Day Six

This was all day sight seeing Atyuthaya tour from 6:30AM to 5:00PM, starting from bus tour till 1:00PM and ended in the boat for lunch & cruise along Namchoapraya river back. Along the river during the day is totally different from the night. Water is very brown-muddy looking, along the river are many run down houses on stilt. Many small & big boats were buzzing around but not as busy as the traffic on the road.

The night still not ended yet, many things to do & see so we headed out to night market. It's almost as busy as seoul night market so many people on the street trying to get you to their store or restaurant. Quite exauslting trying to say no every step along the way. Eventhough I have no room in my bag pack but can't help it to buy more stuffs because it's so cheap. My night ended with a nice dinner after searching high & low for a quiet corner just to get away from the noise on the street.  

Siam Riap & Ankor

This part of the trip I was really looking forward to, I have seen documentaries on this site, and know a bit of the history around it. So up at 4:30 am and out to the wat (temple) have to catch the sun rising over the towers. A little bit disappointed here as the sky was a bit overcast, and you could not see the sun rise, but spectacular none the less to be in a place with such history.

Some of the temples and cities here were abandoned for 200 years, some were always used, and others abandoned only for short periods during war. Those short periods of war sometimes lasted for many years. The most impressive for me was the temple that has been kept with the forest overgrowing the walls and buildings. You can see in the gallery the pictures, the piles of rocks (the building) that you see all around, are where they fell naturally, there wasn't any earthquakes or the like that made them tumble, just the natural breakdown. Some temples have been restored to make them more resistant to the weather. One of the buildings had parts that were taken apart, and you can see piles of blocks that have been numbered in order to put them back in the correct place. The sad thing is that this restoration was being done and the civil war broke out, and the restoration team left, never to come back, and no plans as to where the numbered blocks will go. Sad, as the jigsaw puzzle to put them back together is overwhelming, so the pieces lay on the ground around the temple :-(.

One of the things that happen while you are at the temples, is that kids come up to you selling you goods post cards, flutes, bracelets, books, fridge magnets, scarfs, and all kinds of other things. The come to you in the meekest voice “mister 3 for one dalla” and will not stop until you get to an area that they are not allowed to be. Ya you hear correct, they can only bother you in certain areas, once you approach the line, they will be on you. I mentioned this to the guide, and was told that it got so bad that they had to impose these type of rules. She said she seen on kid cross the line, and a security guard come and hit the child quite sad. So now for some reality, this is Wednesday at any time during the day, these kids should be in school, their parents take them out of school to sell for them. See the tourist are more sympathetic to a child selling things than a grown adult, and are more likely to purchase something. We did purchase some post cards, as we wanted them anyway. Your heart say buy something from them it is not that much money, but truly your heart should say not to purchase from them, so that they can get an education so that they can have the skills for a better future. So the rule do not buy anything from them, but it is so sad not to. Some of the kids are even told that the tourists know about the school thing, and will say that the go to school in the morning or afternoon, they ask where you are from, then tell you the capital city, the prime ministers name etc, to show that they are educated, sad as they can use that memory skill in learning rather than just memorizing the capitals of countries. This is a sad reality in a country this poor, but I must say for the most part the people are genuine, and happy to see you and if possible tell you about themselves and how they live, and are equally interested to know how you live.

Day seven

It's another relax unplaning day except to see the Grand Palace which is few blocks away from Hotel. Grand Palace is where the King lives, it's huge & very pretty, well kept lots of history written all over the wall. the museum also very interesting dated back from 1300-1400 year.

By the time we finished sight seeing is 2:00PM & we decided to hangout in the market place having street food for lunch. Bought the food but have no place to sit down & eat so we hope on water taxi for 3 bath to eat our lunch while enjoying the ride across the river & back to market again. Ian got the chance to tried out durian because it's in the season right now but he was quite disappointed because they pick it to young so it's not as sweet as he thought it should be. Durian fruit is forbidden from bus & hotel because of the smell is so strong that not everyone has the stomach for it. I bought a handfull of different

kinds of fruits that I really like but don't know all the english name to list them. It's 6:00PM it's time to meet Gap adventure group leader Nicole from Australia & 10 others travelling mate. It's nice to see the good mix of people from Australia, Germany, England, Philippine & Montreal Canadian who is a doctor. Well I feel much safer now that I have personal doctor on board. We went for dinner together, this give us time to get to know each other more. No I don't remember all their name yet, hopefully soon. Did my last shopping along the way back to hotel of course can't help to get more junk in my little back pack. Anyway I'm done, have to repack get ready for 7:00AM departure from Bangkok to Cambodia. 

