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Postings from my recent travels in southeast Asia, Italy and England. As usual I found that travel reveals more about oneself than about ones destination.
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Saturday, August 24, 2002
I'll be honest - I didn't write these posts to my Blog while I was on the road. They are taken from the bulletins that I sent to friends every couple of weeks during my travels. I have resisted the urge to edit them (other than to correct obvious mistakes) but I have added links that I think you'll find interesting.
Because I have dated the posts with the same dates as the e-mail bulletins they are all in the archives at the moment. Here are the subjects of the posts
February 18, 2002 - A Trip to Mrauk-U in Northwestern Myanmar (Burma)
February 25, 2002 - Susan Eats her Way Across Asia
March 10, 2002 - A Treatise on two Lao Cultural Icons - Beer Lao and Bus Lao
March 17, 2002 - Wat Spotting in Laid Back Laos
April 1, 2002 - Massage on a budget
April 14, 2002 - Wonderful Vietnam
May 7, 2002 - Cambodia and Saying Goodbye to Southeast Asia
May 24, 2002 - Of birds and One-Armed Bandits
June 16, 2002 - Calda Italia
June 29, 2002 - Back to Barking and Goodbye Italia
I'll add more posts - and hopefully links to photographs (since I've found out that I can't put actual photos up on a blogspot blog) - as time permits.
Do you love fine photography? Looking for really high-quality photographs of people and places in Southeast Asia? Then check out this fabulous site that I stumbled across - Images of Angkor - wow!
Exciting news bulletin (well at least I think it's exciting) - a piece of my writing (an interview with a waitress working at a mostly tourist-patronized cafe in Hue, Vietnam) is going to be published in an upcoming edition of Motion Sickness Magazine. Does this make me a travel writer - well not really (in fact not at all). But it does make me happy - and I get a copy of the magazine to show to my friends. All this online stuff is great but there is still nuthin' like seeing your name in print.
Looking for a great source of travelogues, worldwide travel information and trip reports? Check out the Travel Library by clicking on the Happy Hiker below.
posted by Susan at 5:02 PM
Saturday, June 29, 2002
Back to Barking and Goodbye Italia!
Hello everyone - the last two weeks in Italy have been tiring, hot, wonderful and packed with memorable sights, tastes and experiences.
I've walked a lot, eaten a lot, craned my neck to look at church ceilings and developed cauliflower ear from having an audio guide pressed against the side of my head. I've drunk from free fountains all over Rome including the Trevi fountain taps which should ensure I return to Rome. I read that throwing coins into the fountain is ruining it so I didn't really want to do that.
Some disappointing things about Italy - the coffee is good but not the way they drink it - I don't know why they don't just inject it right into an artery. Speed drinking is an established habit here and the usual way to have your coffee is standing and finished in a few swift gulps. It's nothing like a leisurely coffee at Torrefazione on a Sunday morning with the paper and a brioche. And should you want to sit down and savour your coffee here it will cost you twice as much as if you drink it standing at the bar - so what WAS a reasonably priced cup of joe (from $1.20-$1.80 Canadian) becomes much more expensive.
The food - some has been very good but a constant characteristic has been the saltiness. Judy's theory (and it is a good one) is that everyone smokes here, probably including the chef, and their taste buds are shot. What a shame.
Those are about the only two disappointments - the rest has been great with a new (to us)/old (in terms of age) discovery around every corner. And boy did those ancient Romans know how to live! One of my favourite visits was to the Baths of Caracalla - an immense complex that used to serve 5,000 to 8,000 bathers a day. It had hot, tepid and cold pools as well as gymnasiums, saunas, libraries and a selection of restaurants for your dining pleasure. And it was cheap - well within the reach of almost every Roman. Fantastic - you can just imagine what it must have been like with the sun streaming in the vast windows and picking out the colors of the mosaics and reflecting off the water.
Tomorrow morning (Sunday) I get on a train to Florence (the slow, cheap train) and get there an hour and a half (hopefully no wildcat strikes will occur) before my bus leaves for Milan at 2:30 p.m. Five hours to Milan, an hours wait and then I board the bus for the marathon 18 hour trip to London. I am in London (well actually in scenic downtown Barking) for a week and then spend a few days with my aunt in South Molton, Devon and then on the 14th of July I return to Canada.
