Frankfurt, Germany, to Vilnius, Lithuania

The cheapest flight from India to Europe was through Kuwait to Frankfurt.  Both flights with a 3 hour stopover in Kuwait took us 14 hours.  The passengers in the first flight were very different from the ones in the second flight.  The Indians seemed to be content with everything during the flight.  The Arabs started making demands before the take offs.  We also found out how the women eat with their faces covered.  They actually take every bite under the cover raising it just a little bit.  The service of Kuwait Airlines was great, and there was enough leg room in our seats.

 We arrived at Frankfurt International Airport at 3pm.  Karl, who agreed to host us through couchsurfing.com, came to meet us.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  A lot of people were riding bicycles.  There was no traffic on the streets, nobody was beeping, and even one homeless person was decently dressed (his shoes were definitely in better condition than my husband’s).  We could effortlessly walk on wide unobstructed sidewalks.  We took metro to his huge and very clean apartment.  After a long warm shower, the laundry was the second thing we did.  Feeling clean again, we went to the store to buy some food for dinner.  Karl made us a pizza from scratch.  He also offered us some good German beer.  We fell asleep a minute we went to sleep after a long day.  We slept on the floor in the living room.  It was cool in the room for the first time in months.  We slept like babies.  We woke up early in the morning.  We felt well rested and ready to continue our journey.  We had no trouble adjusting to the local time since we gained 5.5 hours.  When we lost time flying to Taiwan from US, it took us 4 days to adjust.  After breakfast we got to the edge of town using public transport to the best location for hitchhiking to Prague.  We found practical information about hitchhiking on hitchwiki.com.

We decided to hitchhike all the way from Frankfurt to Lithuania, while visiting our friends on the way. Dangis has his high school friend living in Prague, Czech Republic.  I have a Polish friend I met in Chicago who now lives Warsaw, Poland.  We thought we would save some money, and it would be another adventure.  I used to hitchhike a lot when I was a student in Lithuania, even belonged to Kaunas hitchhiking club.  On the over hand, Dangis never hitchhiked in his life.  It is about 500 km from Frankfurt to Prague, almost 700 km from Prague to Warsaw, and another 450 km from Warsaw to Vilnius.  Even I, in my all hitchhiking days, have never hitchhiked such huge distances before.  It took some luck to make each distance in one day. 

Frankfurt – Prague distance was the easiest.  As soon as we got to the first gas station, it took us less than 30 minutes to find the first ride with a truck.  It was going to Prague, but it had to make a mandatory break before the Czech border.  The driver himself was from the little Czech town on the Czech – Austria border.  He spoke perfect English with a slight Irish accent (He works for the Irish company).  The driver was very friendly and even bought us lunch and coffee in the gas station.  After he stopped in one of the gas stations for the night, right away we found a women who agreed to drive us to another gas station 80 km away from Prague.  She was coming back from a business trip.  She also spoke perfect English.  Some years ago, she also quit her job and travelled around US for 6 months.  It was also a pleasure chatting with her.  It took us less than 10 minutes to find our last driver right to the center of Prague.  He was young, but spoke no English or Russian, only Czech or German.  He was also nice- he held the cigarette in his hand the whole ride, but did not lit it until we left the car.  At 8pm we arrived to the center.  The first girl we asked agreed to lend us her phone to call our friend.  He picked us up and drove us to his beautiful home. 

The dinner was waiting for us.  We even got a guest room with a private bathroom.  We felt like kings.  Finally, we could really rest from our travels for a few days.  We did not have to search for a place to sleep or for a place to eat anymore.  It was a great feeling.  The weather was beautiful for a few days.  So, we got to spend a lot of time outside, visiting a palace, hiking in the park and walking in the city.  We even had an honor to celebrate Dangis’ friend’s birthday.  We had some fun.

Prague – Warsaw distance was the most difficult one.  The first truck took us to the gas station about 190 km away from Prague.  The driver himself was from Slovakia.  We did not speak any common languages.  It took us awhile to find a next person to agree to drive us.  We even started thinking that we may have to spend a night somewhere on the way to Warsaw.  We were very lucky to notice a car with a Latvian license plate.  Apparently, he was Russian going home to Latvia through Warsaw.  He was driving fast, and dropped us off at the gas station 40 km away from Warsaw at 8pm.  It was dark and only a few cars stopping at that gas station.  We were not able to find a driver to take us to the center of Warsaw or anywhere close.  We borrowed a cell phone of the gas station employee, and my friend came to pick us up.  We arrived at her apartment at 11:30pm.  Our bed was made, and we went straight to sleep.  Our friend and her boyfriend had to work, and we were left to feel at home in their home.  Without any rush we got ready to go sightseeing.  I have never visited Warsaw before and thought it was absolutely beautiful.  Its old town reminded me of Prague, just smaller and less crowded.  Again, we were lucky with the beautiful and sunny weather.  We spent couple of days in Warsaw.  It was nice to catch up with an old friend in the evening after a day of sightseeing.

