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For some Laos is the “real” Asia. Of course, every country is very real. From the BTS in Bangkok to the hill tribes to relaxed Laos to  crazy traffic in Hanoi. Looking for the “real” Asia (re: rice fields, fastest vehicles being bicycles and a very slow life) means ignoring the places and people in-front of you. And enjoying the differences between the countries and peoples is a whole part of my (great) experience I had In Asia.

Having said that, once you step out of the plane in Luang Prabang you feel that time slows down a bit. Life gets a bit more sluggish, the traffic IS made up mostly of bicycles and life seems more relaxed (at least for the tourists).

At one point I got scared by a car horn. One gets used to quietness, and starts to appreciate it (more-so in retrospect as after Laos I went to Cambodia with crazy Phnom Penh).

Enjoy some of the photos I took in Luang Prabang.

Well, doing a bit of cleaning around the blog I discovered that I started writing and posting photos exactly last year. First post – a ‘hello world’ kind of message – was posted on Jan 31, 2009. So, with a delay of 4 days – happy birthday to my blog!

I wonder what the second year will bring – more photos for sure – but what else? Last time I traveled I found that it is pretty hard to blog ‘on the road‘ so probably travel posts will come once I return home. A lot of people asked me how much a specific trip did cost (there is a general idea that traveling is extremely expensive) or how I organize things (when I …err….organize). Maybe this kind of information would be helpful / interesting.

I am also playing with a few idea in my head regarding the ‘why’ and ‘how’ I travel – so maybe some posts on these themes. It’s going to be an interesting year…I think.

Any comment with suggestions on themes will be appreciated. Not necessarily put in practice of course.

After a long period of freezing under the snow and quietly longing for the weather in Asia, it seems we are nearing spring. Finally.

And so I start again to fret about new destinations, new travels, new adventures… Maybe I will not leave very soon (or who knows?) however I started again to look over guidebooks and most importantly over pictures I took last year.

And so – expect to see a new set of pictures coming soon!

Nu, nu e (inca) vorba de mine in casa noua, desi o sa fie in curand un post si despre asta.

Este vorba de relocarea “virtuala” a unei bune prietene, care acum are propriul domeniu si a shiny new Wordpress. La a carui instalare cu modestie am participat. Bianca scrie despre fotografie, despre ceea ce incercam sa realizam ca oameni, despre pasiunea ei pentru biciclete (haha) si ii place sa creeze liste. De cate 20 de lucruri.

Va recomand saaruncati un ochi -  blogul Biancai >

Random thoughts and pleasant memories.
Written while waiting in Phnom Penh airport – have to put free WiFi to good use, right? Unfortunatally when I wanted to post this, my connection fell to pieces. So here it is, a few days later.
- riding with Frida from Denmark, Mike from Kenya and the hostel owner in the back of a friend’s pickup to go to a local place to eat
- riding an elephant – all by myself and without howdah!
- when leaving the guesthouse in Siem Reap having Monty Python “bright side of life” played as farewell – also now there’s a 5 ron note on their wall to add to the collection of currencies
- having a lazy late breakfast in Phnom Penh – sweet strong coffee, steak and bean tea (local variant of bubble tea). Total check bin @ 4.5 usd…
- started to use ’same same’and ‘hot small’in casual talks – my English is same same but different from when I left home…
- starting to get confused on the currencies – Thai baht, Laos kip, Vietnamese dong (yeah…) and of course the Cambodian dollar (US dollar). By the way – it’s funny to receive US dollars at an ATM outside US.
- having a slight start of budgetitis – the state of mind when you start haggling for eveything and deplore the hike in prices brought by Japanese customers. After being spoiled by Laos probably even Thailand will seem expensive. Probably I should avoid traveling in Europe for the following months as I will have a panic attack…
- as much as I dislike shopping, the night market in Luang Prabang is a real gem. Bought a lot of interesting stuff that will probably find no useful purpose
- traffic in Phnom Penh is insane. Having to cross a boulevard while keeping an eye on all the bikes, motorbikes, tuk-tuks and Lexuses was giving me a headache. No streetlights or zebras make crossing the street adventurous.
- next time I get to SE Asia (probably next year ) I will come prepared with a t-shirt that reads “no, i do NOT want a tuk-tuk! I can WALK thankyouverymuch”

And now I should finish my tea and go to board the plane!