I'll be looking for a housesitting gig for a couple of weeks when I return as my friend Judy is still in my apartment. So if you are looking for someone to look after your house, pets and plants while you holiday keep me in mind. I'm back on the 14th (the same day I leave England - the magic of jet travel) of July.
See you all soon - this will probably be my second to last e-mail as I will send one on my departure from England.
Ciao.
posted by Susan at 9:01 PM
Sunday, June 16, 2002
Calda Italia!
Hello all - Ciao! - my week in London was great. What a fabulous city! I felt like my head was on a swivel there was so much to look at I was continuously turning this way and that. Went to marvelous museums - many of which were free - walked along the Thames and re-established contact with my 84 year old maternal grandmother (who I haven't seen - except for a brief visit when I started my holiday - since I was 5 years old).
Being thrifty (better known as CHEAP!!!) I decided to take the bus to Italy - what an experience that was. The Saturday I chose to leave was the beginning of a 'bank holiday' (like a statutory holiday in Canada) of four days long (usually they are three) due to the queen's jubilee celebration and also coincided with the beginning of the World Cup.
Everyone - including the bus companies I think - thought this would lead to lighter than usual traffic to the continent. Boy were they wrong. We arrived at about 6 miles from Dover (we were taking the ferry to Calais) only to hit a massive traffic jam. That was at about 10:45 a.m. (we left London at 8 a.m.). We finally boarded the 5 p.m. ferry (yes, 5 p.m. it took us 6 hours to go 6 miles). It was stinking hot and the bus was turned off most of the time so the air-conditioning wasn't running.
We were supposed to arrive in Paris at 5 p.m. and those of us going on to Italy were to take a bus leaving at 7 p.m. Well we got into Paris at 10:30 p.m. But this turned out to be a good thing in some ways - there were 14 of us going on to Italy and they put us onto a full sized bus (48 seats). So I - being the seasoned bus rider - immediately grabbed the back row of seats, rolled up my sweatshirt as a pillow, took off my shoes and put on my ever at the ready slippers and was asleep before we were outside the city limits of Paris. I had about 7 hours of quality sleep and when I awoke we were in Italy.
The rest of the trip was uneventful and I arrived in Firenze only about 45 minutes late. My accommodation in Firenze, arranged by the language school I was attending, was excellent. A clean, cool, spacious room in a lovely apartment about a 20 minute walk from the centre of town. It was great.
Firenze itself is also wonderful although it is a bit disheartening to see all the same stuff being sold to tourists as there is at home - there are people who will write your name in fancy characters (just like at the inner harbour in Victoria), the guy in the gas mask doing the science fiction scenes with spray cans of paint and even a band of the South American pan-flute players! And the tourists - egads!
Judy (my friend from Victoria) arrived after I'd been in Firenze a week and we had a great time eating, drinking, practicing our Italian and generally being agog tourists ourselves. We went to the famous Uffizi and enjoyed it immensely although we'd both had our fill of religious paintings by the end of a couple of hours. I also took Judy to the church of San Miniato which is wonderful and we spent another hour exploring the fascinating and exorbitantly ornate cemetery behind it.
We never got to see David (at least not the real one - two copies for Judy and three for me - there is one in the plaster cast room of the Victoria and Albert museum in London). I decided I wasn't that crazy about seeing it and Judy tried twice but the line ups were too long.
We're now in Perugia which is magnificent. Tomorrow we're heading off to Deruta (where they make those gorgeous ceramics they sell in Torrefazione on Government Street in Victoria) for a day trip. And then on Tuesday it is off to Napoli for three days and then to Roma.
The subject of this message refers to the temperature here. It is HOT! To me it doesn't seem that bad after southeast Asia but I think it is a bit unusual for Italy and it doesn't show any signs of abating. I wonder if there are any hostels with swimming pools in Roma? It is about 30 degrees here at high noon and it isn't that much cooler in the evenings. And unfortunately our hostel here in Perugia kicks everyone out from 9:30 to 4:00 every day. So the rest of the town gets a siesta but not us!