Traveling to Phnom Penh

Up early again to travel to Phenom Pen a 6 hour drive. Most of the group slept, I spent some time writing some for the blog, long bus rides are good fro that, and seeing the sites go by. I found looking at rural Cambodia very interesting, especially the way they do business, most of which is done in stalls on the edge of the road. There are sections that each stall is selling mostly the same thing. baguette, pineapple, etc. The way that they transport the goods is also quite interesting, as cars and trucks are expensive, they tend to us motorcycles to do all the transport so I see a motorcycle with eggs piled higher that the rider, a motorcycle with a bunch of orange cages on the back, longer than our bus, and just as high all pulled by a little motorcycle. I seen a cage full of pigs for the market, about 50 chickens, you name it, it will be carried by the motorcycle. really interesting to see how they work and live. We stopped at a market in a small town, it is a tourist attraction as the locals have a delicacy that is quite odd deep fried tarantula hey who knew, so being the adventurous spirit I am, had to try it can take that one off the list of things I have to do before I die (not really all that bad, it could have been deep fried anything)

Once in Phnom Penh we went to see the genocide museum, and the killing fields the guide told us about this time in Cambodia with Pol Pot a the leader. It was absolutely one of the saddest things to hear. There were 7 million people in the country before his rule, after his rule, there 75 – 79 there were only 4 million. He basically made Phnom Penh a ghost town and proceeded to kill any person who was educated (not a farmer). Now the country has 14 million people living here, and more that 50% are under the age of 18. To give some perspective on the magnitude of the killing Hitler does not even come close to what this guy did yet I had no clue it even happened maybe it is the same for some of you reading this. I must make a point of reading more on this when I get back home. Needless to say the ride back to the hotel was very quiet.

In the evening the tour guide invited us back to his house for a Cambodian feast, and I mean feast, when the group was finished, and you look at the serving dishes, it looked as if we had not even touched the food. The guide who lived through the whole experience seemed so nice to do that, he is also giving back so much to the community. Before the meal, we went to a school that was setup by him to teach local kids to speak English he pays a teacher from his own pocket to come a few night a week so that the kids who can not afford it can make a better life for themselves. We had the opportunity to speak with the kids, they seemed so excited to see us, and use the speech that they have learned. It was quite nice to see that and maybe have a bit of an impact in helping them learn by just speaking with them, and being interested in what they are doing, and who they are. How many are in their family, and so much more. Some want to be tour guides when they grow up, some doctors, etc, all want a better life for themselves. This is something that they would never be able to have under the rule of Pol Pot. It is nice to see I hope that they all can achieve their dreams.

So the day started interesting, changed to something very somber, and ended with hope that the people will have a better life. 

Day Eight

This was a long travel day, We left Bangkok at 7:00 AM & got in Battambang at 3:00PM. It was an interesting procedure at the border on getting Visa. We hired someone to carry our bags in the pull cart and walked couple of blocks to Cambodian border. There wasn't much to see along the road, Battambang is an agriculture city, 75% of population in Cambodia are farmer as you can imagine there are row & row of rice field from Thai border all the way to Battambang city.

After checking in we went for a walk at the market nearby. Small market, few meat, fish, vegetable & fruit tables but half of the market are jewelry booths, I'm talking about 24 carat gold. I don't know how many people can afford this, average daily wage is $1. I was wondering who can afford to eat leave alone buying jewelery. A bowl of fish curry calls Amok with rice cost $4 & a bottle of water $1, my dinner was $5 and my breakfast following morning cost $4.50 -baguette with omelet $2, yogurt with cereal $1:50 coffee $1. Yes I was pigging out this morning, I had to store up for my all day motorcycle tour :).

