After my first horrible night in the Vientiane Hostel I decided to ask around the fellow travellers in my room what there is to do in Vientiane. Most of them simply answered along the lines of “Nothing. Get out of here as quickly as possible” but one girl told me about the COPE Visitor Center. After asking what this was about she explained to me that it is a facility that is commited to helping people in Lao who have been affected by leftover explosive devices from the Vietnam War. This definitely sounded like a place where you can learn something about this country and so I decided to pay it a visit.

Its easy to get to by bike or Tuk-Tuk and very close to the city center. You can find a very good map on the Cope Laos Website or see the location on the map here:

View on Google Maps

I went there without really knowing what to expect and was even more impressed and affected by what I saw. 

Basically Laos was strongly affected by the U.S. bombings during the Vietnam war between the 1950s and 1970s. The U.S. executed hundreds of thousands of bombings over big parts of Laos, often using Cluster Bombs. Cluster bombs, from my understanding, are big bomb containers that hold dozens or hundreds of so called “Bombies”(smaller bombs). When the bomb is dropped it opens up to spread the bombies over an even bigger area to enhance the destructive effects. However, these Cluster bombs are said to have had a failure rate of about 30%, resulting in an estimated 80 million bombs which would not explode.

Areas of U.S. bombings in Laos

At least they would not explode instantly. They would stay in the ground and as soon as people started using the land for farming again, after the war had ended, these bombs would eventually explode when moved or hit. This situation did not change all the way through 2008 when the first organisations started to clear areas from the bombs in order to prevent the Lao people from making contact with these bombs and to make the land usable again.

Still there are around 100 deaths caused by UXO (unexploded ordnance) every year and even more severely wounded and disabled people.

COPE is an initiative founded in 1997 that provides UXO affected people with medical treatment and prostethics.

The visitor center is located on a site together with different facilities for disabled people. Its less a museum and more of an interactive exhibition that really is impressing and hard to endure at the same time.

Here you can learn about the sheer masses of bombs that were dropped over Laos, about the different types of bombs and you can also learn a lot about single people who have been affected by the bombs. Either they lost limbs themselves or people in their family did.

Before coming here I had never heard of this situation, which really leaves me wondering now that I am aware of the extent of UXO contamination in Laos.

After seeing the exhibition I had a chance to talk intensively with Soksai Sengvongkham, the Operations Manager of the Visitor Centre. He told me a lot more about the current situation. For example he told me that the UXO contamination is a big reason for Laos high dependence on import goods. There is so much fertile land here but most of it simply remains unused because of the dangers that are hidden in it.

Also I learned that the process of cleaning up UXO contamined land only started in 2008 and that, even though there is a high number of volunteers, the cleaning moves forward at a pace of “only” 100.000 bombs per year. Considering the estimated 80 million that are still left, this problem will continue to exist for many decades in the future.

I also asked Soksai which the heaviest affected areas are and he told me that that would be Xieng Khuang. This is when I made my decision to make Xieng Khuang a part of my trip, and to try to document the current situation there.

Altogether the COPE initiative is incredibly important for this country and I feel that more people should be aware of the situation that Laos is confronted with. If you want to help, visit the COPE Laos website to find out how you can support them. Also you can visit them on Facebook.

If you happen to be in Vientiane, definitely visit the COPE visitor center.

Thank you to Soksai for telling me so much about this topic and thank you to COPE Laos for doing such a great work.

Me with Soksai Sengvongkham

BAN CLUSTER BOMBS

Yours

Crazy Ivory

 

Follow my photos, travel route and stories on the Asia Adventure Page.

 

While lying awake in my Vientiane hostel last night, due to stomach problems of the guy in the lower bunk, I started thinking about all the things that I have experienced in hostels in the past. I love staying in hostels but sometimes staying  in the same room with 3 to 16 strangers can lead to extreme experiences. I realized that I never really wrote these stories down.

