Those Beautiful Buffalo Tapes

Hvilke spøkelser har du i ditt musikalske skap?
Jeg er midt i mitt livs musikkprosjekt - jeg flytter alle skivene fra min gamle, hjemmesnekrede Access-base til Collectorz noe mer innholdsrike og fancy samleverktøy. Manuelt. Det er noe drit, og jeg kommer aldri til å finne på noe slikt som dette igjen, for det ligger så begredelig mye gal informasjon der ute på verdensveven at jeg uansett må korrigere nesten alt som er på hver eneste skive jeg legger inn og søker opp.

Men, uansett, sutring til side, det er selvfølgelig en artig mulighet til å gjenoppleve en del av rarietetene i samlingen sin. Hva sies om Espen Linds Red (derav tittelen, tok du den?), Trine Reins Beneath My Skin, Mariah Careys Music Box eller Boyzones Where We Belong? For ikke å glemme alle de fantastiske singlene jeg er i besittelse av... ting som 2 Become 1 av Spice Girls, The Boy Is Mine av Brandy & Monica og Hey-ya Hey-ya av Andreas Lundstedt (han var dritkjekk, altså, det var først senere han ble overtestosteronisert gay queen!) kommer hoppende mot meg som små, rosa syretrippende frosker og jeg grøsser når jeg ser prislappene som fremdeles klynger seg til jewel casene. Jeg ga for eksempel 69,50 for Shawn Mullins Lullaby-single tilbake i -99. Ikke for det, det er en bra låt, men give me a break! Det er jo mer enn jeg liker å betale for _skiver_ nå for tiden! Og da levde jeg på studielån!

Jeg har gjort tre helt fabelaktige oppdagelser denne helgen:
Frou Frou - Details (2002)
The National - Boxer (2007)
The Feeling - Twelve Stops And Home (2006)

Your Songs Don't Come So Easy

Jeg har tidligere uttalt meg om Stephen Fretwells skive Magpie i, la oss kalle en krakk en krakk, litt kjedelige ordelag. Låten Bad bad you, bad bad me har jeg endog disset så det sang i veggene. I take it all back. Vet ikke hva som har forandret seg siden jeg hørte den sist, men det er en aldeles bedårende plate :)

Tallinntur med NIVOS-trening av de baltiske forhandlerne, Saku Gold, DM-bar og flotte kirker er vel overstått, akkurat som påfølgende dager i Amsterdam med testgruppe, Amstel, Heineken og indisk mat. Jeg har nå hatt Erlend på besøk et par dager i Helsinki, hvilket viste seg å være meget innbringende for min leilighets innredning. Nye skap er oppført i stua, og i morgen skal jeg skru sammen kommode. Han skiftet til og med halogenpærer i stuetaket! Veldig greit når man er liten og blond, at man har en stor og sterk kjæreste som kan ta seg av det vanskelige :D

Nå skal det jobbes og pustes ut gjennom august, før det braker løs med mer eller mindre sammenhengende systemtesting i Amsterdam i hele september. I oktober blir det systemlansering med påfølgende brannslukking, og så håper jeg at jeg får tatt en tur til Kina i november. Har tiden alltid gått så avsindig fort?

Ønskeliste nett no:
Fields - Everything Last Winter
Starsailor - Love Is Here
Thirteen Senses - Contact

Laos - Easter 2007, Luang Prabang III and Mekong

As part of our trip, we knew we wanted to experience the Mekong. It might not seem like a big deal to some, but I am afraid that if the Chinese get their way and are allowed to blast through all the rapids that block heavy weight freight transports down the river, the sense of being in the middle of history you get from this river will disappear. We set out for a half day trip to see the Buddha caves, not so much for the caves, more for the river.

We did the trip by slow boat, as the travel itself was the entire point for us. We saw some tourists blasting by in speed boats, and I must say I understand why those things kill people. Hit one piece of floating debris, and you're done for. Along the way, we stopped in a village where they produced Laos whiskey. Erlend got to taste this later the same evening while I was enjoying a facial, and apparently it was something along the line of the Chinese rice liqour.

The Buddha caves were not very interesting, if you've seen similar shrines in China you've seem them done better. The main cave was pitch dark, but Erlend's teeth led the way :D It was possible to rent torches outside, but I don't think we missed too much. This was, by the way, the only place in Laos where I had a feeling of being amongst tourists. You don't mind the solitary backpacker you come across every once in a while, but here they were everywhere. Going back down to the boat from the caves, the steps were lined with kids selling tiny birds in cages. The animal lover in me cried, but you can't buy them even to set them free, as that only encourages the practice.