Off to Kratie

Up early in the morning for a 5 hour bus ride, we joked about how we are told that the ride will be 5 hours, and we are there in 3 and a half. Well today was a little different, started off ok, but I noticed the driver kicking the tires. So about an hour in, we have a flat tire, we get that one changed, (do they ever put the nuts on tight). So the spare is on and we drive about another hour, flat again (the spare went) so we were close to a shop (someones front yard), and got the tire repaired with a new tube, should be fine now. Well bad things have to happen in three right, so 10 min down the road the repaired tire goes flat. Take a tire from the back (they are double) put it in the front, and put the spare that has a leak on the back should be fine until we get to our destination. Another hour goes by, and you guessed it, another tire thing, one of the back tires separates quite a noise, as the rubber is spinning. He knows there is a town a little bit up the road, so we limp along at 5 – 10 Km/h until we get to a shop, this time it is going to take a little bit longer, so we go for lunch.

Now we have two new tires, and a good spare, cross our fingers. We get to town fine, and watch the sun set over the Mekong river.

Missed our tour to see the river dolphins but we changed plans and are going to do that in the morning. Got to get up, but not that early, so decide to get a wake up call anyway, seems standard right well once in the room I look where the phone is so that we can answer it in the morning no phone. I guess we are going to get a wake up knock. The next morning we go and see the dolphins quite peaceful on the little boat, tried to take some pictures, but had too much zoom, then have to find them in the camera and take a picture could not really time it correctly, so I gave up, and enjoyed the time on the water. You may be able to see some of them, in the pictures, the ripple in the water should be a good indication that a dolphin was there.

These river dolphins are quite rare proximately 75 of them. Off to Laos now, writing this on the bus traveling to the boarder. I look forward to it. 

Day Nine

 After breakfast we went on motorcycle tour, we saw what people do for living & it's pretty sad to see how hard they have to work for next to nothing, barely able to put food on the table. this making me realize how lucky I am. Generally life is very simple here, people work to put food on table, they don't have much of material things. They look happy, always a smile on their face when they look at you & say hello. We went to see 4 different factories I means 4 family operated business-Koa Lam, noodle, rice paper, fish drying & fish fermenting process (Pa Dek-Nam Pa).

All these are done by hand exactly the way I remembered 30 years ago in Lao. I am sure they still doing the same in Lao as well. My 22 year old tour guide speaks english pretty good so he was telling me about his family -a wife & 3year old daughter. He wishes that he has more opportunity to make life better for his family, it breaks my heart to hear how unfortunate he is for not being to pursue his dream.

Don Khong

Once in Laos, we made our way to a waterfall across the Mekong river, quite spectacular to see that much water flowing over the edge.

We then continued on to Don Khong in the section of 4000 islands quite the laid back. The next day we rented a couple of bikes, and rode around the island.

This was quite an experience to see all the kids run from their homes saying saw bai di (hello) they are truly thrilled to see us ride by. Seeing the way that they live, and work in the fields is special, the people seem to be happy, and relaxed, something that I can not say for the busy lives in the big city.

While on our way back to Pons Hotel, we came upon a German guy, who had a flat tire, and was walking his bike in bare feet. We stopped to talk for a while and offered him a ride back to the hotel. Since Phaydy had a sore knee at the time, we decided that he would take one of our bikes, and carry his bike along, while I would double with Phaydy back to the hotel. It was about 8 km back so I'm sure that the guy was more than happy not to have to walk all the way back in bare feet. He bought us a drink to say thank you. I introduced him to Juliana (a German girl in our group) and they talking in German for a while, both of them were happy to be able to speak their native language for a while. This guy had been traveling for 7 months already, and was ready to go home, we wished him a nice journey for the rest of his trip.

