Musings - the nature of me...

I’ve always been something of a workaholic and prided myself in my hard work and diligent and disciplined attitude to completing all work-related tasks promptly. In fact I cannot relax with work hanging over me. I guess this is the exact opposite to procrastination. I push myself to do more onerous jobs by promising rewards when they are completed. As a strategy it has served me well and enabled me to get assignments in before deadlines, complete student reports on time, meet my professional obligations, measure up to my own expectations and take pride in all that I have achieved in a single day or week or whatever. Now I find I am asking myself, “Is it a disease to have to always be productive?”

Recently with time on our hands to travel it has really become obvious to me that I am not so comfortable with just kicking back and relaxing.

For almost 3 months we have been travelling around South East Asia and there is nothing to complain about there. It has been a wonderfully rewarding and enlightening experience, with new discoveries and old haunts providing endless hours of enjoyment and stimulation. Not a day goes by when I don’t feel blessed to be able to do this and feel grateful that I am learning so much. So what’s the problem?

Usually 3 to 4 hours in the sun in the morning is about all we can take in this summer season, before we must look for some respite from the humidity and heat in an air-conditioned zone. This is the best time to catch up on emails, blog, check out and in on Facebook and read. However I have now realized that after a relatively short space of time engaged in these recreational activities, I start to feel that I am not making the most of our precious travel opportunity, especially if we are in a hotel room. I start feeling guilty about not being out there exploring and appreciating even if only a short time ago I was almost expiring from the heat.

Today was a classic example. We only lasted an hour wandering the streets and visiting a temple before we were both red in the face and soaked in sweat, yet I felt guilty about suggesting that we should stop somewhere cool for a coffee after such a short time! Now most people seem perfectly able to put their feet up and relax but I seem to have this task master approach to life and everything I do, especially in daylight hours. Funnily enough once the sun has set then doing exactly as I please comes easily and I resent any prescribed activities encroaching on this time. I now also recall how annoyed I often became when school commitments were scheduled to take place at night.

It is as if I have to be productive or I have to persecute myself, in the daylight hours and the flip side is that I perceive nighttime as only for spontaneous or recreational activities. Is this what years of a regimented routine at work does or have I brought it on myself with my zealous approach to everything I undertake? It makes me realize all those times when Ian tells me to give myself a break, he is right and he obviously knows me better than I know myself. Now seems the ideal opportunity to do my best to actually give myself a break.

The beautiful people of Laos.

This is our third visit to Lao PDR and even though some of the destinations on this trip are not new we are still enthralled. It is really the people that make us feel so welcome and make the country such an attractive destination. Most of the people with whom we have come in contact, are polite, happy and content.

They seem to exude a real sense of dignity and a joy of living. They may not be wealthy or prosperous but they do seem calm, tolerant and self possessed without being restrained. They have ready smiles and a positive outlook in most circumstances.  We have learnt much about the country and developed a respect and admiration for them from the conversations we have shared.

We have heard life stories first hand. What may be considered sacrifice and hardship by many is instead perceived as satisfying and it breeds contentment. The owner and manager of the beautifully restored shop house on the riverfront, in which we stayed in Pakse, volunteered the story of the property and her own life over breakfast when we commented how much we loved the building and the renovation.  It had been her family home until she was sent to France to study on a scholarship as a child and only a few years after she returned to Laos the whole family fled the ‘strife.’ They abandoned all their property only to have the government return it to them some 10 years later when her brother was invited to help rebuild the economy and he was eventually appointed to lead the Chamber of Commerce. Some time later he rallied all the siblings and suggested that they convert their family home into a boutique hotel. They funded renovations and designed the interiors themselves and now it is the epitome of elegance and charm and a truly affordable and luxurious little gem right on the riverfront. Rather than regret all the lost years, she in her mid sixties was glad to be home and living a simple, productive and fulfilling life. One could sense her joy for living as she watched the sunrise over the river and shared meals with the staff in the lobby.

Another fine example of the Laotian spirit is the young “song tao”* driver who we had the good fortune to meet plying his trade at the bus station. He was keen to round up passengers and approached us not with the usual “tuk tuk” but by explaining that he could drop us in the city centre and for the standard local fare. In addition to battling the traffic with a vehicle full of exhausted travellers with too much luggage, in the sweltering heat, he loaded and reloaded the mountains of possessions those from more remote regions had arrived with. This included a compressor and other unrecognizable items in outrageously heavy sacks and bags. Nonetheless he politely asked us to relocate to the cabin when it became evident that we passengers would not all fit in the back due to the enormity of the load. While driving he initiated a conversation apologizing for his limited English, pointed out his family home, explained his family situation and happily answered our incessant questions; sharing his experiences and life story and exchanging views with us. He explained that he drove 7 days a week to be able to put himself through a business course at university, which he attended in the evenings 5 days a week. Despite having to backtrack to find other passengers’ destinations and off load all the cargo completely unassisted, he offered to drop us at the door of our hotel rather than the central point we had agreed to when we got into the vehicle and was positively delighted that this was our third visit to his home country. We were astounded at such service and with a smile and all for a 3-dollar fare.

Communism and Buddhism strike me as odd bedfellows but some how there is no tension… or maybe it is just that we don’t see it. They do have in common a concern for the wellbeing of the people and this is perhaps the very thing that enables the Laos maintain their strong family values and quiet, polite self-assuredness.  