Returning to Luang Prabang was much faster than getting to the caves, as we were now travelling down river. We got a last chance to absorb a little dose of life on the Mekong, kids washing clothes along the banks, people fishing from land and from boat, and men throwing out nets in the shallows.

Getting on a boat was easy, the city is packed with tour operators offering trips like these. You would, however, probably get a cheaper deal if you just venture down to the river bank where the slow boats are lined up and talk directly to one of the drivers.

Upon returning from the river, we had dinner and watched some more of the water festivities while having a couple of drinks in the main street. We then checked out of our hotel, caught a tuk-tuk, got splashed to the bone one last time, and were on our way to the airport. The same evening we flew to Vientiane, the capitol of Laos, where we stayed one night in a hotel close to the airport before we returned to China the next morning, Vientiane - Kunming - Beijing.

r trip to Laos was rather short, as we only had a limited number of days to spend due to Erlends work schedule. We only got to see the northern parts, and I would still like to see the rest of the country, with Luang Prabang as the starting point. Laos Airlines are supposed to initiate direct routes between Kunming and Luang Prabang this fall, which means it will be quicker to get there. Hopefully, we will be able to use the city as a starting point for our next Asian adventure - Cambodia :)

When we planned this trip, one of the problems we had was that few sites really gave the answers we were looking for on specifics, like transfer times, bus schedules, distances etc. Neither does this blog, to be honest, but if you have any questions you would like to ask us, please feel free to e-mail me on arduinna@hotmail.com.

Laos - Easter 2007, Luang Prabang II

It is a bit difficult to convey just how much I loved this city and why. As mentioned, it reminded me of this romantic notion I have of New Orleans, but that's only part of it. We spent quite a lot of time just walking around in the streets, taking in the atmosphere. I've seen a lot of cities around the world by now, but I've never felt so much at ease anywhere else.

The second day in Luang Prabang, we had breakfast in the Scandinavian bakery. It was not really very Scandinavian, but they had good Laos coffee and great baguettes (the French heritage again). Erlend also got to read a newspaper, while I wrote postcards.

The main object of this day was to confirm our flight tickets to Vientiane, and to see the city. The flight ticket part was rather easy, the girls in the ticket office spoke good English, and as soon as the lunch break was over it took us 10 minutes to finish.

Due to the heat, we would everywhere see dogs lying in the streets, too overheated to go anywhere and be active. Buses would all the time almost run them over, and honk their horns ferociously (we never saw any dog get hurt, though). During our walk in Luang Prabang, we came across a cat resting in a bird house, and just as I produced my camera to photograph it, another one jumped up to keep her company. So cute!

We did some more sightseeing that day, visited some vats, had a massage and a few drinks. Other backpackers had caught on to the idea of getting people wet, hence the streets were filled with local children and young (and not so young) westerners throwing water at each other. We also had another couple of close encounters with gekkos, shopped some more in the night market, and just missed yet another thunder storm.

Laos - Easter 2007, Luang Prabang

Ooh, heaven is a place on earth :)

I've always had a crush on the thought of old New Orleans. Laos used to be a French colony, and this city really testifies to that. The streets are lined with low, beautiful buildings with wrought iron fences and wondrous details in windows and roofs. Luang Prabang is a very green city, with flowers, potted plants and palm trees everywhere. Mr. Thone from The Boat Landing recommended a hotel to us, which we proceeded to check in to and love. The garden outside our room was beautiful, and the hotel was located in the middle of the "better" part of town. Again, a bit upscale, but definitely worth it.

Our first introduction to Luang Prabang was colored by children splashing us with water. We had arrived in the days before the Laos New Year celebration, and part of the tradition is to splash people with water. Hence there were kids everywhere, armed with water guns and buckets full of water. Somewhat of a shock, but very funny to watch from a safe place :) We spent a while strolling around the night market, doing some shopping, and returned to the hotel just before another crazy thunder storm broke loose, accompanied by heavy rain.

Shopping in Laos was a pleasant surprise. Unlike the indoors markets in Beijing, where the young girls will tear your arm off to get your attention (and money), these people are very relaxed when it comes to tourists. You wanna buy, you wanna buy, if not I'm not gonna make a fuzz! Everyone are very polite, easy to talk to, and indefinitely helpful, but at the same time relaxed. Very nice indeed.