Day Ten

Starting out at 6:30AM leaving Battambang to Siem Riap, Another long travel day, checking in hotel @ 4:30PM. Went out for a drink-happy hour all drinks 50% off till 7:00PM. It's a fancy bar cater for tourist and it's expensive even with 50% off consider this side of the world a glass of cocktail is $6, bottle of beer is $4, you can imagine they double the price because it cost half of that in lower scale bar. After everyone all happy we strolled to town to local food restaurant that Nicole our leader recommended. What we ordered were pretty good & it's not expensive. I'm talking about $5 for dinner is reasonable, any thing more is too much. It's early night cause we have to go to Angkor Wat at 4:30AM to catch sun rise.  

Don Daeng

This day we left Don Khong to see wat Phu and stay in Don Daeng. This wat was built in the 9 century before Ankor wat more than likely by the same people, as there is an ancient road that runs between the two. Quite interesting the story of the temples origin, and how it has been restored a number of times throughout history.

Then on to one of the highlights of the trip for me, a night at a home stay on Don Daeng we were picked up in boats that were two boats (long canoe style) lashed together with a wooden platform, and four rattan chairs placed on the deck. Thank goodness for all the safety regulations. In North America, the chairs would have to be bolted down, railings placed up, seat belts and life jackets provided, here na, just sit down and we will go.

Once across the river, we were greeted by the members of a village, and were dispersed into our respective home stays for the evening.

We were provided with a comfortable mat on the floor, blankets, and a mosquito net.

The kids were playing around, and were more than happy to have you take pictures with them. Dinner was prepared for the group by the village, and was prepared and served in t rational Lao style where we sat on the floor and food was in the middle family style. I am not sure that all the people in the group liked the dinner as much as I did, but I enjoyed the meal.

Off to bed its only about 8:30, but it is pitch black, and nothing else to do. It poured rain a few times throughout the night, and the rain on the tin roof was quite noisy. No alarm needed to get up the roosters did that job well. Now about the roosters, listening to them all morning there must be some sort of hierarchy in the sound as some can not complete the call ur-ur-ur -ur some could only get out the first ur, other two, and only the best get the whole thing, and hold the last note, Maybe its an age thing who knows, and who really cares, but it is something that I noticed and thought that I would tell you all. A traditional Lao breakfast was given, and then some free time before we leave, so we went for a walk on the beach. The cows use the beach to rest, so one has to keep and eye out where one is stepping.

Nice and relaxing. We take the same boats back across the river, and begin our journey to Luang Prabang via air with a stop in Vientien to change planes and lunch. 

Day Eleven

Angkor Wat has a grand entrance, very nice walk way crossing the pond. The stones were original built in 10 century, It's amazing how people those day can built something so impressive. It took 36 years using 380 000 people to finish it.

we spent just over 4 hrs there, first hour is waiting for sun rise which was quite disappointing because it was cloudy day. we still enjoyed seeing the rest of the Wat. We proceeded to see two more castles before headed back to hotel for lunch. We had 1hr to freshen up & eat before heading out again. Everyone went different way to find restaurant, Ian & I found one next to hotel. That was a mistake we ended up paying $13 for foods that would cost $5 for both of us somewhere else. It's not the cost I'm complaining about the food-We cook much better than that at home. Oh well you win some you loose some! lol

We've seen two more castles in the afternoon & headed back for a rest around 5:00PM. Everyone agree to meet for dinner @ 6:30PM just enough time to shower, change & out the door gain. Patrick, Ian & I walked to Kmer restaurant and the rest took Tok Tok. We got there half an hour after them cause we got lost in the maze. We had curry soup & I enjoyed the dinner very much cause it's really close to what I cook at home. Again I can't resist the night market, not as big as the Bangkok one but enough stuffs to look at. Of course I went on spending spree again, I bought sling bag to carry around my junk like tissue paper, sun screen lotion.... that was my excuse anyway oh because it's also cheap :).

Luang Phrabang

Luang Phrabang is noted for its many temples, scenic views, and long lines of monks collecting morning dak bhat. Since we arrived in the evening we went into the center of town to the night market and got some food, purchased some goods at the market, and went to the Hive bar for some drinks with the rest of the group. I guess the Hive bar must be the bar of choice in the lonely planet book, because it was just full of tourists.