…which obviously I did, as now I am in Hanoi, Vietnam.

sunrise at Angkor Wat

I know some people already started to worry what’s with me – where are the posts, where are the pictures. Nothing happened – actually nothing bad happened. I’m enjoying this trip immensely, and I do not really find the time to play with the pictures or write. I do have in mind some posts, so tonight I am going to post one of my impressions on SE Asia.

No, it has nothing to do with the picture – that is just eye-candy.

I am going to talk about the beer in SE Asia. Bet you didn’t see THAT coming.

My first love was with the SIngha in Thailand – ice-cold lager served in a nice bar on Sukhumvit Soi 4. Not only it’s a pretty good beer, not that expensive, but the greatest part is how it’s served: the bottle is brought in it’s own cooler, made from foam, to keep it cold. Brilliant idea. And on the hot days I had in Bangkok, it proved a morale-lifter.

After that – Beer Lao – in of course Laos. This had the nice characteristic of being served in 640ml bottles. Almost double the puny 330ml that some bars insist on serving in Europe. However, my love for beer Lao grew even more when I found a restaurant / beer garden in Luang Prabang which served it’s beer with peanuts. And a shot of Lao Lao (home-brewed whiskey). All complimentary. And all that for the nice price of 12 000 kip – about 4 Ron.

And so we arrive at my latest discovery – Anchor beer. Draft beer served at my current guesthouse (after this post that’s where I will be going). The beer comes in a glass which was kept in the freezer until it is used. It’s a pleasure to keep the ice-cold beer and sip in the late afternoon or evening. All in the quite good company of the Brit guesthouse owner.

I cannot wait to see what Vietnam has to offer…

Now that I arrived in Chiang Mai, and am finally able to enjoy some nice-quality free WiFi I can write a bit more about what happened these last few days.

The trip is going pretty well and my enthusiasm for Thailand is growing. In terms of organization I finally managed to do most of my plane tickets booking, so not only I arrived in Chiang Mai, but I also got tickets to Luang Prabang and on to Siem Reap. All in all pretty good work

Still no photos – but a few good bits. First of all, a nice evening in Bangkok – catching ‘happy hour’ at one of the beer bars, one of the many on Soi 4 where my hotel was. the nice part – beside the amazing music – was that they had Chelsea vs Manchester United on 3 plasma TVs, and Muay Thay on the remaining two. Combined with a game of pool it was a great combination!

The second good bit – my first experience with Air Asia. I think that Asian airlines all abide by the rule that they have to hire only highly attractive stewardesses. I first noticed that on Shanghai Air. however, the nicest surprise was the actual plane. An Airbus A320 which arrived in Thailand just the day before. All shiny and new, looked absolutely beautiful. And it even had air humidifiers! A real treat for my contact lenses. I will also fly with them from Hanoi to Bangkok, so I hope I will have the same great experience.

Now in Chiang Mai, my first thing to decide is what to do in the next 3 days. There are so many opportunities, treks, and activities to do here it is actually hard to decide!

This is not going to be a post with lots of pictures.  Actually none at all. I am writing this from an Internet cafe – and thus not photo editing and sharing. For that you have to wait a bit more.

However, this IS a post about my arrival in Bangkok, and my impressions after a day and a half.

The first thing I noticed about Bangkok was the overpowering heat. The moment I stepped out of the airport it hit me like a wave. For a few moments I could not breathe. Of course, that passed pretty quick.  The second thing I noticed is the traffic – or more precisely the gridlock that is Bangkok. I took an Airport Express (not…quite) from the airport and it took some time to arrive in the general area that my hotel is located. And the third thing I noticed? The huge mass of people. It is the same impression I had in China, yet it seems more dynamic – or more chaotic. But all these things – you will find out that not only no longer annoy me (ok, except the heat) but they started to grow on me…

The heat is fought with aircon. This discovery of the modern age that keeps us sane here is used with…gusto. Bars that have open terraces use 6 or 8 aircons only at the entrance, and up to 10 ceiling fans. The skytrain (BTS as the original name) uses such a low temperature aircon that I am actually shivering in it.