So, inspired by the austrian with a drink too much, here are my Top 5 hostel horror stories (the austrian made it to #2):

 

#5 – “Couldn’t you leave us alone for an hour?” @ IHSP Chicago

I was staying in this really overpriced hostel in Chicago (apparently the hostel concept with cheap rooms in return for shared facilities is still not entirely understood by americans) in a 4-bed dorm. I arrived after a long-haul bus trip and was quite drained. However, that night there was a huge party in the kitchen area and we had a blast. I still went to bed rather early around 1AM as I really needed some sleep. As I got to the room I saw one other guy that I was sharing the room with, heavily drunk, leading a friend and two girls into the room and closing the door. I went in and you could see that they did not expect me when this little argument took place:

He: “What do you do here?” 
Me: “You know its my room as well, right?”
He: “Yeah, you know. OK, to say it directly: I wanted to have sex here now.”
Me: “No, that is not going to happen. I am going to sleep now.”
He: “Couldn’t you leave us alone for an hour?”
Me: “Most definitely not.”

With that he left. At least thats what I thought. After returning from brushing my teeth I just catched them heading to the room again.

He: “What do you do here?”
Me: “Didn’t I just tell you that I go to bed now?”
He: “I thought you had left.”
Me: “No, I was just brushing my teeth.”
He: “Man, you really are no good companion.”

After that he really left and did not return until noon. I am sure he found a better place. Apart from wanting to go to sleep, the other reason why I would not want this to happen was simple:

They were two couples and I had the second lower bunk. I could easily calculate in which bed the second couple would end up.

 

#4 – “Snorting for your life” @ Waka Waka Marrakech

My flight to Marrakech arrived late in the evening and the way to the hostel was incredibly complicated and shady. I did not feel safe in this city and after exploring Marrakech at night, which ended with me bribing a guy to prevent him from probably robbing me, I only wanted to go to sleep. I had booked a 4-bed dorm with single beds, no bunks.

The first negative surprise came when I laid down on the bed. It was certainly the hardest bed I have ever slept on. It felt as if it would be filled with pebbles and sand. To make matters worse it was no wider than 50cm. The pillow was from the same material as the bed. Altogether it took quite an effort to not fall out of the bed and instead fall asleep.

When I had almost worked out a position that I could perhaps sleep in, a girl that I was sharing the room with came in. She had the bed next to me, which I now realized was only 30cm away from mine. Sleeping in such close proximity to a stranger is always unsual but if the other person is snorting, its a whole different story. And this girl was not snorting, she was fighting for her life.

The sounds she made reminded me of a person being trapped underwater, trying everything to fill her lungs with air. It were wet noises, loud and raw. If you closed your eyes you would not believe that a human could produce sounds like this.

Unfortunately she would not win nor lose this fight for her life before the next morning. At some point I might have fallen asleep even though I did not feel like that at all when I woke up the next day. I had already planned what to tell the hostel owner when I told him that I wanted to change the room when she woke up and we started talking. Then she said the magic words:

“I am heading home today”.

 

#3 – “Oh cute they all sleep in one bed” @ A&O Reeperbahn Hamburg

My friend Martin and I were on a fun trip to Hamburg and decided to go for the cheapest option available and sleep in a dorm room situated at the middle of Hamburgs famous party street Reeperbahn. The room was nice with 2 bunk beds, two singles and a huge bathroom. The night we arrived we shared the room with a swedish family. They were very friendly and quiet, picture perfect roommates. We went out drinking a few beers and Martin went back into the room to grab something he had forgotten and catched the swedish father on his way back from the toilet to his bed. Completely naked. That was odd but in a funny way (for me at least).

However, they left the next day and when we got back late at night to find an empty room we felt lucky that we would have the whole room to ourselves. We went to bed believing this night to be a calm and relaxing one only to be woken up around 2 AM by three very drunk germans. The  way this room was build led to them believing they would be alone as they came in and did not see us at first. They turned all the lights on looked around and saw us. For some reason they then argued whether they should pull us out of the beds. Perhaps because only two beds were left and they were three guys but nobody knew exactly. They finally let go of this consideration and started to focus more on each other.

They continued to be loud and extremely rude. Screaming, fighting and doing stupid stuff. One guy also told an interesting story about his experiences with the Hamburg Hookers earlier that night and was considering telling his girlfriend about it. This discussion kept going on and I might just have fallen asleep at some point.