So bye for now. Next message will be just before I return to England (the end of June).
posted by Susan at 1:29 PM
Friday, May 24, 2002
Of birds and one-armed bandits
Hello all - it's an oft-mentioned cliche (or is it really a cliche) that the unplanned, spontaneous things we do are often the most fun. The parties that happen by accident when a few people decide to drop by at the same time, trying a new restaurant on the spur of the moment or even simply walking down a different street on your way to a familiar destination.
My fairly last minute decision to come to Malaysia has resulted in a very enjoyable time although a bit of a zero on the cultural scale. But what the heck - I've had enough temples, cultural performances and 'atmospheric' stuff (i.e. bumpy bus rides, hot tramps round markets) to last me for a while.
After a few days in KL getting the lay of the land (or is that lie?) I headed off to Bukit Fraser (Fraser's Hill). If I was not a fairly serious bird watcher I would have been very disappointed in this place as it was nowhere near as nice as the brochure would have you believe. Just getting to it proved how inaccurate the brochure was.
Two busses a day were supposed to leave from the intermediary town - Kuala Kubu Baru (KKB) - at 8:30 and 12:00. In fact there is only one bus a day that leaves at 10:30 a.m. As I arrived at about 11:10 a.m. this wasn't much help. However there is a bus that leaves at 4:00 p.m. and drops you at a place called the Gap (the ORIGINAL Gap perhaps) where there is a wonderful, decrepit colonial guesthouse that you can stay in.
So that's what I did. Then the next day I walked UP the 8km road to Fraser's Hill seeing spectacular birds along the way. In the town (a bit of a glorification as it is really just a few shops and a grungy hotel) I met Durai the local bird expert. He arranged for me to stay in a quite nice private apartment for 50 RM per night (about $20 Canadian). I bought cornflakes (Nestle not Kellogs - weird), fruit and instant noodles at the local shop as the food pickings were very limited at the local stalls.
I went out birding with Durai a couple of times and by myself mostly - I saw about 55 species many of which were spectacularly coloured. I must admit that birding back in Victoria is going to seem quite boring in comparison.
After a week of relaxation and coolness (20-25 degrees C) it was back to KL for a few days and then off to Genting Highlands to gamble like a silly fool.
I had a great time at Genting although it was as much of a culture shock - being almost completely without foreigners - as any cultural destination might be.
I stayed at the low end hotel (First World Hotel) which is huge and shabby. It is hard to believe that it is less than 2 years old. The carpet in the hallways is stained, gouged and burned. And it is rather amateurly run (as is the casino). The first room I was given (they use a keycard system) was occupied by someone else - imagine if I had burst in on them when they were in the shower?! And I certainly would have been irate if that was my room and the front desk accidentally issued someone a key to it - but they didn't seem to think it was a big deal.
The doors of the rooms were made of stone and the walls of paper. If you let the door go it slammed loudly and in the morning I was treated to the bathroom sounds (lots of horcking and spitting) of my neighbour as if they were using my bathroom. And although the room was supposedly 'made up' each day the standard was pretty amusing.
The first night I was there I left the window open and a good sized moth (about the size of a matchbox) flew in and landed on the second bed. It was very noticeable against the white sheet (it was dead by this time). When I returned to my room the next day the bed was made up but the moth - that had been where the pillow would go (but I had removed the pillow to the first bed and was using it) - was still there. And it remained there the whole time even though it was clearly visible. And it will probably be there for the next guest.
The casino was fine and good fun although no free drinks and no interest in customer service. Several times a day they come by and throw everyone off the machines and remove the money from them. They also don't bring you change (like in Reno and Vegas) - if you can't get a machine to accept a bill and you want to use coins you have to go and get them yourself.
All in all though it was good fun. I'll sign off now. I'm going to head out soon to the airport and at 11:40 p.m. I'm on my way to London.
Next bulletin from Italy!
posted by Susan at 10:43 AM
Tuesday, May 07, 2002
Cambodia and Saying Goodbye to Southeast Asia
Hello all - first of all I apologize for the tardiness of this note - it was hot in Siem Reap (base town for exploring the temples of Angkor) and Internet access was relatively expensive ($2 per hour). The complaint about the heat refers to the fact that most of the Internet places were not air-conditioned and typing with sweat dripping in your eyes is not my idea of a fun way to spend time.
