whatever reason.

I went back to sleep, while Jana, Celene, and the guys left to head north. I walked to a silk museum, called Ock Pop Tok Living Craft Center where I got a private tour until a French-Canadian couple joined me. We saw all the worms that make the silk, where all the looms are, and the store, where each item has a tag about the woman that made it, along with its very high price. You can also take a class there to dye or weave your own piece. I also tried to go to the UXO Visitor’s Center, but unfortunately it was closed.

I found out I had bed bugs again and after telling the front desk was able to use their dryer for free. It was all clean, so I put everything I owned in there, and even switched out the clothes I was wearing to put those clothes in. I was in a mad dash as I was trying to let it be in there as long as possible, but I also had to pack it all back up to make my bus to Vang Vieng at 2pm. I made it just in time, and was took everything off the table that I was sitting at and shoved it into my small backpack. I kept thinking that I’ve got my phone, passport, computer and I’m good.

Sure enough, 30 minutes into the bus ride I turn to Nicole and tell her I left my journal and phone charger on the floor of the table where everything else had been sitting. I was so disappointed for leaving them, and couldn’t do anything about it until arrived in Vang Vieng and I got wifi again. Nicole messaged the hostel to see if the front desk could pick them up. We didn’t think anyone from the hostel would take them, especially the journal full of ticket stubs from the previous seven months. We made a pit stop along the side of the road for everyone to go to the bathroom. It was the most scenic bathroom stop I’ve been on. We made a separate stop for some food and I got some noodle soup and ice cream.

Vang Vieng I arrived at the hostel, which I had also messed up the booking for, and booked two nights starting the next day, but they had no problem changing it for me. They let me borrow their phone. The hostel in Luang Prabang didn’t even have the right phone number listed. Somehow I figured this out and finally got through to them and they said to email them, which was honestly easier. I emailed them and never heard back. A guy in the hostel overheard me talking to the front desk and on the phone and said his friend was still at that the same hostel (it’s a popular route to go from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng or vice versa). He asked his friend to check if the stuff was still there in the common area or with the front desk. The friend, Ari would be coming to Vang Vieng the next evening.

With nothing else I could do at this point but wait for Ari or the front desk to get back to me, I went to meet up with Nicole and some other friends we had made on the bus to Vang Vieng, Georgia, Cal, Jess, and Rebecca. It was the most Americans I had been with since starting to travel. We had a couple beers together, but I was still distracted and went home after a couple.

Monday, February 24 In the morning, I started WhatsApp messaging the hostel in Luang Prabang and calling them repeatedly, all while trying to respond to messages from Rebecca about renting a scooter and driving around Vang Vieng to the different lagoons and spots together. I decided to try and enjoy the day. I rented the scooter for Nicole and me to drive around from my hostel and met her and the others at Rebecca’s hostel, we were all over the place.

Our first stop was the Tham Xang (Elephant Cave), which was the furthest stop. We found a parking lot for our four scooters and then promptly asked to pay by some lady. There were two bridges in front of us and a man waving us over to come and pay to cross the bamboo bridge. We all knew there was a bridge we were going to have to pay for and figured this was it. This was the stupidest thing we did all day. We could have just walked across the other less pretty bridge without paying and none of us would have cared. But alas, we paid about $2 and walked into the Elephant Cave and there was a little elephant on the wall made out of stalagmites and a huge Buddha.

We are then led by our self-elected Laos tour guide to Tham Nam (Water Cave). We also had to pay to get into here, but it included everything we didn’t know we needed. We were like little lambs. We asked some people coming out of the cave and they said we didn’t need life jackets unless we really wanted one and couldn’t swim, but we did need the helmets with lights attached. We put all our stuff in lockers, changed into our swimsuits, and got into our tubes, with our guide leading the way via the suspended ropes. We head into the cave on our tubes with our lights on and start pulling ourselves along the rope. It took us about 30 minutes to reach the end and we had to get out of our tubes and walk a couple times. At one point the rope ended and the guide just kept leading us back. We all agreed we would have just finished there, but somehow trusted this random guy that didn’t speak any English. When we left the cave, we took turns swinging out over the pool of water on this giant swing made out of an old tire. Then we ate lunch and dried off changing out of our swimsuits. The guide wanted money from all of us, go figure.

They had wifi here, so I was able to see that the hostel finally texted back and said my friend had my stuff, but didn’t give me any more information than that. I wasn’t sure if this was Ari or another person and if they were on the morning bus or the 2pm bus that I had been on.

Then we walked to the Tham Hoi (Snail Cave). Georgia (G) didn’t want to go in due to her fear of snails, but there was not one snail in there. The trail in the cave apparently goes about 5km to the other side of the mountain, but we only went back about 1km with this dog now as our guide. We all turned off our lights and sat in complete darkness with Nicole leading us in a meditation.

We looped back around to where our scooters were parked and drove off to Tham Phu Kham (Blue Lagoon 1), where we drove over the bamboo bridge that we did indeed have to pay a toll to get over. This is said to be the most touristy lagoon in the area. It may have been because it was later in the afternoon, or that tourism was down overall, but I didn’t find that there were that many people there, and the six of us were more than half the people swimming. We hung out here for an hour or so, getting smoothies, jumping out of this tree about 15 meters up, and jumping off a swing that would propel you into the water. Cal did a flip off the tree into the water, which was cool.