Laos - Easter 2007, Luang NamTha to Luang Prabang

April 10th was a very early morning for our two Nordic travellers. We had on the previous night been advised by the staff that we would get an opportunity to catch a ride with Bicycle Bob, who was anyway going to Udomxai, where we would be able to get bus transfer to Luang Prabang. He would leave around 8, so we got up a little past 6 to pack, have breakfast and get ready. While we were enjoying our wonderful cup of Laos coffee, it started to dawn on us that no-one were particuarly stressed out by the fact that things were drawing late and we had not yet been picked up. Finally we realized there is actually an hour time difference between China and Laos, hence we were operating on an earlier time zone!! This goes to show just how relaxed Laos is, it took us two days to even have an inkling that our clocks were all wrong.

Apparently it is easy to get bus transfers from Luang NamTha to Udomxai, but after travelling the stretch in question we were very happy to have been seated in a big, comfortable 4x4 and not an old, outdated mini bus. The roads are _horrible_, and without motion sickness pills I do not think I would have been ok. However, we got to see even more of the country side, and it was lovely. The trip took about three hours but would probably be at least two hours longer by mini bus - hence it was worth the extra four or five dollars we paid compared to the bus fare.

Udomxai was not a place we would have wanted to stay, but we hung out at the airport for a short while, socializing with the staff and listening to the hundreds of roosters making a racket all around town. The distance between the airport and bus station is about 300 meters, so don't worry if you initially end up in the wrong place. With some questions we were able to locate the bus station and get on a bus.

This final leg of Laos bus transport proved to be the worst yet, in my view. The bus was horribly run down, and it was so packed with people it's a wonder no-one fell off. We did, however, make it to Luang Prabang without any major disasters. This bus ride is long, so anything you can do to start it as early as possible is good. I think we were on the bus for five hours, or even more. It would probably be one and a half, two hours on western standard roads, but there's no such thing in Laos :)

Laos - Easter 2007, Luang NamTha

So, what to eat when in Laos? We did some research before the trip, and had already concluded that we might lose some weight during the trip. Intestines and other disturbing things play a role in the Laos cuisine we did not really feel like exploring. We were, however, qurious about the sticky rice concept that all accounts went on about, and yay! Rice, my friend, is not rice when it comes in this sticky shape :)

During our first night in Laos I had to deal with a couple of issues:
- My arachnophobia. As it turns out, I never saw any spiders inside our room, hence that worked out well. I was a bit worried during that first evening, though.
- WEIRD noises! At one point, this one extremely disturbing sound was right above our heads. I was already a bit out there from the malaria tablets, having nightmares like never before, and combined with the nightly opera of the local fauna we were headed for disaster. I woke Erlend up in a sudden pang of total panic as I had a dream that the sound came from a huge cat that had just jumped on to our bed, but he chose to not get up and investigate, and rather advice me to stay put and sleep. Gee, thanks! (I later found out that the sound was, off course, a gekko, and it was not in the room, but inside the roof. Gekkos were everywhere!)

April 9th we enjoyed a breakfast with Laos coffee, which was every bit as perfect as Laos beer. We then commenced to rent a couple of bicycles from TBL, and they gave us a map of the area to go by. Ha ha. The scaling of maps in that country is something else, I'll tell you! No matter, we had a lovely day. It was a bit hot, and a bit humid, but not too bad. Besides, the lovely scenery more than gave us our money's worth. Erlend had a slight freaking out incident as a cricket sat on his shorts, but he masked his nerves brilliantly by taking it's picture.

After cycling a route I still don't really understand, we ended up back in Luang NamTha, where we had dinner at the local Indian restaurant. The food was ok, but when I came back out from a visit to the toilet and was washing my hands, I looked in the mirror and behold: Above the door to the toilet was one of the dreaded monsterously huge spiders, self contently looking at me and probably planning to jump me any minute. I'm just glad I didn't notice it while I was in the bathroom before going out, because I would have stayed there for the rest of my life.

When we got back to The Boat Landing we were both slightly sunburnt, but very happy with the day. As we sat down for dinner, another wild thunderstorm erupted, and we had to take shelter in another part of the restaurant because things were blowing off tables and the place was in a state of general disorder. The restaurant in the lodge is very open, you can see the Namtha river, and the lightning storm was crazy. In short, we had a great evening :)

Laos - Easter 2007, Boten to Luang NamTha

I think the entering of Laos itself worked magic on our cardiac rythms. The mobile coverage was non-existent, unless you bought pre-paid Laos network sim cards (which we quickly decided to not even consider), and everything had a different pace. The difference from the Chinese way of life was striking, but good.

We found a tuk-tuk that was heading for Luang Nam Tha, our first real destination in Laos. The Laos tuk-tuks are small, retired Chinese lorries that have been converted into open back people-and-goods carriers. It can be quite a windy trip, but fortunately for this first experience we were well equipped with hooded jackets to keep the wind and dust out of our eyes.