Anyway - let's backtrack to Cambodia. Despite the undeniable friendliness of its people and the majesty and splendour of Angkor I didn't enjoy Cambodia. First shock was its relative expensiveness - accommodation was nowhere as good a value as Vietnam and food was also very expensive with it seemingly impossible to get a 'western' style meal for less than a dollar (something easily accomplished in Vietnam).
By western style I don't mean western food but local food at a decently hygienic looking restaurant with an English-language menu. Sure you could point at dishes in local-patronized cafes but to tell the truth the food really didn't look so appetizing - it looked greasy and there didn't seem to be a lot of vegetables available.
Second shock was its state of dilapidation - it reminded me very strongly of India - which is really not surprising given its very sad and still recent history. I'm not saying other places in Laos and Vietnam weren't dirty and littered and poor - but there people seemed to be energetic and making an effort to improve things. Here I got the sense that people didn't really see any of it as a problem (again reminiscent of India where after a while I began to wonder if I wasn't the one with a perception problem :-) ) and they certainly didn't make much of a move to clean things up.
Despite all this Angkor was magnificent and I especially enjoyed some of the less visited temples. The first three days I did by bicycle which was both wonderful and horrible. The bike I took for the first two days had a very narrow, hard and uncomfortable seat and by the end of the second day I could barely sit down without pain as my bum was so sore. For the third day I got another bike and then changed it again before setting out in the morning for the same model but with a functioning rear brake.
Everything was great until just before the Bayon temple in Angkor Thom - about 5 km from my final destination for that day's exploring - when the chain broke. There was an old man by the side of the road and he did his best to fix it for which I paid him 2,000 riel (50 cents US - lest you think I am cheating him that is about half a day's wages for the average Cambodian and he seemed quite pleased with it). Unfortunately about half a kilometer down the road it broke again.
I was now within about 4.5 km of where I wanted to be and I didn't want to go back to Siem Reap at this point so I chained the bike up and headed out on foot. A passing guy offered me a ride - at first for $1, then for 2,000 riels and then for nothing - I really didn't want to pay anything more that day after renting the bike (which was shaping up as a complete waste of money). I took his ride to the most distant temple (for 200 riels - about 6 cents) and then started working my way back on foot.
I spent about three hours walking and looking at temples - which was really quite lovely, although it was hot the traffic wasn't very heavy and I could hear and occasionally see birds in the trees. After looking at the last temple where I had left the bike I started trying to figure out how to get both the bike and I back to Siem Reap (about 12 km away).
There was a guy with a wagon kind of thing pulled behind a motorbike but he wanted SIX DOLLARS to take me back to town. I started walking and he came after me on a motorbike and said we could put the bike and me on the back of the motorbike. Now I have seen Cambodia folk (and all kinds of other people in this part of the world) do this with no problem but as I expected I was not up to the task. Plus the bike dipped dramatically with both me and the lead-alloy (as opposed to titanium alloy that our bikes are made of :-) ) bike on the back. So we chained the bike to a post and he gave me a ride back to town for $2.50. An expensive day.
After that experience I decided no more cycling round Angkor. For the next three days I hired a tuk-tuk (like a rickshaw) and driver.
I won't try and describe the temples except to say that if you are at all interested in ancient ruins you must see them. Words and pictures can't really do them justice. Having said that you must look at these Images of Angkor - fantastic!
The other 'highlight' - if you can call it that - of Cambodia was a trip to the Toul Sleng Museum. This is the infamous S-21 where innocent Khmers - men, women and children of all ages - were tortured by the Khmer Rouge. I knew what to expect in terms of how it looks because it (as well as the temples of Angkor) is in the movie Baraka (which I highly recommend for those of you that have never seen it - if you are in Victoria it comes regularly to Cinecenta). But it was very moving and informative nonetheless.
