A day around Vientiane

My good friend Kerryn is leaving Laos and heading back to Australia in early December. So another friend had the idea to do a cycling scavenger hunt through Vientiane with friends popping in throughout the day. Hillary Clinton provided clues via text.

Hillary texted Kerryn with the scavenger hunt clues

Kung's cafe for brunch.

We started with brunch at Kung's cafe, a quaint little Laos cafe in town. It's down the end of an alley and has become an institution in the expat community.





Patuxai yoga

From there we headed off to Patuxai, a classic tourist attraction that was built with donated funds from the U.S. (not quite the intended use of the money). There we flexed our yogic muscles to spell out Kerryn's name and recruit a helpful tourist to assist us.

Tie dying with love.

Stewing my scarf.

After Patuxai, we cycled to Hung Huaey, a weaving center outside of Vientiane to tie dye silk scarves. They turned out surprisingly well.

Well done ladies.

Showing off our handiwork.

We then headed back into town for some drinks and snacks at another classic expat hangout, the Spirit house.

By that time we were pretty tuckered out from all the cycling and decided we deserved a foot massage a.k.a. nap time.



Spirit house for drinks, Mekong river in the backdrop.


To finish the day off, we went to a lovely little Laos restaurant for some tasty Laos dishes. A very successful, yet exhausting day!

Dinner to finish a lovely day.

 

Sri Lankan Adventures - part 3

One of the highlights of the Sri Lankan trip was a daylong safari into Yala national park. Yala is located on the southeastern corner of Sri Lanka and is home to the most dense population of leopards in the world (according to a Sri Lankan published guide book).

The safari was a little surreal in the way that it's ran. Basically, the town of Tissa has become a mecca for touts running "safaris" into Yala national park, so anyone and everyone who can afford a massive jeep has one and rounds up tourists for daily runs into the park.

The park itself has an intricate network of poorly maintained dirt tracks that make for an off roading adventure in and of itself. Add some wild elephants, leopards, crocodiles, etc. and you have a pretty amazing experience, nothing to compare with an African safari but a good time all the same. The problem is that with so many tourists going on these "safaris" and such a network of touts, you end up with traffic jams of jeeps anywhere a leopard is spotted. One tout spots the leopard, spreads the word via cell phone and about 30 jeeps take off at break neck speeds driving like manics to get their spot in the traffic jam to see the leopard. All together an odd experience but one that did afford us a couple glimpses of wild leopards and even a photo or two.

Sunrise

Kingfisher

Iguana

Add caption

Mongoose wrestling...or something like that

Baby monkey....now if he were only riding on a pig!

Baby elephant

Jeep traffic jam.

Curd....or buffalo yogurt.....not too bad.

Tea plantations.

Temple of the tooth.....supposedly Buddha's tooth lives inside....in a giant metal box that is never opened.

 From Tissa and Yala national park, we headed up into the hill country. We had intentions of climbing Adam's peak, a mountain that houses a temple and amazing views after a 5000 step climb, but never made it due to the rain. Instead we spent some days visiting tea plantations then went to Kandy, the spiritual/cultural centre and second largest city in Sri Lanka.

There is apparently a lovely train ride in the hill country with beautiful views but unfortunately, we managed to choose a national holiday to travel and the train was fully book. So instead we spent four long hours on windy roads in the hills trying not to get car sick. The scenery was beautiful but we were both happy to arrive in Kandy and get out of the minivan.

Kandy is a lovely city with a large lake, some beautiful temples and heaps of people. We managed to do some shopping while there, as many American brands are manufactured in Sri Lanka and sold at dirt cheap prices.

We also had the opportunity to meet up with a friend's mom and brother who live in Kandy. It was great to have a nice home cooked meal and spend a couple evenings having good conversation with locals.

After Kandy, we caught the train back to Colombo to fly out the following day. All in all a great adventure and I plan to return in January to see other parts of Sri Lanka and attend a meditation retreat.











From 

Sri Lanka Adventures - part 2

I never captured the beach in the sun.....too busy napping and soaking up the rays.

The stilts that the fishermen use.

I would be hesitant to brave the ocean in one of these....especially after my whale watching experience.

Happy whale watchers.....pre deathly seasick and wanting to die.

Add caption

New Sri Lankan friends sporting my sunnies.