Beer bottle mosaic at the hive

The next day, I got up early in the morning 5:45 to see the monks collect the dak bhat, seems I was not quite early enough as I only seen a few, and not the hundreds that the place is known for. I checked out the morning market (dalat sow), and then sat by the Mekong for a while. Since we were only here for one day, we had to decide what we wanted to do, take a boat up the river to see the buda cave (4 – 5 hrs), see the waterfalls ( 3hrs), or stay and walk the town. I had seen pictures of the caves, and the waterfalls, so decided to walk about town and see the many wats. I took many pictures, you should see them in the photo gallery in the Laos section. I started to look at some of my cameras features, in particular, the colour enhance, and colour swap, you will see a number of the photos that I took using this method, where the robe is in colour, and the rest of the the photo is black and white cool effect. The colour swap pictures make the trees look like it is fall, but everything is actually green.

A good dinner, and an early night so that we can get up to see the monks this time at 5:20, and we were rewarded with seeing many monks mostly young collecting their morning dak bhat.

Then the group leaves for Van Vieng on quite a scenic trip through the mountains. For those of you who think that the road to whistler has a lot of curves in it, if you drove on this road you would think that the sea to sky hwy was a straight line. Small villages dot the road, which is in essence carved on the side of a hill, I'm not sure how they get their houses to stay, or what they do for a living, but there are many villages, and many people living in them. I'm glad that we did this trip rather than fly. The views, the farms on the side of a hill, the mountain tops surrounded by clouds, the mist rising from the forest due to a recent rain. I like it 

Day Twelve

Another travel day from Siam Reap to Phnom Penh from 6:00AM to 11:00AM. @ Town View 2 hotel. Check in & rush out to find quick lunch because we had to leave by 11:30AM to chilling Toul sleng Prison. We had a very knowledgeable guide who was able to explain the life of prisoner so in detail that it chill my spine. Walking around this prison cell from room to room giving me the chill & goose bump. I can't even imagine what they went through before they got executed. I can't describe the emotion that went through me seeing their pictures on the wall. Hundreds of innocent faces that happen to be born in a wrong place at the the wrong time. Second stop was killing field about 40min. away from prison. This is where Pol Pot soldier brought prisoners in by truck load daily to be executed. There were bones along the walk way, skull were stuck in the monument towel built by Chinese?....Overall today was a sad somber day. We went to our tour guide house for dinner $6/person, there were lots of foods so it's a pretty good deal. His house is not too big but 4 families live there, because his wife have 3 sisters who are married & in Cambodian tradition men move in & live with wife's family.

We also get to meet around 20 village kids age from 6-15 in their english class room. This class room was set up by the tour guide under neat his house so we donate $1 each to help him pay for the teacher & supplies. On the way back to hotel couple people decided to hang out in the heart of the darkness night club so we joined them. This suppose to be the craziest club in Phnom Pen ( drugs are abuse openly there) but we've seen nothing happening, it was pretty quiet there were more worker than customer so we decided to leave by 10:30PM. Few of us stayed longer, guess what @ around 11PM people just pouring in. There was pretty crazy party there for sure oh well I had good night sleep.  

Van Vieng

So after the windy road we arrived in Van Vieng just after mid day. We had to rush to get the last tube ride down the river. Let me tell you about the tube ride, it is a tradition to take the tube ride and float down the river, the scenery is spectacular, but what makes the ride special, and ruins things a bit as well are the bars that line the river. The bars are along the river, and have rope swings, slides, etc for you to play on. This is all in place to get you to have a few drinks at their establishment, now realize that one can get more than just drinks here, or special drinks as they call them.

So seeing all the kids swinging, drinking and partying is interesting, but the mountains the seem to come out of the river, are beautiful. The group stopped at a number of the bars along the way, and had a lot of fun. At the last bar we were graced by a long boat visit from Phaydy, and Rolina, who brought the camera, so you can see some of the pictures along the river, and some of the swing over the river.

It was a whole lot of fun, some of the group say that it was their highlight of the trip, it was fun, but I would not say that it was the highlight of the trip for me. Another thing that is interesting about this place, is the many cafe's that have tables and pillows to sit at, and watch reruns of friends, Simpsons or something like that.

