Vientiane to Luang Prabang

Oct 23

We were up at 6:30 to grab a quick breakfast, no leisurely coffee run this morning, as we caught a plane early for Luang Prabang. It was a 50 minute flight and we were met by a shuttle service to our guesthouse. Luang Prabang is at the juncture of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers, a small town that was the former royal capital of Lane Xang and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are temples, art deco shop houses and colonial facades. We checked into our charming guest house with its six rooms. Ours was huge, with a king size bed and large bathroom. We unpacked and took off to explore our neighborhood. We immediately got disoriented as one of the guesthouse employees gave us the wrong name of the street on which the guesthouse was located. and as a result we had trouble with our map. We bumbled around and asked someone at a tour agency to give us some directions. We quickly realized how small the town center really is and that there were four streets that took us where ever we needed to go.

Our guesthouse is two blocks from the Mekong and about three from the Nam Khan river. We visited a wat with a 5 tiered roof that symbolizes bird wings; then headed up the hill to visit the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Center. They had a display of traditional textiles, mostly clothing from the four major ethnic groups in Laos and how the traditions are changing. For instance the women now buy black cloth instead of weaving it or they use plastic beads instead of glass and they use aluminum ornaments instead of silver. The clothing was ornate and exquisite cotton. The colors were bright reds, oranges, pinks and greens often on black backgrounds. Headdresses, turbans and hats decorated heavily with silver or aluminum baubles or stitchery. The gift shop had items made by people from the four groups and half the proceeds is returned to those to made the textiles that are being sold. When we couldn’t find anything we thought would work as a gift,  we made a cash donation to support the important work the center is doing to help people maintain their lifestyle.

We walked back down the hill and ate at a little Lao café where we sat outside. It isn’t quite as hot here as Vientiane. Then we visited the Royal Palace Museum. Unlike its former occupants the palace survived the 1975 revolution and was converted into a museum the following year. During the second Indochina War the Pathet Lao cut short the royal lineage, forcing   King Sisavang Vatthana to abdicate and sent him to a re-education camp in NE Laos where he, his wife and son died from starvation.

The French built the palace for the Lao King Sisavang Vong in

1904 in an attempt to bind him and his family more tightly into the colonial system of government. The palace is Khmer in style although designed by a French architect. The palace was left in tact just as it had been when occupied by the royal family. We toured the palace with the entrance hall which was used for royal religious ceremonies, the King’s reception room and the private apartments with the bedrooms of the king and queen and the children.  Outside the palace on the right of the entrance is a small room that houses the Pra Bang or Golden Buddha from which the city derived its name. The Pra Bang is 90% pure gold. We walked around back of the palace and saw the auto collection of the royal family. My fave was the Edsel! One of the workers there was selling some needlework, and of course we bought one. $2.00

We went back to our guesthouse, showered, napped and read. We walked to a Lao restaurant a couple of blocks from our hotel for dinner and sat outside and had a traditional Lao meal. Then we walked downtown to the night market. OMG it was swarmed. This is tourist town and they were out in droves as were the locals. Ninety percent of what we saw was traditional Lao textiles, absolutely beautiful but I need another textile like a hole in my head…not that would stop me from buying one I couldn’t live without.

Ron and I are reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt so we were eager to get back to our e-readers and our room. This is almost 800 pages that grips you from the first page and gets better and better.

Oct 24

 After a lovely breakfast where I told Ron I thought the owner, Vong, had traveled abroad  given the breakfast we had: baguettes that tasted like Paris, fresh pineapple, real fruit juice, a muffin that was flavorful and moist, eggs to order and surprise, GOOD coffee! It turns out he worked 18 years for a French company that owned a five star restaurant in Luang Prabang. He learned the trade well and we felt like we had a five star guesthouse. 

After breakfast Vong took us to the Kuang Si Falls about 30 km out

of town. What a treat! The countryside around LP is lush with mountains, forests and jungles. We passed many small villages and farms. The falls required a short hike to see them and they were gorgeous, cascading over a series of rocks and pooling into turquoise ponds, one after another downstream. Some people were swimming in the water but we opted out.

We also visited a bear rescue center and got to see a number of bears in large enclosed areas where they could roam, climb and sleep in a protected, covered enclosed area as well. I can’t name the various species we saw but can say they looked very different from our bears. One had a cowl of hair around its neck, one was thin but the information board said it didn’t matter how much it ate this was its normal size. Very unlike our fat round bears.