From Phnom Penh I flew to KL (Kuala Lumpur) and as far as I'm concerned I'm not really in the 'real' southeast Asia anymore. Of course it is much more expensive than Vietnam (and even Cambodia) from an accommodation point of view. I have a pretty crappy room with air-conditioning (it is not really that hot but I find I don't sleep well if I am too hot and I think a good sleep is important) and a shared bathroom down the hall. It's 30 ringgit or $8 US. And it's really not that clean.
Yet everything else here is so modern and up-to-date. I splurged and took the new KLIA express from the airport - air-conditioned to the nth degree, very fast and efficient - $9 US!!! Not two minutes walk from my hostel there is a Starbucks, a Burger King and at least two McDonalds. I must admit that I have been patronizing the latter as they do a nice ice cream cone with chocolate dip for 1.50 Ringgit (sorry folks - it's easy to be politically incorrect when no one is watching that knows you).
Tomorrow morning I am off to Fraser's Hill which is supposedly an 'unspoiled' hill station with excellent bird watching. Hopefully I'll be able to find accommodation that isn't an arm and a leg and there will be grocery stores so I can buy food rather than eating out (although here in KL - as it is known- you can eat for $1 for lunch/dinner if you eat in local restaurants that serve Indian, Malay or Chinese food).
And - here's a confession for you - I am spending the last three days of my time in SE Asia in a very non-SE Asia place - the Genting Highlands. This is Malaysia's 'City of Entertainment' with the main attraction being for me (and for most of the other people that go there I think) a pretty good-sized casino. I took a visit to it the other day to see if I would like it and the answer is a resounding yes. And they have a special on right now with a standard room (with your own bathroom - yahoo) for 46 ringgit (or just over $12 US a night). I'll just lay in supplies from KL to take with me (peanut butter, fruit etc) cause of course the food is expensive. Disgusting aren't I :-)
I'll probably send one more note before I leave Malaysia - perhaps fill you all in on how I did at the casino. I'm back in England on the 25th of May and off to Italy on June 1st. Hope you are all well and happy.
posted by Susan at 10:45 PM
Sunday, April 14, 2002
Wonderful Vietnam
Hello all - my fears about Vietnam turned out to be unfounded although it is easy to see why some people quickly become jaded by the aggressiveness of those involved in the tourist industry in Vietnam. After laid back Laos it is a bit daunting to be constantly bellowed at and sidled alongside (by cyclo drivers, motorcycle drivers and vendors of various items that you have absolutely no need for).
Still it has been (and will doubtless continue to be for the next week) a wonderful time though the heat is a bit much. Goodness knows how I will manage Cambodia which will make it feel positively icy here in comparison.
Hanoi - my point of entry - was absolutely lovely. The weather was wonderful - in the low to mid 20s (Celsius that is - don't know what it was in Fahrenheit) for my first few days and it is a charming city with several picturesque lakes and lots to see and do.
I did an overpriced (in my opinion) trip to Halong Bay and Cat-Ba Island which was still very enjoyable. For those of you that are interested here are some pictures of the very scenic Halong Bay. Then it was back to Hanoi for a few days then on to Hue by bus (12 hours when it was supposed to be 16 so that was a pleasant surprise). Hue was very interesting although again very hot and after a few days I moved on to Hoi An (only about 6 hours on the bus).
My time in Hoi An was somewhat overshadowed the first couple of days by an absolutely spectacular cold I somehow contracted. I was miserable - my head felt like it was stuffed with sand, my throat ached, I was sneezing and runny-nosed and just generally unpleasant. It is at times like this that I find myself simultaneously happy and despondent that I travel alone - at least no one else had to put up with me but it would have been nice to have someone give me some tea and sympathy.
Hoi An was very touristy although very interesting with its well preserved pagodas, assembly halls and merchant houses. I also went by motorbike with a receptionist from the hotel to DaNang to see the Cham Museum (which was very good) and to Marble Mountains which were very impressive. I also did a day trip to My Son which is about the only remaining Cham site in Vietnam (most of the other sites have been destroyed by either recent or historical warfare and any sculptures left were gathered up and put in the Cham museum at DaNang). My Son was in a very beautiful setting but is a bit sad since so little of it is left. I saw several birds and wonderful butterflies.