The Lonely Planet guide and other guide books I've read list Luang NamTha as a rather boring place. Don't let them fool you, if you play your cards right, and depending on your budget, this might be the closest to paradise you have ever been. We arrived, quarreled a bit about where to go, but quickly settled down in a roadside café/bar/dump with a beer. The second we pulled out our books and stuck our noses into the beer glasses, vacation was upon us. Laos Beer - Hallelujah!

April is the last month of the dry season in Laos, hence the city was very dusty. We also experienced ash rains, caused by the Chinese lumber companies that go to Laos, cut down forests and burn the grounds to secure fertility after they've wrecked havoc on the environment. Thoughtful of them... This is where the budget issue comes into play:

If you are in Luang NamTha and on a strict backpacker regime, you will want to live in the centre of the city. It's packed with hostels that are very cheap and close to the bus terminal, and as this is a hub for people travelling along the road route to and from China, you will find other backpackers to hang around with. If you do this, however, you will not want to stay there for long. As we did not have any specific economic constrains and knew we didn't feel like stressing, we decided to locate The Boat Landing, a place mentioned in every single review we've read of this place, to see if they had any free rooms. The double rooms are around 30 USD per night, which is a big step up from budget Laos room rate.

We arrived at The Boat Landing (for Christ's sake, take a tuk-tuk from the centre, it's a long walk!), and they gave us a cabin for two nights. Not a room, a cabin. A lovely, lovely cabin, in Laos. I could have stayed here until my heart gave out. The place is an ecotourism lodge, so your environmental conscience stays relatively clean. The staff led by Mr. Thone speaks good English and is incredibly helpful, and the food is good. This is where I would go if I needed to find myself.

Laos - Easter 2007, Mengla to Boten

Good morning, Mengla, and Happy Birthday, Erlend!
April 8th was Erlends 30th birthday, and a rather uneventful such in the normal birthday sense of the world. We had read that the Mengla-Boten border crossing closed at 17:00, hence it shouldn't be a problem to make it on time, but we wanted to get as much travelling done as possible early in the day. We had excellent breakfast baozi with the locals in the market behind the hotel, and spent some time strolling around the spice stalls before we checked out.

We were not completely clear on how far we would have to venture to reach the bus station where we could get a connection to the border, but locals we met in the streets were rather acommodating when we showed them the guide books. The southern bus station is about half a kilometre away from the northern one, on the same side of the street. Ask someone, because it's a bit hidden away.

Getting a ticket for the border was no problem, and it was very cheap. We shared a mini bus with a bunch of young military men carrying a variety of packed goods you wouldn't believe. Due to the heavy rains the evening before, road conditions were poor to say the least. Asphalt was nowhere in sight, and the mud was deep and slippery. Along the way we caught glimpses of, and even got to drive on, parts of the new highway they're working on that will connect Southern China with the southern neighbouring countries.

The mud soon brought us more trouble than we cared for. As Erlend is a rather laid back character who lives in China and therefore thinks he's intitled to total relaxation when he goes on holiday, he chose not to exit the vehicle when we got stuck in the mud. I got out to help the Chinese soldiers push, but I don't know if it helped much. It took us quite a while to get loose, all the while Erlend was sitting in the bus being a turist :D He didn't even take any pictures of my heroic efforts!

The border crossing was not exactly the most interesting place ever. We got our papers right on the Chinese side (took 5 minutes), dumped some oranges we had carried along for the bus ride but knew we would never eat, and decided to walk on through to the Laos side instead of taking a tuk-tuk. You can easily skip this and save yourself twenty minutes of walking, however it was rather nice to see and hear the tropic environment without the roar of engines. It was also around this time we realized our cell phones were not responding the way they should, and the thought that maybe Laos was one of those countries you've heard of but never been to without any mobile network started introducing itself to our stressed out business senses.

We had read the visa was supposed to cost 25 dollars, but apparently the prices had gone up a bit. The list of visa prices was really entertaining! Remember that Laos is a "people's republic", and not very democratically inclined. It was a bit funny to see the countries lined up like this... in how many countries would North Koreans have an easier time getting a visa than Norwegians, and since when is everything cheaper if you're Swedish?

Getting the visa took us approximately half an hour. You need to have a couple of passport photos with you for the application, but all documents are provided at the crossing. The staff speak english, and compared to getting into China this was easy. Note that it is somewhat unorganized, so if someone steps in front of you in the queues you just push them aside and all will be well.

Laos - Easter 2007, Beijing to Mengla

This April, my boyfriend and I travelled to Laos. Initially, we were planning on going to Cambodia, but I somehow got sidetracked in the planning. I will never regret it though, Laos is a country unlike any other I've visited, and I would recommend it to anyone.