Warsaw – Vilnius distance was the shortest, but not very easy.  The first car dropped us off in the middle of the expressway with cars flying by fast and little place to pull over.  I made an LT sign, so one truck driver had to really break to pick us up.  He was on his way to Lithuania, but he also had to make a mandatory break to sleep.  He agreed to drop us of in the gas station where a lot of Lithuanian truck drivers make a stop there.  There were a lot of Lithuanian drivers, but a Russian from Estonia agreed to take us. 

 He dropped us of on Polish – Lithuanian border.  It was a strange place to hitchhike, a road with no shoulder.  We decided to stand next to the gas station.  It was slowly getting dark, and we were worried to get stuck on the border in the middle of nowhere.  One truck had to block the driveway of the gas station to pull over for us.  Luckily, he and his partner with another truck were going to Elektrenai, which is 50 km away from Vilnius.  I got into one truck, and Dangis got into another truck.  My driver was also a Russian, who spoke perfect Lithuanian.  When we were left on the road, it was already dark.  Nobody even slowed down for us.  Finally, when we were going to take out some cash for the bus, one guy pulled over and took us another 10 km to Vievis.  Dangis went to the store to take some money out in local currency.  As soon as he returned, a bus arrived going to Vilnius.  We decided not to waste any more time and boarded the bus.  The bus even had Wi-Fi.  We arrived to Dangis’ parents’ apartment around 10:30 pm.  After having late dinner and a pleasant conversation with Dangis parents we went to sleep at midnight.  We arrived in Lithuania 9 days after arriving to Europe.

It is pleasantly cool in Vilnius.  The one thing I cannot get use to is the heat inside the buses and the stores.  We are not used to such a contrast anymore.  It was easier for me to handle the heat in India.  It is the same problem I had in US with air-conditioning in the summer, just opposite.  Also, we noticed right away that the air in Europe is very dry, compared to the air in Asia.  Other than that, we really enjoy the cool weather, the ease of taking public transport and crossing the streets, the cleanliness of the surroundings and most of all the food.  The funny thing was that nobody agreed to lend their phone to Dangis in Vilnius when he was a little lost trying to meet with his friend.

Another funny story was that after travelling around the world for a year without ever getting really lost or loosing each other, I managed to go for a walk in the forest near Vilnius and got lost for hours.

We already got to see a Lithuanian movie

, met some old friends, and went to see some art exhibitions.  Now I still want to go to the theater and meet some more old friends.

After travelling for almost a year mostly in the countries that are underdeveloped, we learned to enjoy travelling with public transport.  Even though, it is sometimes nice to enjoy the independence of having a car.  We learned to be comfortable sleeping on the floor, but it is still nice to have a private room with a big bed.  One thing I could not get used is all the strange flavors, and I missed familiar food the most.  It was easier to restrict ourselves to the cheapest food in the beginning, but at the end of the trip we ate more expensive food more and more.  Even though it is trivial, I learned that nice clothes and make-up can bring some joy.  Beauty in the world is important.  It brings us joy.  It was a pleasure putting make-up on for the first time after 6 months.  It was also a pleasure watching people walking by dressed in stylish clothes.  Another, most important, lesson we learned while travelling was that everybody is on their own path.  Everybody has a right to think different when we do.  Everybody can change their mind all the time.  Everybody is different and unique.  Everything is less complicated than a lot of people think.  Everything is possible.  Work is not everything.  And it is much nicer and more useful to be able to concentrate on one thing than having to multitask.  Everybody needs a change.  Even travelling can get tiring.  We are ready to finish our first big trip.  We will cherish our memories and friends we made on the way for the rest of our lives.  This was our time.        

Kerala, India

We are ready to leave India after a month.  It has been very hot and humid in Kerala state, which is in the south of India.  The breeze from the Arabian Sea helps a little with the heat.  Too bad swimming is not allowed in a lot of places- too dangerous.

