Vientiane, Laos

VIENTIANE
There were two things I wanted to see in Vientiane - the Patuxai and the Great Sacred Stupa. From a distance the Patuxai looks like the Arc de Triomphe but up-close the temple-like ornamentation gives it a distinctly Lao flavour. Unlike the Parisian arch the Patuxai has four, rather than two, archways. It was built in the 1960s with US-purchased cement intended for the construction of a new airport - which has led some people to call it the 'vertical runway'. The fee for climbing to the top of the structure is only 1000 Kip (around 9c) and the views are well worth it. Most of the interior is barren except for the gift shop on the top two floors selling Beer Lao t-shirts and key chains. On the very top I found an old man selling old notes and coins so I stopped and completed my collection of Lao money.

The Patuxai, Vientiane

The view from the top of the Patuxai

Sadly, on the Thanon leading to the arch I watched as a motorbike turned in front of an approaching truck and was dragged under the front tyres for 50 meters. I kept my distance for a little while but as I slowly approached the wreckage the motorcycle driver and her female passenger were quickly taken away in the back of a rickshaw. Two unmatched sandals remained wedged under the motorbike but surprisingly there was little blood.

About 2km further north-east is the Great Sacred Stupa, a symbol of the Buddhist religion and Lao sovereignty, and the most important national monument. The current stupa was constructed in the 16th century on the site of a former Khymer monastery dating from the 11th century. It looks a little like a missile cluster from a distance but even under grey skies the golden spire shone brightly. The stupa is designed to be mounted by visitors who can walk around each level and up to the next. Each level contains Buddhist inscriptions which are to be contemplated as one takes the journey around and up the monument. The skies above me turned progressively darker so after half an hour I turned my back on the Great Sacred Stupa and began walking back across the courtyard to the main street.

The Great Sacred Stupa

TURNING AND WALKING AWAY
Slowly, images of the last 14 months flashed in my head. From Russia to China to Guatemala, Nepal and Sri Lanka I began reflecting on just where I had been and what I had achieved. After all this time, the Great Sacred Stupa in Laos would be the last thing I would see on this trip. My eyes welled up as I walked away, partly because I was saddened that the trip was coming to an end and partly because I had seen some of the most amazing sights that this planet has to offer - and it moved me. The world truly is an amazing place and it will never cease to amaze me.

HOMEWARD BOUND
My last night in Asia was a restless one. I was up late packing and by the time I lay down to sleep it was after midnight. I was up at 4am to shower before catching the 5am shuttle to the airport with a couple of other bleary eyed travellers. My first flight to Doha, Qatar was virtually empty. Most of us stretched out in the middle seats and slept but for most of the time I was tracking our progress over the Bay of Bengal, across India to the peninsular of Qatar. Landing in the brown dusty expanse of the desert kingdom could not have been more different from the lush green of monsoon Asia I had just left. I was barely at the airport an hour before boarding my next flight to Heathrow. The flight was much fuller but somehow I managed to secure a window and an aisle seat to myself.

My good friends Scooter (Scott) and his wife Jennifer had promised to collect me from Heathrow's Terminal 3 so I was particularly anxious to get off the plane. By the time I walked through the arrivals door I had been on the go for about 17 hours but I felt fresh and excited. I spotted Scooter and Jen and collapsed into their arms - relieved that I had done it. Around the world in 14 months without being robbed, mugged or losing anything that I couldn't replace. This was the end, but there was one more surprise.

On the walk to the car I saw a girl who at first I thought I met in Thailand a few weeks ago, but when I asked her she said that she had been teaching English in Sri Lanka for the past few months. As it turned out she was at the cricket test match in Kandy when I was there with Phil at the start of May. One last case of 'small world syndrome'.

Luang Prabang, Laos

LUANG PRABANG
I spent the rest of my time in Laos with some of the people from the minivan - there were some characters among them; the McKinstry sisters, Gail and Lyn, from Belfast, Lee and Laura from Scotland and Nicola from Chichester in England. Together we took a trip out to the Tat Kuang Si waterfall, about 30km south of the town, in the back of a pick-up truck. The promised rope swing beside the falls was missing but the setting was very nice even if the water was much colder than expected. I got goose bumps for the first time this year.