The traffic is pretty simple to manage – I just have to keep in mind that: 1. people give way to tuk-tuks – tuk-tuks give way to cabs and cars – these give way to buses, minivans and other users of the street. And all comply to the kind-of present traffic police. It’s actually fun:) 2. there are some amazing ways to quickly for from one part of the city to the other – the SkyTrain is one – a fast train that is perched on top of the highways, which are on top of the BKK traffic. And also the river express which not only is fast (a great thing to start!) but also offers very nice photo opportunities.

And finally – the people. More often than not smiling, helpful, and a very likable people. ‘Sanuk’ here is a big thing – always having fun, always trying to find compromises, avoiding conflicts, and measuring life by the fun part in it. I have never met a people more open to having their pictures taken, nor so fast to apologize for everything (like the English sometimes). Of course, there are a lot of tourists also. It actually is pretty crowded at some of the monuments and sights – the “good” season started, so a lot of French, Germans, Americans, Dutch, Danes, Swedes, Spanish (and these are the ones I id’ed) are here.

Speaking of which – it’s fun to see the number of people who are having Thai girlfriends. Generally faar younger than them. It’s a well-known thing, but it is actually fun to see first-hand. Now, maybe the location where my hotel is located does tend to attract a certain kind of people (unlike previous travels where I found myself in Chinatowns, now I am in/close-by a red-light district).

And last but not least (for the moment) – the food. It’s delicious. It was to be expected, but it’s even more delicious when eating it And thank God – no more sticks!

I will soon write about the Palace and the different temples (Wats), post some pictures, and generally do a better job of telling my adventures in the land of smiles.

I’m bad at it. I am leaving on Saturday and I still have no hotel reservations, no real plans, and I still have printouts from Lonely Planet lying around the house – unread… Even my passport is still at the embassy (Vietnam embassy, going there on Thursday to pick it up).

These 2 weeks I tried to do so many things that of ocurse I screwed up some of them. And I’m leaving on holidays tired, with a slight cold, and with unfinished business left at home. So, beside NOT doing research for my upcoming trip, what’s new?

• finally managed to go to Online MeetUp conference, an event organized by Orange, taking place at Orange Concept Store, in order to mingle with people from the online world…interesting experience
• today I am spending a lot of time at RoNewMedia at some workshops and the gala for best Romanian websites. I actually was in the jury, so I am really eager to find out the winners – this though means I will arrive after 10pm home. Again.
• met with elementary school ex-colleagues – so many years later and so little have people changed. And I mean this in a good way! Was a joy to talk with most of them!
• moved office – descended one floor – which meant irregular access to business email and network – so yesterday was a pretty useless day. Of course, I have to compensate the following days!
• I still have a backlog of photos to process, especially from Nijikon2009 – where incidentally I met an old friend who was promoting Warhammer (the miniature game)

And now? Back to booking.com, travelblog.org, lonely planet et all.

flying AIr France somewhere over Budapest

Maybe the fact that I left the office in a hurry, with a lot of projects left hanging incomplete, I was very stressed on the plane and when I arrived. However, first steps in Paris changed all that back to ‘happy mood’.

Beside the slight annoyance that RER ticket vending machines work only with coins or credit cards (and it happily ignored MY card) everything is good. I’m staying at a nice hotel, even though it’s far from the center (I am used to booking hostels right in the middle of the city). The weather is pleasant – cold yet mostly sunny. And hearing French on the streets -  a real pleasure!

And the first smell of a boulangerie assured me I’m back to the city of coffees. Speaking of which, I’m off to find something to snack on until tomorrow’s breakfast.