Getting to know Lubuksikaping

Mostly because I've been stuck here for a few weeks now thanks to various meetings mostly to do with a transition from exploration to drilling which means that actual fieldwork in the jungle has been limited, hence the lack of any exciting updates recently.

On the plus side it has enabled me to do some planning towards my next field break which is coming up in 10 days time. I have decided that 27 years is far too old to have never been Scuba diving therefore in an effort to rectify things I will be going to Palau Weh of the Northern tip of Sumatra to do just that, apparently it is stunning so I have high hopes. I also plan to have a couple of days in the jungle near Medan trying to find Orang Utans as well as climbing an active volcano if there's time. As you can imagine I'm quite looking forward to it. Certainly more so than any future England football campaign and all the associated bollocks which comes with it. Just awful all round. On the plus side the Stephen Gerrard rumours have cheered me up no end. Should be fun for the newspapers when the injunction lifts in 2 weeks...

Having said all that I did make one brief trip into the jungle to accompany another geologist round who had been asked to update the report he wrote 2 years ago on the area. This would have been fine if he hadn't; 1) Been a condescending arse to the locals and 2) Looked unmistakeably like Art Garfunkel. Therefore I decided to entertain myself in various ways to balance it all out, so whenever he was rude to one of the guys who help us I would balance it out by doing one of the following:

- Putting any insect who wandered past into his sleeping bag
- Accidentally soaking the socks he'd laid out for the next day with water. He told me this was down to the morning mist apparently. He never did explain why everything else was dry though.
- Handing out his private supply of biscuits then saying I hadn't seen them. I liked this one the best as it was a sort of instigated karma, especially because everyone knew where i'd got them from.

I also sang as many Simon and Garfunkel songs as I could remember. He did look at me a bit funnily when I sang Bright Eyes before every meal. Apparently it's one of my favourite songs...

I know this is all intensely childish but he was deserving of every second of it. It was either that or kill him and I'm guessing an Indonesian jail is unlikely to be a 5* resort (although I would be willing to bet that everyone would have agreed it was a n "accident")

Childish trips aside as I've been mostly in the office for the last few weeks animal sightings have been at a low ebb however I was impressed by this leaf impersonator who stayed with us for a couple of days. Pretty good effort I thought.

Apart from him and an infestation of black beetles there hasn't been much around. I do know that someone nearby has a pet monkey so if my wildlife drought continues I will have him in reserve.

Now for everyone's favourite section - Beard watch:

Still looking horrific. To be honest i would shave it off but that does seem like it's going to be a real effort with only a razor and no shaving cream or running water.




Hope all's well with everyone,

Keg

p.s: Come on Andy, only Nadal and Djokovitch/Berdych to get past now...

Luang Prabang and on

As you can tell by this post I survived the death boat. It was quite an entertaining ride actually and I think it was the first time I've been given a crash helmet upon boarding a boat. The passenger next to me was a Buddhist monk who spent the whole 7 hours pointing out things for me to photograph. This got a bit tiring as some of the items that he clearly thought I'd be interested in included; driftwood, a large boulder, another boat, some fishermen (there were hundreds of them...) and a cow. All fascinating I'm sure you'll agree. All in all arriving back in Luang Prabang was quite a relief as I did want to have a monkicide on my criminal record. Luang Prabang is a gorgeous city based on a peninsula at the conference of two rivers, the larger of which is the Mekong, and which has been classed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. That's mostly because almost every street has a Buddhist temple on it which gives the whole city a laid back and historic feel.

From there a 9 hour bus ride, during which I took the chance to see how far I could get my knees into my face, took my to Luang Namtha in the North East of the country. The bus ride was actually great entertainment right from the start as just 5 minutes out of the station the driver was pulled over by police and arrested. Cue everyone looking around wondering what to do whereupon one passenger decided to take matters into his own hands and got into the drivers seat. After struggling to find first we moved off with our new driver at the helm, quickly though we all realised this was a bad plan as he managed to find reverse much more easily than he had 1st and we screeeched to a halt before firing off backwards down the road. After a brief discussion (someone physically dragged him out of the seat) another passenger took over and drove off in a much more traditional manner. All the while I was laughing at the faces of the American and Canadian who I'd met in Prabang as they looked as though they were both trying to fuse their teeth together. Their expressions did not improve when we passed a bus which had rolled over and a lorry which had driven into some trees by the side of the road. You'll be glad to know that I was helpfully pointing these out just in case either of my fellow travellers missed seeing them. I'm so helpful like that.

I spent 3 days in Namtha doing some kayaking and visiting local villages. The kayaking was great but the villages were a strange experience as you end up just wandering around while people stare at you in thinly veiled disgust. Very odd. On my second night an English girl came to stay in the same guesthouse as me, when she revealed it was her birthday I made a mental note to pick up some chicken feet from the local market. I'm sure if she hadn't been vegetarian these would've been a roaring success. Possibly.

Leaving her to enjoy her grilled feet I got a 4 hour minibus to Houey Xai where I got the aforementioned speedboat down the Mekong back to Prabang to ingulge in a few days relaxing in cafes and visiting the nearby waterfall at Kuang Si before heading back to Vang Vieng to do a bit of kayaking back to Vientiane.

All in all it was a really enjoyable trip. Well apart from leaving my phone at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur. That was boring. I would say it was uncalled for but the pun would be too much I fear.

Photos:

Trek and Kayak around Vang Vieng

Lunag Prabang:

The Mekong

Kuang Si waterfall

The waterfall was gorgeous. It consisted of one large fall (seen in the pic above) and then 50-100m of little cascades through the jungle where you could bathe or swim.

The night market with a Wat behind it

Looking out from the hill in the centre of Prabang

The comforable minbus to Namtha

A man with a rat/mole thing which the driver bought when he got off. It was alive in case you're wondering

Lunag Namtha

Kayaking

Lunch

At the end of the second day 20 local children decided they want to play on the kayak. For two hours the guide and I took turns to repeatedly capsize it until eventually our car turned up to take us back to town. I forgot how much energy children can have, honestly I think they would've done it all day if they could.

The "speedboat"

Heading down the Mekong

Vang Vieng

Stopping for lunch. These rocks turned out to be perfect for running dives into the river. Far too much fun.

Vientiane

Sunset over the Mekong. They could make this area beautiful if the wanted. Seemingly they don't though for some reason.

Some fancy roundabout

One of the many buddhist temples to be found in the city

If you've made it this far have a biscuit as a reward. I'll try and upload a couple of videos later too but the connection here makes it hard work to do so successfully.

Robert Green you spanner.

Keg