Over the next few days we created our own 'breakfast club', meeting at 9am at the same restaurant to join up for some sightseeing together. We ventured up river to the beautiful Pak Ou caves, crammed with Buddha images of all shapes and sizes, and around town to the Royal Palace and the Xieng Thong temple, probably the best example of Lao style temple architecture.

Pak Ou caves near Luang Prabang

View from inside the caves

There are some fabulous French style buildings along the side streets, scores of historic temples at every turn and a wonderful relaxed atmosphere around town. The street next to the Mekong River was being repaved while I was there so there were a few disruptions and some unsightly piles of rubble around the place but once finished the waterfront will be the place to be. Although there were many differences I honestly felt like I could be in New Orleans.

Temple in Luang Prabang

One cool cat

On the day that the All Blacks beat Wales in the rugby I celebrated 400 DAYS ON THE ROAD with a couple of coffee milkshakes and a few helpings of my signature dish - lemon sugar pancakes.
After four days in Luang Prabang, Lee and Laura left for northern Laos and Nicola flew to Thailand so I joined the McKinstry sisters on the bus back to Vang Vieng. One more night and a few movies later I was heading back to Vientiane - a city I had yet to explore properly.

Tuk-tuk with the McKinstry sisters

Bangkok to Vang Vieng, Laos

LAOS
It was drizzling when the bus pulled into Vientiane. The overnight bus journey from Bangkok was superb. We had a double-decker bus with only six people on board so there was plenty of room to spread out. After a quick SARS check at the border we were in Laos - the last country for me in South East Asia left undiscovered.

Like India and Bangladesh before, Laos left some very strong first impressions. I teamed up with a young Israeli bloke called Ido and together we walked to the bus depot, via the bank where we both become millionaires. At 10,540 Kip to the dollar it wasn't difficult. At the bus station a tuk-tuk driver convinced us to take a pick-up truck to Vang Vieng instead of the bus because it would only take two and a half hours instead of five. It was only a few cents more so we got him to drive us to the pick-up station and before long we left with only a handful of people on board, plus the compulsory bag of chickens on the roof. Just past the half way point at a town called Phone Hong (sounds like phone home) the pick-up broke down so we had to wait for the next one. The next one was full but we were both squeezed on board. In Laos, no pick-up truck is ever full. I tried to keep from standing on someone’s turkey as I nestled in beside a man in army fatigues for the remainder of the journey. The man’s face was badly burnt, he only had one eye remaining, his left arm was withered and the hand was missing. Every so often he would turn his smooth expressionless face in my direction and stare at me from behind his lidless eye. Occasionally he would belch uncontrollably and then offer an apologetic smile from his permanently open mouth.

Vang Vieng didn't come quick enough - but when it did it was worth the wait. A sleepy town beside a river, surrounded by massive limestone pinnacles, plenty of cheap guesthouses and restaurants showing movies all day long. A perfect place to wind down after a year of travelling.

INNER TUBES
I stayed at a brand new nameless guesthouse in Vang Vieng for 30,000 Kip per night. It sounds like a lot but a three night stay cost just a little over US$8 for a large single room with hot water and a balcony overlooking the main street.

My guesthouse in Vang Vieng

Typical sleepy street in Vang Vieng

Apart from eating and watching movies at restaurants the main attraction of Vang Vieng is the river and the nearby caves. I spent a full day on the Nam Song river in an inner tube, slowly drifting with the current and stopping occasionally to grab a bottle of Beer Lao or explore one of the many caves beside the river. The average trip is supposed to take 2 hours but after hooking up with a New Zealand couple and a Canadian guy the Beer became a priority and the trip extended beyond 7 hours. A few industrious locals had set up make-shift Beer Lao stops along the riverside, usually consisting of a small bamboo platform and a bucket full of ice and Beer Lao.

The inner tube group by the end of our trip

As it does when staying in sleepy towns the time passed too quickly and before I knew it, it was time to move on. For the five-hour trip up to Luang Prabang I bought a seat on the air-conditioned minivan to avoid catching the local bus - which would have taken close to 8 hours.

Chennai, India

WAS MADRAS, NOW CHENNAI
Chennai is another of India's big cities. Only Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata are bigger. The heatwave in Andhra Pradesh hasn't spread as far south as Chennai but the mercury was still pushing well into the 30s when I was there.