When I woke up early in the morning and went to the bathroom I was surprised to find these tough and aggressive boys all sleeping in one single bed. They were all entangled, sleeping head to head looking like little puppies in a wicker basket.

Luckily they left the same day.

 

#2 – “Oh Noodles” @ Sihome Backpackers Vientiane

This is the story that led me to writing this article in the first place and it only happened yesterday. I had arrived in my Vientiane Hostel late, after 8PM and was worn out by almost 12 hours of bus riding. After getting a bite to eat and finishing my blog article for the day I decided to head to bed early.

The room is a 8 bed dorm with 4 bunks, and since I checked in without a reservation I was assigned the last top bunk. I had talked to a few of the people I shared the room with and was under the impression that the night would be a quiet one (it seems that I am proven wrong everytime I think that).

The bed was comfy and the temperature good, the night could have been perfect. Until I was woken up by vibrations of my bed and weird noises. I realized it was the guy in the lower bunk of my bed and it took me a bit to understand what happened next. After saying “Oh my god” he vomited all over the floor. Without any warning and without even trying to get to the bathroom. Obviously nobody in the room was sleeping anymore at that point, so somebody turned the light on, which gave me a chance to figure out the whole  extent of this mess. It was obvious that he had had noodles for dinner, and looking down on this really gave me an interesting perspective. I did not look for too long however as I was afraid that my stomach would react to this as well.

While the smell started to spread around the small room a woman from the reception was informed and was assigned the task of cleaning this up. Poor lady. After 10 minutes of cleaning and spraying some air freshener the nightmare was over and we would all get back into our beds, hoping that this would not repeat during the night.

Welcome to Vientiane.

 

#1 – “Don’t stay in a youth hostel if you are 100 years old” @ Hostelling International Youth Hostel Brussels

I was staying in Brussels and decided to check out a real Youth Hostel for the first time. You know one of these that are run by Hostelling International and where you get a discount if you are under 26. It seemed to be one of the cheapest choices in Brussels so I decided to go for a four bed dorm.

I shared the room with a short french guy whose face was definitely too old for him and who reminded me of Rumpelstiltskin and a really old american guy that was interrailing his way through europe. I was assigned the lower bunk under the old guy and within minutes from my arrival he started talking and wouldn’t stop again. He told me about his route, his ticket, his family, his life everything. I was not asked anything nor was any feedback appreciated. He only wanted to talk. It may sound rude but at some point I simply started listening to music with headphones to make him stop. That worked well.

However, the talking would not stay the worst of his spleens.

He also seemed to have a strong aversion against clothes, which led to him being naked 90% of the time. Even though I usually prefer the lower bunk, in this case it definitely wasnt helping that I was lying on hip height. Honestly the german culture is pretty open when it comes to being naked and its nothing I would be shocked about but if somebody really walks around naked the whole day, it gets nasty at some point.

It still got worse.

One night I woke up, wondering about the bed shaking slightly. I was unsure about the cause at first but then started to realize that it must be the senior “having some fun”. That was stuff that nightmares are made of. Seriously. You may be able to use headphones to stop yourself from hearing it but what do you do against a shaking bed?

I hoped it would be over soon. I somehow did not feel strong enough to stand up and confront him. Today I probably would but I was younger at that time.

The worst however happened after the shaking stopped. I was glad that it did and tried to fall asleep as quickly as possible when I heard a sound. It turned that even though he seemed to be healthy enough to travel he would not be able to go to the toilet at night, which was why he pissed into a bed-pan. Now that really was the worst thing I could imagine. Being stuck in the lower bunk under a dinosaur that would jerk off at night and piss into a bottle being separated from all that by nothing more than a thin mattress really destroyed me.

I got up as early as possible to beg the receptionist for a new room. When I finally got my new room key I decided to leave a note to Mr. Senior. I don’t remember the exact words I used but I know that it was something along the lines of:

“If you are too old to wear clothes and use a toilet, please, for the sake of anyone who had and will have to share a room with you, sleep in a hotel from now on. You are too old for Youth Hostels.”

It may lead to bad karma but I felt a lot better after this.  And hopefully he took my advice to heart.

 

Yours

Crazy Ivory

 

Follow my photos, travel route and stories on the Asia Adventure Page.

Puuuuuuuuuuuuh.