Our favorite beaches were Kovalam and Varkala.  Those were the only two beaches where we could actually swim in the sea.  Also, we stayed in beautiful rooms with a sea view.  In Kovalam we ate local food.  For lunch we had meals, which included unlimited rice with different sauces and bread.  For dinner we had different breads with curry.  My favorite was parotta with vegetable curry.  Even though we liked the food, both of us still got sick from eating it.  After that we decided to eat western or fusion food.  In Varkala we found the best inexpensive restaurant on the beach next to our hotel.  We ate every meal of the day there.

When traveling, looking for a place to eat 3 times a day was tiring.  So, when we found tasty food for a reasonable price, we went to the same place until it was time to move to another town.  We noticed that a good cook was not easy to find.  Also, a good cook made anything taste delicious.  I also learned that I got tired quickly of unusual flavors.  In South America we missed the computer the most.  Now we have a computer.  This time we missed a kitchen the most.  It was nice when we could cook something familiar ourselves, like eggs for breakfast.  We are dreaming about European food.  We already planned our first dinner in Frankfurt.  I am going to have sausage with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes.  Dangis is going to have a schnitzel.  Well, food becomes really important when you travel, especially when you are a picky eater like me.  In Columbia, Peru, Ecuador and especially Bolivia, food was bland.  In Southeast Asia and India, the food had too many unusual flavors.  Also, way too much sugar in everything in the Asian countries. 

India is a country of contrasts and paradoxes.  A lot of Indians want to be doctors or engineers.  At the same time, a lot of people do not believe in modern medicine and technology or do not have access to them.  Most people are dressed beautifully, while the streets are full of garbage.  Men and women are segregated, but women are still being raped.  Women are drowning in fabric making their figures invisible, while men are wearing short skirts.  The front seats of the buses are reserved for women, while men have to sit in the back.  Sometimes there are even separate lines or waiting rooms for women in the train stations.  There are women hostels available, too.  It is rear to see a woman and a man holding hands, but it is common to see two men or two women holding hands.  The young girls seem to be very shy, but the elder women seem dominant.  It was interesting to see some girls having to stop in front of the little creek on the beach to make a decision on how to pass it.  The creek was ankle deep and a little wider than a step.  The tourists just jumped over it or walked through it without having to pause before. 

Overall people were friendly, even to the point of being annoying.  Indians were curious.  Sometimes someone repeated random phrases in Lithuanian after overhearing us talking.  Bargaining in India was always a pleasure.  Indians are always willing to give a discount.  The trick was to figure out if the original price was a double or quadruple of the actual price.  Almost always we were able to get half a price on most things.  Sometimes we were even able to get a final price of 150 rupees from original price of 500 rupees.  Also, most people spoke perfect English, making it easy for us to get around.  We only drove with the rickshaw once to the beach, since the buses did not go there.  Otherwise, we could always ask people for help on the buses we needed to take. 

Well, the bus drivers were the most aggressive drivers in the streets.  All of them would be fired in US and probably sued.  Every time the bus drivers used a horn, they should have been breaking instead.  Sometimes, they only slowed down for the passengers to get on or off the bus.  One time our city bus even stopped in the gas station to fill up. 

Even though, Indians love their rules and paperwork, they themselves break a lot of rules.  We have never had to fill out so many pages just to reserve a hotel room.  Also, Indians were honest.  One seller told me that a watermelon I selected was bad.  In Thailand, the sellers would be happy to sell rotten fruit for you.  Also, in India we almost always received the correct change.

Drinking is socially unacceptable in India.  There were only 3 places where alcohol was available: special alcohol stores, bars and tourist restaurants.  The stores were few and away from the street.  There was always a long line of men outside the store.  The store had bars, and the alcohol was sold through the window.  A lot of men gave money to others to buy alcohol for them, so they did not have to stand in line.  About 15 men cut in front of us that way, when we wanted to buy some beer.  The bars were also away from the street.  There was a security present at all bars.  It was dark inside and no women.  Once we ordered beer in the tourist restaurant.  The waiter poured half of the beer in the coffee cups and put the bottles with the remaining beer under our table.

The foreigners we met in India seemed a little funny to us.  They were wearing local traditional clothing and seemed distant, not friendly.  I guess most of them were very obsessed with yoga, spirituality, and everything India, more obsessed than Indians themselves.  