They are all young backpackers stoned or drunk,at ruined by the drunk party antics of the young backpackers. For dinner we tried Lao BBQ similar to Korean BBQ, but with a broth in the bottom to cook noodles and vegetables, served with jeow sukiyaki. A nice stop on the trip.  

Day Thirteen

Phnom Penh to Kratie started out at 7 AM should only take 4hrs but took us more than 7 hrs due to 4 times blown up tires. It was a very hot day, I felt bad for the driver luckily there were two of them. They had to change tires themselves, and they don't have good tools. We had to get off the bus few times for them, and it was boiling hot. We got in Kratie late so not much to do, got shower & went out for dinner with the group.

Next morning after breakfast we head out to see Irrawaddy Dolphins by motor cycle at 8 AM. It took about 40min to the river, got in the boat and head out about 15min to the area where Dolphins are playing. We spend just over an hour there watching or trying to take pictures. There weren't many of them so we didn't see them close up, all I can tell was they were grey , but not sure the size because they didn't jump up to show show off their beauty.

Back to hotel, grab a sandwich & head out to Lao ( Don Khong) in Champasak. Visa into Lao cost us Canadian $52 that is the highest price in the group. We don't know what Canada did to Lao maybe because we don't have Canadian Embassy in Lao? :-( We stop to see waterfall on the way cost 10000 kip per person, exchange $100US=84000kip. We got to ferry terminal but had to wait 15-30min or till they had more than 3 cars on ferry otherwise we had to pay 60000kip more to go on alone. Another hot day & waiting seems so long when you can't wait to get in hotel to shower, i took shower at least 2 times a day. Finally we arrived to Don Khong & checked in Pon's hotel by Mekong river. It was comfortable hotel, nothing fancy but it is a bonus that we got the water view room. Don Deng is very small island so we had dinner @ hotel by Mekong river, it's Ian first Lap in lao so he decided to have Lap Pa with lots of chillies with Koa newn. I decided to have fried fish in tomatoes that I was craving for awhile. First time drinking Beer Lao, I'm not a beer drinker but find that it's not as bitter as other beer that I've tried before, large size cost 15000kip=less than $2.  

Vientiane

So here we are in Vientiane, Phaydys home from the past. When we arrive we are in the midst of a torrential downpour, man can it rain hard here. The streets fill with water, one can not even cross the street without getting soaked. Our plan was to stay in Vientiane for a couple of days so we relaxed a bit that afternoon before having a few drinks by the Mekong, and then on to a French restaurant for dinner. Now I said when I started this trip that I was only going to eat local food, so why French, well for one it was the last opportunity for dinner with the group, and two Laos was a French colony at one time so I am actually eating local go figure. I had a steak, I like steak. Off for a couple of martinis to end the socializing with the group.

The bars in Laos all close at 11:30, so for those of you who don't even start partying till 11:00 or 12:00 you would have to change your habits or not go out at all. In the morning, we plan on finding our way to Chaing Mai for the day after next I found out some prices, and ways to get there, and none seem to be good, and they each take up a whole day. So we made the executive decision that we would travel with the group at the end of the day back t o Bangkok on the overnight train. So now we have to see all the Vientiane has to offer before 3:00 if you looked on the photo gallery you will see that I had already posted pictures. We seen where Phaydy lived, went to school, That Lunag, the fountain, the vertical runway (I'll get to that in a bit) and the budha park, and were back by 3:30 to cross the friendship bridge to Thailand. So the vertical runway, this is known as Anu Savaly or a copy of the arch de triumph in Paris, complete with the champs de lise.

So now why the vertical runway, well in the time of fighting, and when the US had a secret military base in Laos, the US government gave Laos a bunch of concrete to build a new runway so the US could fly and land their planes. How nice, to the Lao government took the concrete and made this monument, good on them! Finding Phaydys place was an adventure, she knew that it was near That Lunag so from there our driver was directed to the house, but everything is different, no land marks to go by etc.