After pretty exactly 11 1/2 hours of bus riding I finally made it safely to my hostel in Lao. And boy, the way was full of unexpected happenings, as always when you do not expect anything. So here is how my way to Lao went.

The Way to Lao

It all started around 07:30 AM at my hotel in Ubon Ratchathani, where I took a taxi to the bus station. Unfortunately the next available bus to Udon Thani would not leave before 9:00AM and that one would be a VIP bus resulting in a really expensive (at Thai standards) 382 Baht fare for the 6 1/2 hour trip (€ 9,50).

The bus ride went smoothly and I arrived in Udon Thani around 3:30 PM. Since I had only left Udon Thani three days ago I felt like I was not away at all but that feeling wouldn’t last long as I had to work on my next steps.

After waiting at the bus ticket office for a couple of minutes the impolite sales men that I asked for a ticket to Vientiane, Lao did not answer anything and only pointed to a sign that was glued to his window: “No Visa, No Ticket”. That was bad news as I did not acquire a VISA beforehand (I think its only possible in Bangkok anyway).

A bit of asking around led to the info that I should simply go to Nongkhai, from where I would be able to continue to Lao. Said, done. 45 Baht and another 1 1/2 hour of waiting later I sat in the bus that would get me to Lao. At least thats what I thought. I later learnt that Nongkhai is still in Thailand, and that its still a bit of way to Lao.

OK, then I go to Nongkhai first

That is why I ended up at the bus station of Nongkhai, from which I was unsure how to continue. Against my firm belief not to agree to any offers made by aggressive taxi or tuk-tuk drivers, I was faced with the unpleasant situation of being dependent of said tuk-tuk drivers. After a bit of bargaining with one of them, we agreed on 70 Baht (€ 1,75) to get me to the Border Office.

The ride went smooth at least until he stopped at a very shady office which was definitely not the border control. He told me to get a VISA here and I told him that I would definitely not do that and that I instead would appreciate being driven to the border office. He did not even reply to this and without a word drove me a couple hundred meters further down the road to the real border office.

Here I had the officials stamp me out of Thailand and 100m further down the road I boarded the next bus which would get me over to the other end of the Thai-Lao friendship bridge, where the Lao customs are situated.

Getting my VISA on arrival was as straightforward as it could be. Filling out a form, paying $ 31 US for the VISA and waiting two minutes. Finally I had my VISA and was officially in Lao.

Still I was more than 20km from Vientiane and I had no idea how to get there. Obviously there is no public or local bus connecting the customs to the city so you are again dependant on tuk-tuks and Songthaews. After a bit of looking around I found a driver that would get me not only to Vientiane but to my hostel, for only 100 Baht (€ 2,50). The cheap price came with a waiting time of 30 minutes so that the car could fill up with more passengers, which did not really work. Apart from me there was only one more passenger, Alessio from italy, who runs a guesthouse in Phuket and had to renew his one year Thailand VISA.

The rest of the trip went smooth. The driver dropped of Alessio who apparently hadn’t bargained and needed to pay 200 Baht for the same ride. After a short discussion Alessio translated that the driver did not like me because I only paid 100 Baht (which is the price he offered in the first place) and I also got some really bad looks from him. I did not really know what I had done but whatever. He got me to my hostel and I decided not to tip him for the impoliteness.

Now, after 11 1/2 hours I am finally able to rest and I am very glad that I made it here. I am very much looking forward to exploring my first city in Lao tomorrow.

What I expect of Lao

DISCLAIMER: I wrote this part in the bus from Ubon Ratchathani to Udon Thani so don’t be confused by me talking in future statements.

Today, after 7 ½ weeks in Thailand, the next part of my trip is beginning. I am heading to Lao, the next country on my agenda and I really feel anxious. One would probably guess that it doesnt really matter much which country you are at, once you started travelling, as its all foreign and strange, right? For some reason its not. I have grown used to Thailand over the past couple of weeks and even though every city was unique and different in its own way, it was all Thailand and I kind of knew how things were working. Now that I am facing being in Lao within a few hours from now (I am writing this on the bus to Udon Thani) I feel unprepared and a bit scared. New language (even though I did not understand any Thai really), new currency, new people, new everything.