From Hoi An I came to Nha Trang - a rather nasty bus trip with a half-drunk (at least he smelled that way) Vietnamese man sitting next to me who kept encroaching on to my side of the seats. I know it sounds petty to complain about a couple of inches but when you are at least half a foot taller than someone and they insist on hogging more than their share of the seat AND you are supremely uncomfortable it is very unpleasant. For some reason he found it necessary to sit with his legs wide apart and then he fell asleep and started to snore. The trip was about 13 hours and I did manage to get some sleep by turning sideways in my seat and sticking my legs out into the aisle. I couldn't sit facing forward as my knees were jammed in against the seat in front of me and hitting a bump probably would have fractured both my kneecaps.
But it was all forgotten upon arrival in Nha Trang. What a fabulous place! Culturally it is pretty much a zero (which isn't really fair of me since I can't someone up the interest or energy to verify that claim) but relaxation wise it scores 20 out of 10. The beach is FANTASTIC! It is hot but tempered by an almost constant ocean breeze. My $7 room has an ocean view, is freshened by the abovementioned breeze and is bright, airy and spotless. Best of all it is only a couple of hundred meters down the road from the Louisiana Cafe that lets guests use its beach chairs, private beach (no vendors) and swimming pool for free for patronizing its bakery, bar or restaurant. Since it has a nice assortment of pastries this is not too difficult for me.
So my routine for the past couple of days has been breakfast at my hotel (two fried eggs - 5,000 dong, baguette - 1,000 dong, pineapple juice - 3,000 dong and fruit salad - 5,000 dong - so basically $1 US for brekkie) followed by a 'cake platter' (two mini lemon meringue tarts, a cream puff and a mini mocha eclair - 10,000 dong or just over $1 Canadian) at the Louisiana cafe. Then a dip or two in the ocean, a shower at their outside shower and a dip in the pool and then maybe a cup of tea.
After this exhausting morning it is off for lunch then back to the room for a nap. I like to have something to read but the book exchange guy has pissed me off today. I first bought High Fidelity from him for 55,000 dong, I took it back a day or two later when I was finished and he gave me 50,000 credit for it. I wanted then to take a book by PD James - quite a thick mystery. He wanted 95,000 for that so I gave him 45,000 more. I took it back today and wanted to very small books - one the second in the Bridget Jones Diary series and the other the Angkor Temples guide by Dawn Rooney. He told me he wanted 60,000 dong on top of returning the PD James book. When I said then I would just return the PD James book he told me he'd give me 55,000 for it. So I may just hang onto it until Saigon and try and exchange/sell it there. It's bullshit like this that ticks people off.
So maybe I'll just go back to my room and watch a little TV before my nap. Only problem is that finding anything english on is very unusual. There is star sports in what sounds like Japanese, Korean music videos and other eclectic choices. But no CNN (no matter how abhorrent it is at least somewhat understandable), no Star Movies and no English subtitled movies anywhere. Sigh - these are the problems of my complicated life.
Soon however laziness will conclude and I will bus off to Saigon on Monday evening. Last night bus for a while I hope - leave at 8 p.m. and hopefully get into Saigon at about 5 a.m. I have the name of a reasonably priced and supposedly good hotel with a good relationship with a travel agency to arrange my visa for Cambodia and my trip from Saigon to Phnom Penh via boat.
So next time you hear from me it will probably be from Cambodia. Bye for now. Hope you are all happy and healthy.
posted by Susan at 11:05 PM
Monday, April 01, 2002
Massage on a budget
I always said that when I became a millionaire I would have a massage every day (or at least 4 times each week). Well by Southeast Asian standards I am rich so I have indulged myself several times since leaving Canada.
I had three massages in Myanmar. The first was an hour-long foot and leg massage at this place that I think was a beauty school (although I am not sure) in Yangon (Myanmar's capital city). It cost 1,500 kyat (700 kyat to $1 US) and was a very thorough and occasionally painful rubbing and thumping of the legs from the knees down and probing of the feet with fingers and a blunt-tipped wooden stylus.