I wanted to go up to another one of the lagoons as I had read Blue Lagoon 3 was one of the best. However, we didn’t have much time before sunset. Rebecca’s friend had said this hike up Nam Xay Viewpoint was easy and mostly stairs. Those of us in flip-flops thought, no problem. It was not mostly stairs. We got to the top very tired and sweaty and had just done some light bouldering. However, the view was amazing. There were a fair number of people there, but with a 360 view it was worth it. There were two motorcycles at the top, each with a Laotian flag for people to sit and take pictures on. Shortly, after the sunset, we headed down, not wanting to get stuck bouldering down in flip-flops in the dark. We scootered back over the bridge and Jess almost drove off the edge, which I’m still not really sure what she did to do that. We all went back to our respective hostels to shower.

As soon as I got back to the hostel, I had a message from Mattias, the guy from my hostel telling me his friend had my stuff and he was on the 2pm bus. I texted Ari and he was about 15 minutes away from Vang Vieng. I met him at the bus stop and awkwardly called out his name in front of the 12 or so passengers. I was extremely thankful, but he said his backpack did all the work and I offered to buy him a beer later.

I then hurried off to meet the gang for dinner at a nicer restaurant. I finally got some congee that I had been looking for and it was delicious. Jess and I stayed talking for a bit and everyone else went for a beer at Milan Pizza. As we were leaving, I ran into Ari and Mattias from my hostel and ended up joining them for the rest of the night at a couple bars.

As I was walking home, some random Laotian dude was following me, so I crossed the street and pretended to be on my phone to let me get further ahead of me, but he kept looking back at me. As I turn the corner, some guy on a scooter comes by and stops right by me asking if I wanted a ride to my hostel, he seemed to be totally aware of the situation going on and I asked him if the guy does this all the time, to which he responded, “Only when he’s drunk.” It was less than a 30 second ride, but far enough to escape the creepy drunk stalker.

Tuesday, February 25 I didn’t do much in the morning, but sign-up for tubing through my hostel. There was supposed to be three of us going plus the girl that works at the hostel, but she was sick and then the other girl also felt sick and her friend stayed behind with her. I got some roti from a street vendor down on the main road and then went to look for a dry sack and got a pretty good deal on one, after shopping around. I went back to the hostel hoping there was some activity going on before the tubing, but since the coordinator was sick, there was nothing. I got a sandwich from another street vendor with the girl that wasn’t sick and would have gone tubing with her friend.

Finally, the tuk-tuk pulled up around 1pm. Sure enough, Georgia and her two friends, Harry and Jeff were there. Another two girls were picked up from the hostel next to mine. We went by an office and Leo and Franzi, both from Germany had to pay. Georgia hopped out and got some beers and soon enough, we were all drinking in the back of this tuk-tuk on the way to the drop-in spot.

It was only about 100meters of us in the water with our tubes before we pulled up to the first bar. This was probably the most fun as they had some games we could all play like stack cup (flip cup but harder as you stack the cups, so it’s an ever growing tower to bounce the cup into) and beer pong. After a little while here, we floated down to the next bar. We were greeted with shots by the owner. There was sprinkler on the basketball course. We didn’t stay here very long, but then skipped the third bar and went to the fourth. I don’t remember much of this bar, but floating a very long way down the river, throwing up in the river, which turns out to be an excellent place to vomit. Our tuk-tuk driver was waiting to pick us up. I was way behind everyone, as I was just enjoying floating and not going too fast.

We were all driven back to our hostels and showered and then next thing I know, I got a message from Franzi to meet for dinner on the other side of the town. I got some water and food in me and felt much better. We went to a nearby bar which was giving away free drinks from 10-11pm to get people to come there. We played a game of beer pong until 10 and then enjoyed the free drinks. My other friends, Mattias and Ari showed up, as well as Cas from my slow boat ride. It was so nice seeing all these familiar faces. The group from yesterday, except for Georgia, had down their own thing, scootering around again. After most of my group went home, so did I, it had turned into a long day.

Vientiane Wednesday, February 26 There were buses almost every hour from Vang Vieng to Vientiane, so I slept in, but still caught a 10am bus, a tad hungover. We had a rest stop for 15 minutes and I got some grilled corn and grilled meat, as well as some lemon smoothie.

I knew there wasn’t a lot to do in Vientiane, as it is the capital city, so it’s a lot of Business District, so I used the opportunity to rest and catch up on some things. I watched some tv and booked a flight south. After a bit, I went out for a walk and to get some food. I walked up to a monument, Patuxai. There was a sculpture behind it of four elephants made entirely out of pieces of chinaware, which was cool. I also walked into a park and past the Presidential Palace.

Thursday, February 27 This would be only full day in Vientiane and I felt a little more energetic today. I had breakfast at the hostel, and then walked to the COPE Visitor’s Center, which is a museum dedicated to the history of bombings in Laos and its related disabilities. I walked into Joma for lunch, a spot Keith recommended for a bagel and lox. On the way back to my hostel, I got a pedicure, knowing I’d be on a beach in the foreseeable future.

At night, I went along the night market and enjoyed watching some ladies do Zumba by a rainbow fountain. I enjoyed the sunset over the river with some food from one of the vendors at the market.

Friday, February 28 I had asked the front desk the previous night the best way to get to the airport and they said they could arrange a tuk-tuk for me. I asked them about the bus that was showing up as an option on google maps and they said, oh yeah, but then you need to leave extra time as it only comes once an hour. I asked how much the bus was and it was a third of the cost of the tuk-tuk! I walked to the bus stop in the morning, getting stopped twice if I wanted a tuk-tuk in the five minute walk. I arrived at the bus stop and it showed up a couple minutes early, so I was glad to be standing there. I was the only one to be dropped off at the airport, but without any problems getting there, I was glad to not spend the extra money on a tuk-tuk. Next stop: Phuket, Thailand!

Pa Pae Meditation Retreat

Chiang Rai, Thailand

Chiang Mai- before and after Pa Pae

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Bun Voyage!