We end up near the place, and ask someone she knows the place and directs us to it, but we are not sure, so I take a picture, no thats not it, delete the picture, ask someone else its just over there, so we go over there, what a beautiful place, take a picture, knock on the door, and someone comes out, that not the correct person, ask them where it is, it is one lane over, delete those pictures, then off to the correct place. Took some pictures, thats it it is the place see the people inside, and have to move on.

We first stop across the road to a childhood friend of Phaydy she did not recognize Phaydy, but once introduced they talked for a while, and we had lunch at her place, she was busy serving other people, it is nice to see her restaurant busy. OK after lunch out to the budha park an unbelievable place, so many sculptures and artifacts I was only able to take a few pictures ok a whole bunch, but still not everything.

It is really hot today, my watch says 40 c Hot. Back to meet the group, eat some food, and buy a bottle of wine for the overnight train. So we seen everything there was to see and made it to the group in time, power tourism. The overnight train was fun, I played some mind games with Zara a bit, by showing her some people in the water beside the train tracks, and said those were the people that did not pay, so I hope that she had her ticket still.

It worked for a while. Not really a good place to sleep, but did get some rest. In the morning when the train arrived, that was the end of the group tour. and we all parted ways. 

Day Fourteen

Awake by roosters chanting at each other like 5am, can't turn them off so decided to watch TV. Most of channels are Thai program, only one Lao channel that mostly reporting news around the world but not much of what's going on in Lao. Decided to get ready for breakfast & tried to find out what we can do here. We only have two options, one is to rent a bike & cycling 32km around island & two is to hire a boat 5000kip/hr to go from island to island, there are 40 islands in the area, some big & some small. Anyway we decided to bike because I think I need some exercise after all it gave me the excuse to eat more.

Rental cost 10000kip all day so I thought I could do in the morning take a break & go out again in the evening. Boy was I ever wrong, I couldn't even make my first round, it was hot & was my first time riding this year that's my excuse anyway. I had to stop few times to walk due to dinosaur ride (dino sore ass). We stopped to have lunch, truly laotian style very spicy papaya salad & noodle soup cost us 30000kip=$3. 8KM left to go but my left knee got really sore & thinking I should walk all the way back but one German guy got flat tire so we decided to give him by bike & I got on the back of Ian's bike all the way back, that was nice :-) Took a nap before dinner & stayed up with the group till late before hitting the sack.  

Day Fifteen

After breakfast we packed up & get ready to move on to Don Deng. On the way we stop to visit museum & wat phu which built in the 9th century, it's quite high up on the mountain so it's quite a bit of climbing to do. Looking down once up there it's quite pretty & peaceful.

We spend more than 2hrs up there before heading to Don Deng via boat. It was a very interesting boat ride due to the way it's set up, there are no safety regulation into this boat design. No safety guard nor safety seat, you take it at your own risk :-O actually it's not bad, I felt safe in it I was thinking it would never be allowed in Canada. This was a home stay experience so we got split up to different houses, two to three people per house. We got a very old traditional house that the toilet is separated from the house, there is no bathroom that you can shower except couple barrels of water that you can stand outside (yes no cover) & clean yourself out in the open. I decided to do my shower & used the toilet from next door neighbor because they have proper bathroom.

This was our bathroom

We had group dinner in one house (Laotian style), I noticed not many people like it. I know it was hard for me too to sit on the floor for a long time, my legs went sleeping few times. Dinner was ok nothing special, that's what the local eat so we just happy that someone cooked their specialty for us. Night was short, we were in bed before 9PM because nothing there to do so everyone just head back to their homestay. 

Chaing Mai

So we caught a plane asia air to Chaing Mai and booked into the hotel that we are supposed to be in, but a day early Sunday. Now what a contrast to what we have been staying in. this place is beautiful the lobby is huge, music playing many more stars than what we have been in. There is a special Sunday night market in the old walled town, so we decide to go there and see what we can see. On the way, we see a shabu shabu place to eat, and decide to go in, what Japanese in thailand, so maybe call it a hot pot, or sukiaki and we will be fine, ate too much though, as it was all you can for an hour. The street market was good, all kinds of goods that will not fit into our carry on bags and a whole bunch of stuff that is cool while you are away on holiday, but is somewhat useless when you are back at home in the real world, or is this the real world and home is made up. The next day we slept in a bit, no roosters to wake us up. Then went on a jungle flight trip, where we zip trekked through the trees for a few hours, great fun.