The next massage in Myanmar was quite different as it was a supposedly 'traditional' massage done by a gentleman (first was by a young lady) in a small house at dusk in Bagan. This was probably my least favourite massage as the man's hands were hot and sweaty, he was chewing betel (a mildly narcotic blend of leaves, lime paste, betel nuts and other odds and ends which dyes your saliva and teeth a disgusting red/brown and necessitates constant expectoration) which meant he lent over and spat a stream of saliva between the cracks in the floor every few minutes and the house was open to the air and the mosquitoes became quite plentiful. The only way I can describe this massage is a thrumming at some times (as if my flesh were a guitar string) and a pressing (like accupressure) at other times. I didn't get much out of it but may just have not been very relaxed because the environment was less than conducive to enjoying the experience.
The final massage in Myanmar was back in Yangon at a rather fancy hairdressing salon. This was one pretty good although a bit odd. It seemed to take an inordinate amount of time to get across the message that I wanted a 'whole body' massage and that I wanted a lady to do it. It was 4000 kyat for one and a half hours. It was conducted in a rather seedy room that was also used for shampooing hair but had some decidedly odd western posters on the walls that made me wonder if it doubled as a private room for rather more intimate massage than what I was having. Another difficulty was that the sink at the end of the table didn't detach so the poor (fairly short) young woman doing the massage had to contort herself in strange positions to reach me. Her attempts to 'crack' my back (it was much more like a chiropractic treatment in some respects) bordered on the absurd as it was like a mouse trying to do CPR on an elephant (well maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration but you get the idea).
I had one massage in Thailand at Wat Pho. This was a pretty good massage although I wasn't very impressed with the 'herbal' aspect. The cost was 350 baht (43 baht equals $1 US) for an hour. I expected the herbs might mean massage using aromatic oils or herbal wraps but all it consisted of was blotting me (that's the best word for it) with a mesh bag full of herbs that had been steaming in a crockpot.
With all the massages - except for those in Laos - there was a definite lack of regard for tranquility and peacefulness. In each location there was lots of noise, sometimes it seemed to be happening deliberately, and the massage at Wat Pho was not private but conducted in a room with 5 other people being 'done' at the same time. There also seemed to be a lack of interest in the job at hand (literally) with the masseuse often seeming to be in a world of their own and paying much less than 100% attention to their client.
In Laos I had four massages and they were definitely the best of all my Southeast Asian massage experiences. The first was in a private massage place that I passed while out walking and exploring (as I love to do). The young woman who gave me the massage was very attentive and it was a slow day (or they don't get much business) so it was quite peaceful and private. She concentrated on my lower back (which had been giving me trouble since before I left Canada) and I got a nice cup of tea afterward. It was 17,000 kip (9,500 kip = $1 US) for a hour.
The next massage was at a Wat Sok Pa Luang a 'forest temple' that specializes in massage in Vientiane, Laos (read another traveller's experience of massage at the Wat). Here I had a very good woman masseuse and I also had an herbal sauna which was very invigorating and cooling (after heating you up you felt very refreshed when you emerged into the open air). It would have been more pleasant if a young man in the sauna hadn't insisted on asking me if I was married and sidling up to me as I sat trying to maintain my dignity in a far-too-skimpy sarong (that the temple gave you to wear for your massage and sauna). Price - 15,000 kip for the massage, 5,000 kip for the sauna. Here too I made the mistake of scheduling my massage around dusk and the appearance of hungry mosquitoes detracted from the enjoyment.
The final two massages were in the charming city of Luang Prabang in northern Laos. Not only did these massages feel good but they left me with a good feeling since they were done at the Lao Red Cross and some of the money is returned to the organization for local initiatives. I found a wonderful female masseuse and returned to her for a second massage.
The first great thing about this place was they made you take your clothes off - it was a much more effective massage stripped to the waist. The second great thing was the private and peaceful arrangement with only two clients per room and the room sectioned off with hanging curtains. And Kiem Kanh (or however you pronounce her name in Lao) was the third great thing - she was really very talented and professional. It was just a wonderful experience and I was happy to support the Red Cross. Cost was 25,000 kip for one hour.
I have yet to try massage here in Vietnam yet but as tonight I am undertaking a 16 hour bus ride I am sure I will be ready for one when I arrive in Hue tomorrow. Hopefully I will have good things to report.
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