Sivananda Ashram, Madurai, India

After spending a day in Chennai, we left for Madurai by train.  Only open tickets without assigned seats were available.  We got to sit on the shelf for luggage.  It was an 8 hour train ride.  Since we could not see the outside, we were watching people.  All women were dressed from top to bottom in clothes made from layers of colorful fabrics and were wearing a lot of gold jewelry.  Even some little girls were wearing eye makeup and some ankle bracelets with bells.  Some men were wearing skirts like in Myanmar, except men sometimes double folded the skirts to make them into miniskirts.  Most Indians eat with their hands.  They wash their hands before and after.  They also pour the water down their throats without touching the bottle or a cup.  We even managed to get a little sleep on the luggage shelf.  We spent $5 for both of us on that 8 hour train ride. 

 We went straight to the Sivananda ashram just outside of Madurai.  It was an hour bus ride, which cost us 50 cents.  People helped us to figure out there to get off, since it was already dark outside.  It took us more than an hour to register for yoga vacation program.  Also, the teacher training was starting the same day.  We learned that about 100 people registered between the 2 programs.  It was the highest amount of people the ashram ever had.  All the beds were full.  Some people who arrived the next day were sent back.  Dangis and I got to sleep in different buildings.  The girls’ dorm was probably twice as big as the boys’.  This was definitely the biggest room I have ever slept in.

The yoga vacation program is offered twice a month.  Its duration is 2 weeks.  Everybody is required to pay for at least 3 days.  The cost of the stay in ashram is $10/day.  The day is filled with mandatory activities that start at 6am and end just before bed time at 10pm.  People started leaving after 3 days.  We originally planned to stay in ashram for the full 2-week program, but later decided to leave after just 6 days. 

Everybody’s favorite activities of the day, besides eating, were yoga classes.  A class lasted almost 2 hours, and was offered twice a day.  Dangis and I decided to go for an intermediate level class, after attending couple of beginner classes.  The intermediate class was always the same.  We always started with the breathing exercises and a few sets of sun salutations, followed by the same postures in the same order.  I felt energized after each class.  I could feel I was getting stronger every time.  On the 5^th day I was able to do an unassisted headstand. 

We ate also twice a day right after the yoga classes.  We were seated on the floor and served vegetarian food.  It was a karma yoga assignment for some of the ashram habitants to serve the food.  They would make rounds offering us more food.  This way everybody could eat as much as they wanted without wasting any food.  The food was nutritious and mostly delicious.  Since we were fed only twice a day, some snacks and fruit were offered for purchase.  We tried not to snack.

After the brunch we had our karma yoga, which consists of different work assignments, such as cleaning, collecting garbage, serving food, or cutting fruits. 

       

In the middle of the day we had a lecture to introduce us to the ashram’s philosophy.  The lectures were interesting, but sometimes too long.  

  

The day started and ended with Satsang, which always lasted from 1.5 to 2 hours.  The Satsang started with a 20 minute meditation, which was followed by chanting.  Then it was time for some more lecturing, more chanting and a prayer.  The Satsangs were my least favorite parts of the day.

The attendance was taken for Satsangs and the lectures.  Those who missed a lecture had to explain themselves to swamis who were in charge of the ashram.  They were given a choice to attend all activities or leave the ashram.  Also, some of the teachers would check the dorms after the Satsang started to make sure that nobody had stayed behind.  So, everybody had to attend Satsangs, and some of them would fall asleep during.

There was some tension staying in the ashram.  We felt great after yoga classes, but we did not enjoy the Satsangs.  That is why we decided to leave after 6 days, instead of staying for the full 2 weeks.  Calling the program yoga vacation was misleading, boot camp would describe the program better.  I am sure we received a lot of benefits from staying in ashram.  We met a lot of nice people, ate healthy, and exercised.  We also unplugged from the outside world having no TV or internet.  I started drawing again during lectures like in old college times.  Dangis and I got to spend some time apart and miss each other a little.  And finally, we got to experience the life in the ashram.  It reminded me a lot of the trips to Taize years ago.  

Thailand again

We feel that we had enough of Southeast Asia.  So, we were thinking of going to Shri Lanka, but decided to go to India instead.  Lately we met a lot of travelers who loved India and felt inspired.  Bangkok is the only place in Southeast Asia to request Indian visa.  We had to book our flights to India and reserve a hotel room for the first night before submitting our applications.  Even though the visa cost was higher, and the processing time was longer, the service was fast and efficient.