On the way back we stopped at a Hmong village. There was a sign posted

saying there was a project to help the Hmong to be self supporting. It manifested as a crude sidewalk that ran through the village in a semi circle, starting and ending by the roadside. Along the sidewalk were about 30 little stands, rough tables, staffed mostly by adorable children in traditional costumes. One must have been all of two years old but all seemed to know how to ask in English for the tourists to buy there wares. The poverty was evident. Some actually begged us to buy saying they had no money. Most stands had identical items: small bookmarks, coin purses, and some larger items such a bedcovers, pillow covers or wall hangings. It was heart breaking as it was impossible to buy from each person. We had a similar experience when we visited a village in Zambia, only it was grown men asking us to buy their carvings. We did buy an item and we did go through the entire village but we left feeling badly that we couldn’t do more. We had failed to bring any small denomination bills of kip or baht with us.

Before getting in our truck to go back to town, Vong was across the

road and encouraged us over to see a cotton demonstration. Here there was a live cotton plant, a small wooden device that had a hand crank to remove the seeds from the cotton. It reminded me of a ringer washer. Next the cotton was fluffed then spun and then woven.  A great couple showed us the process and of course we needed to buy something. The woman put a shawl around my neck and it was my colors so we bought it but required change. She brought a cotton shawl over that was manly and we bought it as well so no change was needed. We all went away happy.

We went back to the guesthouse and walked down the street and had another simple rice noodle Lao meal with chicken.

We proceeded to Wat Xieng Thong which is considered the finest example of a Lao monastery with graceful, low sweeping eaves, beautiful mosaics and intricate carvings. It was built in 1559 and is one of the few buildings to have survived the successive Chinese raids that marked the end of the 19 th century. The interiors were a brilliant red and gold. One of the chapels houses a rare 16^th century reclining Buddha in bronze. The exterior mosaics were added in 1957 to honor the 2500^th anniversary of the Buddha’s life, death and enlightenment. They are brightly colored glass in reds, blues and greens. 

The Chapel of the Funeral Chariot housed the grand 12 meter high gilded wooden hearse, with its seven headed serpent, which was built for King Sisavang Vong, father of the last sovereign and used to carry his urn to the stadium next to the temple where he was cremated in 1959. Originally the urns would have held the bodies of the deceased in the fetal position until cremation.

We walked around the point where the two rivers converged and continued walking along the Nam Khan in search of a recommended restaurant. We preferred to find it in the light of day. We found it after about 15 minutes and made a reservation. From here we went to an internet café to catch up on emails. Then we went to a shop that sold baked goods as we would be leaving at 0 stupid 30 in the morning before breakfast and weren’t sure if the small airport would have any food service. Back to our guesthouse to rest and refresh before dinner. It’s a good thing we found this place earlier in the day because I got turned around and we went in the wrong direction at a critical turn. After stopping and asking for directions we got there easily. I am grateful we made reservations as we saw numerous people turned away. We ordered their ‘five bites’ which was a sampler of Lao snacks and it was delicious. I had a great cool drink made from fresh ginger and lemon grass while Ron had a lime drink. We also ordered a barbequed cured pork wrapped in lemon grass which was fantastic. Both came with sticky rice. Neither of us could fit in a dessert. We dined al fresco, my favorite way to eat. It was the perfect meal to end our brief tour of Laos. Neither of us would change anything about our week of travel…well maybe a lower temperature would have been nice but heck it is all part of the adventure. We ended the night with a really bad massage. Unfortunately the place that had been recommended by Vong was fully booked so we just picked a place and the technicians were not trained and the woman who gave me my massage was either pinching me or it felt like she was throwing me around.  When I asked her to lighten up, go easy, be softer she would look at me then go right ahead as before. If I hadn’t had a wonderful $6 massage in Vientiane I wouldn’t complain. It is a tough life Ron and I are living and now you can see just how tough it really is! HA!

Oct 25

We got up at 5:00. I had been awake off and on since 2:30 when a crazy rooster started crowing. He would stop then start up again. By 5:00 the neighborhood of roosters were going at it. We packed, and got dressed and one of the staff made us some coffee. We always tip the people who clean the room but we gave him a tip as well as he certainly didn’t have to make us coffee that time of the morning. Vong dropped us off at the airport and we boarded our plane at 7:15. After everyone was settled we were instructed to get off the plane because they couldn’t land in Bangkok because of thunderstorms. Fortunately about 20 minutes later we re-boarded and took off with no problems arriving in BKK. In BKK, we were once again the first ones in line for passport control. There have been times where we spent 45 minutes going through passport control due to the number of people in line. We were thrilled. After collecting our luggage we went downstairs and bought bus tickets to Hua Hin. We had about an hour’s wait and then boarded a large comfy bus that was mostly full. It took four hours to get to Hua Hin due to really bad traffic in BKK. We had picked up some ‘to go’ Thai food at the airport and it was really bad: processed pork...ick. One step away from Spam. I ate a few bites and gave up.