We got up before the sun in Beijing (you do not see the Beijing streets this void of cars or people very often), April 7th, to go to the airport for our first leg of transport, to Kunming. Kunming is the capital of the Yunnan province in China, and a rather normal chinese city. I'd been there before, and had seen the stone forest and the other attractions in the area. Erlend had never seen the place, nor did he get to this time around as we only stayed in the airport waiting for our transfer to Jinghong, in the Xishuangbanna prefecture.

Beforehand, we were not sure whether we would have to stay a night in Jinghong, or if we would be able to transfer on to Mengla by bus the same day. All the resources we found on the internet told us the last buses left around 14:00, and as our flight arrived around 14:30 we were prepared to spend the night in this city that neither of us had any previous attachement to. However, when we landed and rushed on to the southern bus station (bring a guide book description of the China-Laos route through Mengla and show it to a taxi driver), there was still at least one more bus, and we got on it.

Reading about Laos and the road conditions there, we were prepared that we might be in for a bumpy ride. The transport leg between Jinghong and Mengla might have been the scariest part if you ask Erlend, though! Chinese drivers are not very safe in general, and bus drivers are crazy. As it turns out, southern minibus drivers are the craziest of all, and the roads are rather horrible. I had however taken a motion sickness pill, and stayed calm for the duration of the bus trip :)

I loved the bus ride, we saw a China I have not seen since my round trip in 2004. Yunnan is a tropical province, and the flora is very different from that of the Beijing area. On the first half of the ride a little boy was sitting on the other side of the aisle from Erlend, carrying a net of baby turtles. In the back, the local men were smoking, spitting and snoring - business as usual. Towards the end of the trip, the thunder storm of the century broke loose, and I'm amazed the driver could see anything through the carpet of water that was blocking his view.

We got to Mengla around 20:00 in the evening, and the city turned out to be of as little interest as all guide books had promised. We found a fast food place serving chicken burgers, and had a beer at a local roof top bar. The hotel was right across the street from the northern bus station (you go out the gates, and it's on the other side of the street, about thirty meters down the road), and not very good. It was, however, cheap and clean enough to not panic.

Definitive song of the day: The Fray - How To Save A Life

It Changes Me That Way Again

Bloggtørke er dagens tema.
Noen ganger er det altfor mye som skjer i livet på den andre siden skjermen til at jeg har ork til å feste det hele på nett. Kort oppsummert har jeg vært i Kina og Laos på påskeferie, og det var meget fint. Jeg elsket Laos på en måte jeg aldri har elsket et reisemål før, og jeg kommer definitivt til å reise tilbake for å få det med meg igjen før industrialiseringen og kapitalismen trenger seg inn dit også. Kan anbefales for alle, men husk gode bøker og reisesyketabletter for bussturene :)

Jeg har reist mye med jobben de siste månedene, og verre blir det. De neste tre ukene skal tilbringes i Helsinki, Oslo, Arvika (ikke jobb, dog), Tallinn og Amsterdam. Arbeidsoppgavene begynner å stabilisere seg noe i takt med at vi nå er fulltallige i teamet. Det føles godt å ha nok tid til å komme seg gjennom de viktige tingene på dagen, og kun jobbe sene kvelder når jeg avslutter prosjekter. Har derfor rukket å få med meg litt sommer også :D

Apropos sommer... jeg er ikke lenger 15. Rynkene som formerer seg rundt øynene viser at jeg nå har hatt litt vel mange somre uten solfaktor, så det er vel på tide å ta sjefsbeslutningen om at det kun er kunstbruning som gjelder for min del resten av livet. Har funnet ut at lærhuden til min kjære tante ikke er det jeg trakter etter med det første...

Tirsdag bærer det avsted til Oslo, der Erlend og James Hetfield venter. Metallica på Valle Hovin blir stas, og den andre av konserter jeg har gledet meg til i sommer. Så The Killers i en av ishallene i Helsinki for et par uker siden, og det var helt fabelaktig. På torsdag morgen bærer det så avgårde til Arvika, for femte året på rad. Jeg gleder meg så fryktelig, mange venner jeg ikke har sett på et halvår og lenger kommer til å være der. Stiller som vanlig med kamera, urolige danseføtter og utrolig godt humør :)

Det kommer en engelsk sammenfatning av Laos-turen, i og med at en av tingene jeg slet med da jeg planla den var mangelen på gode engelske forklaringer på saker og ting, og jeg skal bli flinkere til å legge ut bilder. Håper jeg og Erlend husker å være flinke til å dokumentere Tallinn-turen :)

Livet behandler meg vel, jeg håper alle har det godt!