After submitting our applications for Indian visa, we decided to go to Cha am beach, which is 3 hours away from Bangkok.  We stayed there until we received a notice to pick up our passports.  We picked them up the day before my birthday.  We were hoping to celebrate my birthday with Thai girls we met in Laos on New Year’s Eve.  Also, we heard that our Lithuanian friend was supposed to arrive in Bangkok.  Nobody was available to meet us that day, and we decided to return to Cha am beach until our flight to India.

For the first time during our trip through Southeast Asia, we felt like vacationing.  We had a beautiful room with a bathroom inside, hot shower, TV and fast internet.  Every day after lunch we went to swim in the sea.  Then we would go to a resort by the sea to hang out by the pool until dinner time. 

Now we are ready to explore southern India for a month until we go to Europe.  We already have a flight ticket to Frankfurt on March 19^th of 2014.  The end of our trip is near.    

The flight from Bangkok to Chennai was not without adventure.  Our plane left Don Mueang airport as scheduled.  Half hour later we heard an announcement that due to technical difficulties we have to return to Bangkok to change airplanes.  Passengers clapped after landing.  It was a relief to return safe to the airport after hearing that the plane had technical problems.  We were taken back to the airport by 2 shuttles.  Few minutes later we were boarding a different plane.  This time the flight was with no surprises.  We arrived 3 hours late at 12:30am.  We were glad to learn that our airport pick up from hotel was still waiting for us.  Also, we do not have to check out until 10pm. 

South of Laos

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” Socrates

The more we travel in Southeast Asia, the more I want to go to Europe.  As soon as we left Myanmar, we made a decision to go to Europe, instead of going to Malaysia and Indonesia.  We were still planning to go to Cambodia from Laos.  During our last week in Laos, we decided to skip Cambodia and go to Sri Lanka instead, maybe India.  We allowing ourselves to change our minds as often as we feel like it.  Our money is running out, and we want to use it to enjoy our last months of travelling the most.

The closer we got to Cambodia, the more travelers we met arriving from Cambodia.  We heard their stories, and concluded that Cambodia was very similar to Laos.  Changing our minds at the last moment did cause us some trouble.  If we were not going to Cambodia, we had to go to Thailand.  Bangkok is the hub for the cheapest flights to anywhere.  Also, Dangis wanted to visit a dentist there.  And we could enjoy some of the luxuries that are available only in Thailand, and not in the surrounding countries, like coin-laundry machines.  Also, Thai food is tastier, and internet is faster.

First of all, our Laos visa was running out, so we needed to leave the country.  A day before going to Don Det, I caught a cold.  Don Det is one of 4,000 islands in Mekong River, located in the south of Laos.  We could see Cambodian mountains on the other side of the river from our bungalow.  Every stand-alone bush in the river had to be considered an island for the total number of island to add up to 4,000.  Anyway, Don Det was a good place to recuperate.  The whole island seemed to be in relaxed mood with weed being freely available to all its inhabitants.  

We rented ourselves an inexpensive bungalow on the shore of the river, where we got the most beautiful views of the sunset.  We spent most of our days in our hammocks reading, only interrupted by having a need to eat 3 times a day.  We chatted with other travelers while lounging in the restaurants, waiting for food.  A lot of times it took more than an hour for the food to arrive, as all of it was made from scratch, and the cooks were probably high on weed.  Eight days passed like that, and we were ready to leave the island the next day.  That evening I fell and sprained my ankle.  We delayed our leave by a day. 

In the boat across the river, we met a Lithuanian couple from Vilnius, Aide and Romas.  We were also in the same bus to Pakse, except they got off in Champasak.  They were very interesting conversationalists.  We stayed couple days in Pakse before leaving to Ubon in Thailand.  Again, we met our new Lithuanian friends in our guesthouse that day.  We spend all morning together chatting some more, sharing our travelling experiences.  It was a great pleasure.  We said our goodbyes one more time, and left with a bus to Ubon. 

After paying an overtime fee at Lao border (Sunday), we got the exit stamps.  At Thai border we learned that the visa-on-arrival was not available.  We were allowed in the country only to take our bags out of our bus waiting for everybody on Thai side of the border.  We got our Lao exit stamps cancelled before returning to Pakse.  We had 3 more days to leave Laos.  We even managed to get half of our money back for bus tickets to Ubon.   It was already evening.  We decided to spend it with our Lithuanian friends. 