Muddy Tangalle waters.

Frangipani Guesthouse.

Saying goodbye to Tangalle.

Cows are everywhere and remarkably street smart.

Yes those are bats, yes they are monstrous and yes there are trees FULL of them.

Do you see all the bats?

Add caption

Water Buffalo may be my new favorite animal.

Taking the wise words of our breakfast host to heart, we hopped in a tuk tuk and headed for Mirissa, a little beach about an hour away along the coast. The drive was nice, although the tuk tuks are rather small and get cramped after awhile. Lots of beautiful coastline and quaint little towns.

Mirissa is a tiny little town, more like a wide spot in the road than anything, and is primarily a tourist spot for Blue Whale watching and the little cove beach. We looked at a number of guesthouses and ended up settling on one that opened out onto the beach for $20 a night per bungalow. Most of the guesthouses were in rather poor repair and it was fairly obvious that tourism is still a relatively new endeavor or at least one that hasn't been fully capitalized on. You could stay at the swanky hotel with a pool, spa, etc. for $55 a night but we were going the budget route.

We spent a lovely couple days in Mirissa with intermittent sun and showers on occasion. We both managed to soak up a lot of sunshine....perhaps a tad too much. Lots of lounging, napping, reading and eating fresh seafood.

Coming from Lao, we had high hopes of cheap massages and spa treatments but found that Sri Lanka hasn't quite figured that aspect out yet. We went for a stroll following some well made English signs about yoga classes and Ayruvedric spa treatments. However, the spa was usually someone's house, the guy teaching yoga looked like he couldn't get close to touching his knees, let along his toes and "the doctor" in charge of treatments needed to be consulted for prices. So we decided to leave the spa idea until later and explore some other activities.

I attempted a run while in Mirissa. I started out going up and back along the beach a couple of times but the cove was rather small so I finally broke down, put on my trainers and ran out on the road. Of course, by this time in the morning, all the locals were out as well. And apparently seeing a young woman running in a tanktop and short shorts is quite the novelty. All the men....and women for that matter stare unabashedly and the kids all shout hello. I wasn't too bothered by this as I just turned up my Ipod and kept my eyes on the uneven roadway. However, there was one teenage boy who took it a little far as he continually peddled up and down the road on his bicycle saying hello every time he passed.

Mickey Water Buffalo.

Kerryn was excited to go whale watching and against my better judgement (after the Thailand seasickness adventure) I went along for the ride. We went with a great group called Raja and the whales who seemed very passionate about protecting the whales and despite spending 2.5 of the 3 hour trip desperately trying not to vomit, it wasn't all bad. We saw a couple of Fin whales, which are apparently slightly smaller than Blue whales, and a school of dolphins. However, I do believe I've finally learned that the ocean, boats and I are not compatible.

After whale watching, I wasn't too keen for a bus ride (the buses are known to make you motion sick all on their own), so we negotiated another tuk tuk to Tangalle, another hour down the coast. Kerryn had found a lovely little guesthouse called the Frangipani that was right on the beach. It turned out to be an excellent find, with great hosts (the first Sri Lankan men who didn't make us uncomfortable with their staring), a lovely little restaurant and nice rooms. The only failing was that due to rain in the mountains, the ocean was filthy right out in front of our guesthouse, so swimming lost it's appeal.

This fat iguana can hardly move after we watched him raid a birds nest inside this tree and have an afternoon snack.

I did manage some lovely walks, we visited some markets in town and had more tasty seafood meals. One night we hired a tuk tuk to go to the beach where turtles lay their eggs. Sri Lanka has five different species of sea turtles and most nights, they can be spotted laying eggs on the beach. The organization that helps to protect the turtles allows tourists to come out and observe the turtles for a small fee. We sadly did not see any turtles, as it is out of season and we were just unlucky.

Boys and their sticks. Cricket, cricket, cricket.....EVERYWHERE!

New Sri Lankan Friends.

So we left Tangalle and headed to Tissa via the local bus. A harrowing experience and a test of our patience and cultural sensitivity. Kerryn sat in the back and was accosted by a man wanting to be her friend. She said that she watched the guy standing above me look down my shirt for 20 minutes but then he got off and the woman who took his place did the same thing.....what can you do?

Gorgeous little temple that survived the tsunami miraculously.