When we arrived at the Hua Hin bus terminal someone had mistakenly taken our luggage and left theirs. We were in a panic and told the attendant who ran out front to the taxi stand. I ran around the station to see if the person was still there with no luck. The taxi stand person called one of the drivers who had left and sure enough caught him and he returned with our luggage. The customer who was a Canadian got out of the taxi and apologized. He said his luggage had 30 steaks in it. He was so glad to get his luggage as were we to get ours. I preferred my dirty clothes to his 30 steaks any day! We called Avis who sent someone to pick us up. After doing the paperwork we headed to Tesco Lotus to shop for groceries and grab a quick bite (a salad bar at Sizzler no less) before heading to Phetchaburi, about 45 minutes north.

When we arrived home around 8:00 we were thrilled to learn Pa Cha An had returned from the hospital in BKK that day. We were amazed as we thought she would be in the hospital for two months. She must be like Ron’s mom who always healed in record time. The amazing thing is Pa Cha An is 91 years old! Go girl. We briefly visited with her and the family (lots were here this weekend) after we had put away the groceries and unpacked. We discovered that today was Ai’s birthday so we came back to our house and wrapped up the silk shawl I had bought in Laos and took it back up to the house and sang Happy Birthday to her. I went to sleep around 9:30 and Ron joined me shortly thereafter.

Lovely Laos

Oct 20

Our bus to Vientiane was a huge, comfortable AC bus and it was packed. It took another two hours toThailand, get through the same at the Laos border and get into Vientiane and catch a tuk tuk to our guesthouse. When we first saw our room I was a bit disappointed. It seemed small and so did the bathroom. When I realized it cost $36 a night, had AC, a refrigerator where I could keep my prescription eye drops, a many channeled TV with BBC news, free wifi with computers for guests use and a breakfast with eight choices from the menu and you could choose any two, I had a change of heart.

get through passport control at the border of

After checking in we wandered around the neighborhood to get a feel for where we were. I also needed a laundry but couldn’t find one. We went back to the hotel to cool down before venturing out to dinner and it turned out the guesthouse provided the laundry service at a reasonable rate.. We decided to splurge and went to a lovely French restaurant. I am not sure when the French colonists left Laos but I would guess around the 1950’s-60’s. Because we are traveling for seven months to seven countries we didn’t bring seven travel books with us. We cut out the pages from each book of the cities we plan to visit as a way to lighten our load. Although this restaurant was highly recommended in our book it had an outdated address. It worked out well as the restaurant was an easy walk from our hotel. The meal was superb. I appreciate what the French left in terms of their culinary arts. The restaurant was small, located above another restaurant owned by the same people I think. It had an understated, serene atmosphere and decor and was romantic with fresh flowers on each table. The artwork, two large format photos of Laotian women that looked like paintings at first, complimented the ambiance. We shared a salad of mixed greens and great French baguette. Ron had chicken breast in a curry sauce with sweet potato mousse and veggies and I had a fabulous tilapia with veggies and a corn relish. We were back at the hotel by 9:30 and in bed, ready for a good night’s sleep. The heat here really sapped us. It is 91 degrees but feels like 101 due to humidity according to weather.com.

Oct 21

I failed to mention that in Laos the vendors, restaurants and hotels all will accept Thai baht, US dollars or the local currency. One US dollar equates to 8,048 Lao kip. Not a quick conversion when trying to calculate how much something costs. The reality is nothing seems to cost much here. We got up at 7:00 and walked down to the Mekong River. There weren’t any good photo ops because from the looks of it there is a large variation in the river level and so this time of year there was a long sandy stretch between the road and the river. We assumed this was the flood plain area. We stopped at a Swedish café on the way back and treated ourselves to a good cup of coffee. There isn’t a Starbucks here but it isn’t necessary as the French left their mark in that regard as well I think. Our breakfast at the hotel is served in the garden courtyard with wonderful plantings. See photo. The menu had eight choices such as: eggs to order with baguette, croissant, fruit plate, waffle, banana crepe, and two or three Asia

dishes. Breakfast was included in the room price.