We had 3 options for leaving Laos before our visa expired.  First, we could go to Cambodia, as originally planned.  Second, we could go back north to Savannakhet to receive a Thai visa.  Third, we could go back even further north to Vientiane, where we could receive Thai visa-on-arrival on the border. 

The next morning we left for Savannakhet (second option).  There was just enough time to receive Thai visa on the day our Lao visa expired.  We successfully managed to leave Laos that day, finally.

Once again, we enjoyed the food and the hot shower enormously in the little Thai border town of Mukdahan.

Laos

The Myanmar-Laos land border is not open for tourists.  We had to go to Thailand again before coming to Laos.  We spent a couple of days in Udon Thani.  Thai food tasted more delicious than the last time after 3 weeks in Myanmar.  And we could wash all our dirty clothes using a coin laundry machine.  The little things that make us happy then travelling. 

We crossed a friendship bridge into Laos by bus on Christmas Eve.  We arrived at Vientiane, the capital city.  

A lot of big houses and new cars gave us an impression that Laos is a rich country.  For our first meal we had fresh spring rolls and a rice dish.  To our surprise our food was cold.  As soon as we tasted it, we wanted back to Thailand.  After our first meal, we avoided Lao food.  We ate at the expensive tourist restaurants again.  Since Laos was a French colony some years ago, all the food was served with a baguette.  We ate a lot of pastas, pizzas, salads and fried rice.  The restaurants for local people never seemed appetizing.

The lodging costs less than in Thailand or Myanmar, making Laos the least expensive country to travel so far.  It is also the least impressive.  It is less authentic than Myanmar, but service is worse than in Thailand.  The Lao people are not very friendly nor honest.  It was cheaper for us to purchase a VIP bus ticket from an agency than to purchase a local bus ticket from a bus station directly.  It means that the person in a bus station is not telling us a true price.  Even the official tourist agency representative in Vang Vieng was trying to sell us the map that was supposed to be free. 

We can recognize the soviet opportunistic thinking.  The red soviet flags are still decorating a lot of the houses and businesses.  The local people even managed to close the entrances to the caves and mounts for the night to make sure that nobody enters without paying.  Even the crossing of the bridge is not for free.  It seems that people from the neighborhood set up with their signs in front of the entrances to any places that the tourists might want to visit, not allowing through anyone who does not pay.  These people are called local entrepreneurs in the official Lao guidebook.

Vang Vieng is located north of Vientiane.  It is a small town, full of tourists.  The prices of guesthouses, restaurants and tours are competitive, so it was a cheap place to stay.  We stayed there a full week.  We walked the surrounding areas, visiting one cave.  We walked into a cock fight on a Sunday afternoon by accident.

Since there were no tourists, it was the only place that we did not have to pay an entrance fee.  We watched the preparations of the roosters for the fight, as well as one fight.  The rooster preparations were very serious.  It probably took about an hour, longer than the fight itself.  There was some sewing of the eyelids involved, as well as some cutting and burning the roosters with the wet and hot piece of fabric.  Also, the roosters were forced to inhale smoke. 

The women were busy with the preparation of the food during the cock fight.  Only one local woman came to watch the fight.  The roosters were aggressive in the beginning, but soon were getting tired.  Still, none of them were giving up.  The men were very excited and cheered some times.  The owners of the roosters naturally were the most excited.  We could not tell exactly how the winner was chosen.  Right after the fight ended, the roosters’ wounds were taken care by their owners.  Besides the apparent torture, the owners seemed to really care about their birds.

On New Years Eve, we decided to take a full day kayaking tour down the river.  It involved tubing inside one cave and visiting the other, before the kayaking.  Tubing was exciting, even though it was a little cold inside the dark cave in cold water.  The short walk through the country side was pleasant.  The kayaking itself was fun.  We stopped at the first bar for a beer and some volleyball.  We past the Second bar and the Last bar.  We also passed a lot of people drinking in their tubes.  The river level and the current was low, so tubing was slow.  By the time the tourists got back to town, a lot of them were very drunk.

Our group of kayakers was big and fun.  We agreed to meet later to celebrate New Years together.  After some rest, we met in an Irish bar for some drinks and live music.  Before midnight we moved to an outside bar by the river.  There was plenty of space for the big crowd of tourists.  There were some fires to keep us warm.  The 80’s music was entertaining.  It was fun to meet New Years with a bunch of strangers we have just met that day.