I gave myself two full days in Chennai - the first to book my passage back to Kolkata and the second to explore the city. At the Central Railway Station I booked myself on the 30 hour Coromandel Express to Howrah Station in Kolkata and then at the Indian Airlines office secured a flight from Kolkata to Bangkok. Happy with my progress after day one I spent the evening in front of the television watching just about anything in English. Hindi language TV is perfectly awful. The volume levels of the channels are all different so as you surf through you have to turn the volume up to hear the sound on some channels while others almost blow the speakers, especially if it's some tragic Hindi music number. The programming contains about 30 channels of mindless Hindi movies with song and dance routines in ALL of them. The dancing almost always features 100 people doing the same dance but all of them perfectly out of time with each other. The locals love this stuff, and the louder the better.

The next day I took a walk beside the Kuvam River along Langs Garden Road, a beautifully named thoroughfare lined on one side with some of the most spectacularly ugly buildings on earth, made of concrete and tinted glass, overlooking the river. The other side of the street next to river was lined with slums and populated with what the Indian newspapers would euphemistically call 'economically backward people'. I was mobbed by naked children asking for all sorts of things ranging from a school pen or my sunglasses. Women hung washing over the handrail of the bridge as I stepped over piles of human excrement and puddles of fresh urine. I took some photographs so I could remember the scene but what the photos won't capture is the putrid smell of the river beside the slums. For the first time I can remember I came close to vomiting because of the smell.

I carried on towards Marina Beach but it was so hot that I had to stop every 15 minutes but when I did I was mobbed once more - not by children this time but by flies. The kind that want to land on your eyelids and lips and fly up your nose and into your ears. Before I reached the beach I found Chidambaram Stadium (Chennai's cricket ground) found an open gate leading into the ground and made my way onto the turf where NZ lost to India in 1995. The groundsman was preparing the pitch for a game the following day so I chatted with him for a while and he told of all the great games played here in the past.

The beach was an eye-opener; filthy of course but massive. From the start of the sand it took ten minutes to walk to the surf. Grown men in singlets, some in trousers and some in their underwear, were frolicking in the water acting like small children. The grown men were trampling small children while the women sat fully clothed on the beach admiring the men and fearing for the children. No Baywatch here. There were about 200 people in the water, all males save for a few pre-teen girls. Carts filled with dried fish lined the shore and men selling ice cream relentlessly rang their little bells while everyone ignored them. There were also a few ancient looking carnival rides that looked like death traps.

The beach in Chennai

Bored with the beach I walked back up the main street beside the Bay of Bengal past the Fort towards Parry's but it was much farther than I thought. I ended up jumping on a city bus and got off near the High Court, from there I knew the way back to where I was staying on Kennet Lane, near Egmore Station.

Pondicherry, India

PONDICHERRY
From Madurai I caught a Chennai bound bus but got off after six hours in the town of Villupuram, about 40km west of Pondicherry. The bus ride up to that point was slow but comfortable - the bus ride the rest of the way to Pondicherry was another white-knuckle ride in an overcrowded bus at full speed. At least I managed to secure a seat but I was right behind the driver and his suicidal overtaking manoeuvres where absolutely shocking. Thoughts turned quickly to my life insurance policies - were they paid up? What about my will?

Arriving in Pondicherry was a relief. It was after dark but I decided to walk since the guesthouse I wanted to stay at wasn't very far away. It was full, so was the next one but I found a cheap room at a prison like hotel for the night and settled in. I fell asleep straight away and then woke around midnight to have a shower. No shower in the bathroom - only a tap. I had a quick wash and decided to move hotels the next morning.
I moved to the Amala lodge after breakfast and decided to spend a day looking around town. I don't know if it was because I expected to see lots of beautiful young French women wearing berets and smoking gauloises cigarettes but I was disappointed with Pondicherry, a former French colony. Apart from a few tricolour flags and the occasional 'Rue de la this' or 'Avenue de la that' it was just another Indian town with dirty streets full of ugly concrete half finished buildings.

The Amala Lodge - my room at the top left

Bored with walking, I rented a bicycle in the afternoon and rode north to the progressive international community town of Auroville - 'an experiment in international living where people could live in peace and harmony above all creeds, politics and nationalities'. About 1500 people from over 60 countries live in the area and although it's not a tourist attraction, people come by to look and point much like they do with the Amish. The centre of the community is the Matrimandir, which acts as the spiritual and physical centre of Auroville. It looks like a really big golden golf ball. With a heat wave in southern India I couldn't stand to be outside much longer. On the hour-long ride back to Pondicherry I stopped for water three times, choking on exhaust fumes much of the way.