We set out on foot and found a silk shop Leslie had recommended as well as our tour book. The shop, Lao Textiles by Carol Cassidy was a treat. We spent two hours with Carol. Initially a staff member took us on a tour of the studio. There are 40 Lao employees. The tour showed us the entire process of washing, dying, spinning and weaving the most incredible silk objects d’art. Carol joined us after the tour. She has lived in Laos for 20 years. She is an American who studied textile art in the US before coming to Laos. She worked in S Africa where she met her Ethiopian husband.  

Many of the items were exquisite wall hangings. As is our tradition, we bought a wall hanging for our 29^th anniversary present. November 30^th is our anniversary. We also bought a bracket for the hangers she has designed and two tassel items that hang from the brackets making a super display. Years ago Ron’s dear mom, Sonia, told us we were so boring because we gave each other practical gifts on our anniversary so we started a tradition of buying art each year. We are delighted to come away with such a lovely memory of Laos. Carol has started programs for weavers in various countries. She told us a great story about the non profit she is volunteering for in India Some of Carol’s work is sold through the Smithsonian.

 

We returned to the hotel to leave our weaving and went in search of lunch. We ate at a place filled with locals and had a curried pork rice dish. Good and cheap! After a brief rest at the hotel we headed out to see two temples that also serve as museums with various historical items and lots of Buddha statues. Wat Sisaket is one of the most important buildings in Vientiane and it houses over 7,000 Buddha images. The monastery was built in 1818 and was the only temple to survive the Thai sacking of the town in 1827-28, making it the oldest building in Vientiane.


 Across the street is Wat Pra Kaeo originally built in 1565 to house the emerald Buddha. This
building was destroyed in the sacking mentioned above. The building was restored in the 1940’s and 1950’s. During the restoration the interior walls were restored using plaster made of sugar, sand, buffalo skin and tree oil. The heat overwhelmed me and I had to just sit in the shade to regroup. Man oh man it is hotter than heck here. We walked back to the hotel where I stripped down and sponged off and got in bed right near the AC. Whew, what a great invention that is. Next we walked across the street for a foot massage Lao style.

We walked around and ended up eating at a funky little Indian restaurant and had a great meal of gingered chicken, spicy and rich with ginger, rice, bengain bhartha, a creamy smoked eggplant dish and garlic naan (The werewolves stayed away that night!).

Oct 22

Ron went out early in search of monks collecting alms and to photograph the early morning market. He over slept and missed the monks; but he came back with some nice market photos  The monks  walk along the neighborhoods gathering food from Buddhists who earn merit by preparing and giving food to monks each morning. Monks eat breakfast and lunch then don’t eat again until the next day. From the market Ron also brought back two sesame balls. When we lived in Portland this summer there was a great Asia restaurant two blocks from our house that made the best sesame balls. These were good but the Portland version was tastier. We went out for coffee after breakfast at the Swedish bakery around the corner and ate the sesame balls

We hired a brightly painted tuk tuk (see photo) to take us to theVictory Monument, Laos’s version of the Arc d’Triomphe. It commemorates those who died in the wars before the communist takeover. The story goes that they ran out of cement before completion. Refusing to be beaten, the regime diverted hundreds of tons of cement, part of a US aid package to help with the construction of runways at Wattay Airport, to finish the monument in 1969.The sign at the monument says it all.  

Next we visited That Luang, Vientiane’s most important site and the holiest Buddhist monument in the country. The present monument was built in 1566 and was plundered by the Thai and Chinese Haw in the 18^th century. It was restored at the beginning of the 19^th century. It’s surrounded by beautiful park lands that include a statue of King Setthathirat who was responsible for building the temple originally. As well as other more modern facilities.