After Vang Vieng, we decided to go to 4,000 islands, which are close to the Cambodia border.  On our way, we stopped at the second biggest city of Laos- Savannakhet.  We arrived there at 10pm on a Saturday night.  The town was already sleeping.  The next day we got to see its French quarter.  It was difficult to see any beauty through dirt and bad shape of the buildings.  The town was ugly with a lot of potential.  Still, the weather was pleasant, and we had a good rest. 

Travelling south by local buses is enjoyable: no air conditioning, and there are windows that open.  We get to listen to local pop music, which sounds like one never-ending old love song.  We did not stop for lunch breaks unlike in Thailand or Myanmar.  Instead, the bus became a little market during short stops with all the people selling prepared foods.  The bus tickets were not available for purchase in advance, and no seats are assigned.  Some people get to sit on a little chairs in between the rows, and others have to stand.  The buses also transport almost anything: live chicken, motorbikes, chairs…  I was wondering why we needed so many conductors on our bus, but they actually load and unload all the stuff besides selling tickets.  There was even one guy riding on the roof of our bus and helping with loading and unloading.            

Myanmar

It has been 3 exciting and exhausting weeks in Myanmar.  The fast paste, the sleepless nights during night bus rides from one place to another, and stomach aches from terrible local food have been draining.  The excitement of going 100 years back (that’s how we felt after arriving in Myanmar) wore off after the first week or so.  We felt always dirty surrounded by dust, taking off shoes to go into the dirty stores or climb the dirty cement stairs to the top of the Mandalay Hill.  We had stomach aches most of the time.  At some point, I stopped eating dinner, and just drinking a glass of juice without added sugar.  I lost more weight than doing a month of yoga in Thailand.  

Yangon had a few better, but overpriced restaurants to offer with small portions.  At the end, we chose to eat at places like that.  The tourism in Myanmar has a lot of room to grow still.  So far, we get a tourist price for everything, making Myanmar an expensive place to visit.  We had to pay a fee to enter Bagan and Inle Lake zones.  We even paid double for city bus.  It would be interesting to see the reaction of some tourist in US having to pay double for the color of their skin.  For example, our Chinese friend managed to get a lower price sometimes.  Even though we were warned to reserve the hotels and guesthouses few days in advance, we managed to find a place to stay without much difficulty having no reservations.

  

The hotel in Mandalay was the most expensive: $25 per night.  The hotel was the best part about Mandalay.  Even though it is the second biggest city, and we stayed in the center, it was dirty and there was nothing to see, besides more pagodas.  We only stayed 2 nights in Mandalay.

We arrived in Kalaw at 2 am.  We did not get much sleep on the bus, and we did not save on the hotel that night.  Kalaw is the base camp for all the trekking to Inle Lake.  Since we did not get much sleep that night, we decided to stay one more night in Kalaw.  We signed up for 3 day trek to Inle Lake.  We were a great group of 6 people: a Finish couple, a French guy and a Chinese girl.  Our group got a 19 year old arrogant and ignorant guide and 2 quiet assistants.  We also had a cook, but somehow our food was always cold.  Our stomachs did not like the food at all.  The views on the first and second day were nice.  

The most exciting part about the trek was meeting people from different tribes on our way.  We even spent the first night in somebody’s house in the village.  The second night we got to sleep in some building of a monastery.  The walls had gaps, the window could not close, and the blankets were too short and falling apart.  Even though I took 3 of those blankets, it took me awhile to fall asleep because I was freezing.  In the morning we were woken up at 6 am by a cook talking to himself and singing, while preparing breakfast in the building next door.  The cold breakfast was not served until 7:30 am, since our guide was nowhere to be found until then.  He was probably sleeping in a warmer building somewhere. Walking the last day was difficult after the terrible night we had.  We were ready to be done with the trek.

I managed to take a little nap during a boat trip to Inle Lake.  I was so tired, and the sun was warm.  We found a nice guesthouse on the lake.  After taking hot showers and eating, we only wanted to rest.  The rest of the time in Inle Lake we spent in a guesthouse, chatting to our French and Chinese friends from our trek.
Once we arrived in Yangon, it took us another 2 days before I felt rested.  Dangis’ body finally could not handle any more stress, and he got sick after our last night bus ride.  We are ready to leave Myanmar.