 Also, I don’t know ANYTHING about Lao apart from its currency being Kip and its capital being Vientaen. I stopped myself whenever I felt the need to read about Lao in preparation because I wanted to experience the country firsthand. When I came to Thailand I knew a lot more about it than what I know about Lao now, so it really is different.

 I am anxious in a very good way and I really look forward to something entirely new. It will be cool and for sure unexpected. And of course you will be part of the experience as I will continue to share my stories and photos with you.

 Thank you to everyone reading this blog, I really appreciate it!

Yours

Crazy Ivory

 

Follow my photos, travel route and stories is the Asia Adventure Page.

Instead of writing an article about the first and one about the second day of the celebrations, I decided to put everything together in one complete article about the celebrations for the annual candle festival in Ubon Ratchathani. This is said article.

I arrived in Ubon Ratchathani two days ago, just in time to catch some of the last preparations for the celebrations. Yesterday the festival itself started and really, it was definitely worth taking the 400km bus trip from Udon Thani. There is plenty to see and do and what is really pleasant is that everything is in the same area. No driving around or walking endlessly to get from one spot to the other.

About the festival: The annual candle festival is to celebrate the beginning of the rainy season in Thailand. Candle festival really sounds a lot less interesting than it actually is. The main attractions of the festival are huge, beautifully handcarved wax statues and figures that are put on trailers and are pulled through the city. These things are big, really big, with plenty of fine details that gets you to think how long it must have taken to finish them.

During the day the statues are either parked in one of the main streets or they are attached to tractors and pulled through the city while being accompanied by a parade with music and dancers.

The real show however, takes place at night. After dark the audience gathers in the center, where long rows of seats and benches are stretching alongside the main parade street. The parade cars with the wax statues are presented, accompanied by music, storytelling and lots of dancers.

The atmosphere that is created really works and even though I obviously did not understand the stories, the music and effects impressed me nevertheless. The sheer amount of people involved in this parade is fascinating, especially considering the size of Ubon Ratchathani.

At the same time as this parade happens, there are dozens of other things going on. You can watch real Muay Thai (Thaiboxing) together with hundreds of yelling and highly involved Thai people, you can eat (if you make it to decide for one of the hundreds of small food stands), you can watch theatre and stage action, either on the festival grounds or very close to the river or you can buy nonsense from an unlimited amount of shops.

It was also the first time that I was able to witness the release of these beautiful asian paper lanterns, that you only see on TV most of the time.

Additionally around 10PM there are fireworks. There is pretty much everything that you can wish for. Personally, the candle festival was the first big cultural event that I witnessed in Thailand and I really felt it was full of the real Thai culture. Also this festival seems to be quite an insider tip with western tourists as I may have spotted only a handful of other europeans/americans there. Apart from that, its only people from Ubon and Thai or asian tourists.

The lack of western tourists also led to a, for me, rather unusual treatment: During the festival I have been asked for an interview at least 15 times. It was all school groups that seemingly had to conduct interviews with different visitors to the festival asking questions like: „How do you like the candle festival?“ or „Do you enjoy Thai food?“. As the questions were all more or less the same every time, I would guess all of them are in the same class, which makes it kind of fun as I can’t help but imagine the moment when they all present their interviews and it turns out that they all interviewed the same german.

Apart from the interviews, I might have had ten teenage girls (and one boy) asking me for my photo. Yes, they did not ask me to take a photo with their camera but they wanted a photo with them and me on it. Apparently I do fit some kind of rockstar image they have (at least thats my explanation, don’t destroy it by saying that it all might be about the skin color) but who knows. Its fun for the time being but if that would happen all the time I would freak out quickly for sure.

Altogether the annual candle festival of Ubon Ratchathani is definitely worth a visit, even if you do not happen to be very close to it by chance. I found it to be a place where the real Thai culture can be experienced, which is hard to find in todays urbanized and modernized Thailand. I feel lucky that this event happened to take place just when I was in Thailand and also that I was lucky enough to learn about it. I hope that the images have gotten you interested and if there are any additional questions, let me know!

Yours

Crazy Ivory

 

Follow my photos, travel route and stories is the Asia Adventure Page.