The Matrimandir at Auroville

Madurai, India

TEMPLE TOWN
Another long day began at 5am when the family in the neighbouring room woke me up with their early morning rituals of spitting, chanting and yelling. When I checked into the guesthouse yesterday afternoon I was the only one there. After I went to bed at 9pm a group of 38 Indian pilgrims joined the guest list. It was impossible to sleep with them around so I watched the ceiling fan and listened to some music.

Later at the bus depot I saw another unique deformity. An older man had a pair of legs with knees that bent the other way, like a flamingo, and he hobbled around using a pole to balance himself. It was disturbing to watch and I guess that was the point but before long the Chennai bound bus turned up and I grabbed the front seat. I had to move my bag around a few times before the ticket collector was happy with it but apart from that the journey was smooth and the bus only half full most of the time. I got off after six hours when we pulled into Madurai - Tamil Nadu's self proclaimed temple town.

Madurai is one of those annoying towns with the bus depot six kilometres from the town centre. At the depot instead of taking a rickshaw I jumped on what looked like a city bound bus and hoped for the best. It's times like this that I wonder why I don't just pay the extra and get taken straight to a guesthouse. The bus was crowded, I was sweating still wearing my 20kg backpack and everyone was amused by the fact that I was obviously lost. After taking a gamble and jumping off I discovered that I was right where I needed to be - on one of the Veli streets. In the 1840s the British East India Company destroyed the city fort and filled in the moat. Four broad streets - the Veli streets north, south, east and west - were constructed on top of the fill and today define the limits of the old city. I passed a few interesting looking guesthouses including one called Hotel Excellent, which reminded me of my sister-in-law Julie. I could hear her saying 'excellent' over in my head followed by a little chuckle. I settled for the New College House, room 540, a massive hotel which I think should be renamed Hotel Ordinary. The counter staff promised me a television in my room but the excitement wore off when the floor attendant told me that it didn't work. No matter - nothing to watch anyway.

The Sri Meenakshi Temple in Madurai

Madurai is a popular pilgrimage place for Hindu's. Really you could say that about every second town in India given the volume of Indian tourists that do the circuit, but the Sri Meenakshi Temple is a classic Hindu temple decorated with images of gods, goddesses, animals and mythical figures and seething with pilgrims, tourists and the mandatory touts. I spent an hour or so wandering around the grounds, trying to avoid the crowds before the sun went down, then retreated to the main street for a cup of chai.

Blessed

Tomorrow I'll try and get as far as Pondicherry but the connections from here aren't very good. It would be much easier to go all the way to Chennai. Sometimes a challenge is good though.

Colombo to Kanyakumari

TAMIL NADU
I'm lying face down on my bed under the ceiling fan at four in the afternoon. The fan slows and finally stops. The lights don't turn on when I flick the switch. The power has just gone out. It's 33c outside and about the same in my room. I put my shirt on and walk outside, turning right at the end of the street onto Main Road. 200 metres later Main Road ends and I'm standing in the bathing ghats of Cape Comorin - the southern most point in India. In front of me the Arabian Sea meets the Bay of Bengal. A few hundred metres off-shore to my left is a massive statue of Swami Vivekananda, a religious crusader, looking towards the mainland. The sea breeze helps to cool a little but it's still hot and muggy with no clouds in sight. Standing here I can't help but think of the overland trip from Calcutta, up into Nepal and then all the way here via bus and train, except for a brief foray into Sri Lanka from Trivandrum. I don't want to congratulate myself too much just yet as I still have to negotiate my way back up the east coast to Calcutta again, but it's a good feeling standing where I am. It’s easy to find on the map too.

Statue of Swami Vivekananda, Kanyakumari

It's been a long day, starting from Negombo at 4am with a bus to near the airport. I say near the airport because although the destination on the front of the bus said 'airport' I still had to walk for about 30 minutes to get inside the complex. After a long check-in and a brief flight I had to wait two hours at the Trivandrum bus depot for the next bus heading south so I didn't make Kanyakumari until late in the afternoon. Although I had planned on catching another bus north to Madurai to finish the day I felt exhausted and thought it would be best to call it a day. I've only been back in India for half a day but it's taking its toll already. Tomorrow night I'll be in Madurai, the following night in Pondicherry then Chennai.