Next we went in search of more silk. I wanted some silk to compliment the teal silk I found in Thailand and hit the jackpot near our hotel. I went to two stores which were side by side. One was having a 50% off sale and I got three meters of light weight silk for a song then next store I found exactly what I wanted: a raw heavy silk for a collar and cuffs on the jacket I am planning with the teal. Then I spied some elegant purple silk and couldn’t resist. All told I bought six meters between the two shops for $47!!!!  Score. After putting the silk in our room we ventured out for lunch and I was dying to try a Lao sandwich. More French influence here. We found a ‘sandwich café. How perfect. I loved my baguette with roasted eggplant, sautéed onions, lettuce, basil and goat cheese. OMG that was yummy. Ron liked his bacon tartine with béchamel sauce. We were fully sated and headed home for a cooling off.  Afterwards we opted for a Lao body/foot massage which we thoroughly enjoyed. Although similar to Thai massage it is gentler, less painful and more relaxing. We walked down to the riverfront where there was a huge night market and very popular with locals and tourists. Just about everything you might want or not was there. Lots of Lao textiles and well as everyday clothing articles, accessories for your cell phone, etc. We waited until it cooled off to go to dinner and decided on Italian again. We found a lovely place where we could dine al fresco. It was the coolest it has been since we started our trip to Laos five days ago and it was perfect. Most nights have been too hot to dine outside. The dinner was quite good. We shared a Caesar salad and Ron had pork scaloppini and I had salmon. No room for dessert. We stolled around town after our meal and eventually made our way to our hotel.

Phetchaburi to NE Thailand

Oct 18 & 19

 We came to BKK after turning in the rental car in Hua Hin which
is about 45 minutes south of where we live. From there we caught a mini bus (van) to BKK and unfortunately it was the slow bus, making frequent stops which made a 2.5-3 hr trip into a 4 hr trip. We spent the night at Leslie’s and got up at 4:45 to catch a plane to Khon Kaen ( an hour trip) in NE Thailand where we met our friend Surapong. After checking into our room, Surapong took us nearby to a daily fresh market that has small booths set up for serving food. We ate a typical Thai breakfast there. He had a noodle soup while we had kao mon gai (chicken with rice).

We walked around town then went on a search for some Thai silk. Years ago when Ron was working here there were vendors who would hang around in front of the hotels and sell precut lengths of silk to tourists. I was hoping to do that again. The beauty of having a local friend was Surapong knew exactly where they had moved to and walked us there. I would have never found them on my own. I got some beautiful silk in teal. Since we had a short night we suggested that we return to the hotel and rest and let Surapong have some time to himself.



We were meeting that night for dinner at his house. We rested until lunch time. We took a taxi to the

Central Market which is a huge shopping complex that was new to us. It has been a few years since we were last here. We found a place to eat up stairs and did a little shopping for gifts to take to Surapong’s two young girls, ages 7 and 4 years old. We found the NY Times in a bookstore so returned to the hotel to escape the heat and read the paper. We got a foot massage nearby and caught up on email until time for dinner.

Surapong picked us up at 6:00 and we joined him, his family and another couple for a great meal of barbequed meats, mushrooms, soup, shrimp cakes and fruit.  The other couple were Thai had lived in Boston while attending school there. The woman was a radiologist and her husband was a computer software designer. We had a great time with four kids running around, good food and excellent company.

On Sunday we decided to just relax. We started with a visit around the corner to Starbucks (good coffee is so hard to find in Asia) after breakfast at the hotel. We visited the gift shop at the Pullman which is a high end hotel nearby but didn’t see anything we had to have. It was hot after walking around looking for a gift shop that we couldn’t find so we ducked into another hotel and enjoyed a cold lime juice. We tried to connect with the vice mayor whom Ron had worked with in 2003-05 but he wasn’t available. We returned to the market and ate a simple Thai lunch there: duck with rice. We relaxed in the room again to escape the heat.

For dinner we decided to be brave and try Italian. Frankly we went in with low expectations and were pleasantly surprised. The salad was huge, fresh and delicious. The pastas were good as well. We couldn’t finish as the portions were large.

On Monday we went to Starbucks first then ate breakfast at the hotel. We checked out and took a taxi to the mini vans where we caught one to Udon Thani near the Laos border. While waiting for our van I heard this honking sound like you hear with clowns. A woman and man came around the corner pushing a cart with a live charcoal fire and various foods. Think ‘food truck’ except this was a cart. Many people came out of offices to get some hot breakfast. So ingenious. Talk about fresh food! Along the way to Udon Thani we saw lots of agriculture: rice, sugar cane, tree farms and other crops I couldn’t identify. 

The trip took longer than we had anticipated but we arrived aroundUS so his English is excellent. He is retired now and enjoys redecorating his home every six months or so. He entertained us at lunch with photos on his laptop. We walked from the bus station to a large new shopping mall where we had multiple choices of Thai eateries. Each of us got our food at a different stall but we all ate together. 

11:30 and were met by Chong. Chong is Nattawan’s first husband. Nattawan owns the house where we stay in Phetchaburi. Like Nattawan, Chong was educated and worked for many years in the

It was fun to catch up with Chong before we caught our 2:00 bus to Vientiane, the capital Laos.