We enjoy the fact that everyone drags out whatever limited English they posses and gives communicating their best shot. Our garbled attempts at hello and thank you; the only phrases we know in Lao, are consistently met with smiles and genuine delight.

Not for the first time we are wondering if it would be possible to work here at some point in the future. We certainly see lots of expat workers around the place!

* NB “song tao” = a pick up with bench seats running down both sides and used as shared taxis and goods carriers throughout Laos and Thailand

Walking across borders

That about sums up all you need to know buying a bus ticket - if only you could read it! 

We have arrived in Pakse, just over the border in Laos from Ubon Ratchathani, in Thailand, though of course the crossing is at Chong Mek on the Thai side and Vang Tao on the Laotian side. Remembering those names is also paramount, just to keep you on your toes.

I think I love the romantic notion of crossing into a country on your own 2 feet but the reality is a lot more anxiety creating than I ever remember until it is happening again. We got the first bus from Ubon at 9.30am. Because they wouldn't sell tickets in advance despite it being labeled an International Bus, we had to get to the bus station by 8am when the booth opened on the day we wanted to travel. We were determined to be early, as I wanted to sit at the front, where it is better in terms of not getting travelsick. We were there by 7.40am having been packed into the public transport (“song tao”) like sardines with all the kids going to school. We felt quite pleased with ourselves for managing to understand enough to negotiate and avail ourselves of that 35-cent ride! At the ticket booth, we ended up second in line and got 2 tickets near the front but not at the front, as the four front seats had mysteriously already been sold before the booth opened. 

Much to our surprise the bus left on time and took the exact 1 and a half hours that we were told it would, to reach the border. There were clear signs on the bus that said it would wait just 20 minutes for visas to be processed, so we scooted into immigration knowing we needed to be quick. We were again second in line to be stamped out of Thailand. Next came the walk into the unknown with those going the other way on the opposite side of the mesh barrier separating incoming and outgoing travellers. Why is it that I love this? We were in a concrete tunnel and we were anxious about being in no-mans-land in terms of having been stamped out of one country and not yet stamped into the next. 

We grabbed the forms and filled them in with the utmost speed and were the first on our bus to lodge our visa applications in Lao. Feeling lucky as Australia is on the list for a visa on arrival, at the cheapest rate, we paid our US$60 and handed over the photos we knew we would need. The not so smiley official told us to go to window 6 - no receipt for passports, just go. We didn't want to argue and off we went. After waiting for 10 minutes, one of the Thai girls on the bus told us the bus would be leaving in 5 minutes. Thanks for that!! The man behind window 6, which I had to bend in half to be able see through, told me for the millionth time to "Wait a moment," and I refrained from trying to tell him what a moment actually means. A long 10 minutes later we had our visas and were the first of the 6 foreigners on our bus to have survived the processing. 

By that time my heart was racing and I was sure that our bags along with our bus had long ago disappeared but no... the sign is just another one of those random acts of bureaucracy that Thailand seems to specialize in and the waiting at the border, well that is just to remind us that Lao is communist I think!!!One couple from our bus hadn't even lodged their paper work when we got our passports back and we had no idea where the bus was once our ordeal was over!! Urrggghh.

Ian finally spotted the bus we had arrived in while I did my best to impersonate someone who is not panicking, and yes it was still waiting for us. He dashed back to tell the other 4 where it was as I boarded and everyone looked very peeved as I got on. We didn't exactly engineer the delay ourselves but now I can see why no-one looked pleased to see us 6 getting onboard in Ubon- least of all the driver.  The Thais and Laos were all processed for a mere $3 and stamped straight out and in at the two checkpoints, no waiting no delay! 

Another 20 minutes of waiting and the other 4 foreigners appeared clutching their passports and one wandered off to do some shopping!! No way, the bus driver wasn't standing for that and he started the engine, revved it threateningly and she immediately jumped on. Like us, once in the bus, they frantically flipped through the pages of their passports to see that they did in fact have that all-important visa and stamp.

Yes it took more than an hour and a half to process us "farangs" and yes the bus did elect to wait!! I wanted to stroll to the front of the bus and rip those notices with their anxiety creating 20 minute warning, off the wall but I didn’t. By the time we were cruising along the Lao side of the crossing and on the opposite side of the road of course, I was reminiscing about having flown into Luang Prabang in 2012 and having got a free visa on arrival that was processed in about 5 minutes with smiles all round.

Now, why is it that I love to walk into countries I ask myself!! 

Any further doubts are certainly clarified by this!

Sukhothai simply stunning

We have been remarkably quiet on the blogging front for a while now.

We arrived back in Thailand where things feel very familiar but there are still surprises and adventures to be had and spent almost a week recovering from some tenacious travel bug but are now up and reveling in the new adventures.

Luckily for us we had dialed up some time in known territory before the bug hit, so we felt at ease about just lying low and recuperating. It is hard to do otherwise in Chiang Mai anyway. It also gave us time to do some thinking and planning for future sojourns.

Now that we have made our way to Laos it would seem remiss to not at least post some of the beauty of Sukhothai. We finally made it to this spectacular, ancient, Thai capital and world heritage site and we were certainly not disappointed with what we saw.