Our booked tour started in the evening with a kantoke dinner. now this was nice to see, but a bit, no a whole bunch, setup for tourists. with preprogrammed recordings for the dances that were going to come up in a number of languages. A little tacky for me, the entertainment was good, and the food well it was good, but overcooked, I expect this from a mass produced meal still had a good time, I was up on stage for the last dance, you can see the pictures, there is a video as well, I will get that up sometime when I get more bandwidth and time to figure out how to get them to display. This is where we met Minnie our tour guide for the rest of the tour, and she explained what we would be doing over the next few days, a nice girl I will comment more later.

The next day we took a tour with another group to Wat Dusep, spelling is not correct, but who cares at this point. we first went to a Hmong village, and seen how they lived, and used to live. They used to be a large producer of opium for the world, now with the help of the Tahi King, they have given the groups more things to sustain themselves rather than drug trade. What Dusep was beautiful a landmark of the north so many things I can say, but I will keep them to myself as you have heard enough about temples. I still find them interesting for many reasons. 

Day Sixteen

Breakfast was at 7:00AM, so we all meet up at the same house. After that we had till 9am to explore before heading out to the airport for Luangprabang. There was no direct flight from Parkse to Luangprabang so we had to go via Vientiane.

We had more than 3hrs once we got in Vientiane air port, so we got out to have lunch at Joma restaurant, it's a foreigner hangout. Foods & drinks are all cater to westerner. Ian & I took off after lunch while everyone else just chilled there. We walked along Mekong river looking for familiar places that I used to hang out when I was younger. Places have changed a lot since 30 years ago even 15 years that i was there in 1995. After couple hours of walking we decided to find tuk tuk back to airport, guess what? the rest of the gangs were in the tuk tuk passing us so we hop on with them. By the time we got to Luangprabang it was quite late so Nicole showed us where's the night market & the popular night club. There were street full of foods, all kinds of foods that we liked so of course Ian & I decided to eat street foods which was not recommended, oh Marca was with us so he ate street foods with us. It was pouring rain during our dinner, I felt sorry for the vendor they had to cover up their goods, some were packing up so there weren't too many vendors in the night market.

We walked for awhile & decided to meet the gangs in the pub but it was still early so no one there. After couple of drinks we decided to head back & the rest showed up but we needed the rest so we didn't stay, beside the music was so loud that we couldn't have decent conversation anyway. 

Chaing Rai

The next morning we started our tour to Chang Rai, and the golden triangle. Got picked up by Minnie in the morning and went to a orchid and butterfly farm. Well not too may butterflies, I guess it is not the season, but learned a lot about how orchids are grown and cultivated, I now know why the orchid my mom gave Phaydy for Mothers day did not do so well, if it is still living after we get back I will better know how to take care of it, and hopefully restore it to have beautiful flowers again. I took a number of pictures of them, I will have to put together a gallery of just plant pictures that I have taken over this trip. Sorry mom I hope I can revive the orchid, it was the hot sun that did it in. Wilma I hope the watering of the plants is going well.

Then on to the elephant village, were we witnessed the care of the elephants, fed them and took a ride on one for an hour. I really liked this one, I was not that excited before the trip that we would ride on an elephant, but going for the ride through the forest, was a really nice experience.

Had lunch and then in the car again to visit a market where Minnies mom worked, I was tired, and had just eaten, so I slept on the way there. Once there we purchased some sweet goods for the hill tribe kids, did not know about this, but found out later the reason why. It was nice to see Minnies mom at the market as we had started to have some really nice conversations with her in the car while driving. So now a river boat trip for a while, where we went the opposite direction toward the Myanmar boarder, and seen the flags that cross the river indicating the boarder. We obviously did not cross but turned around and enjoyed a trip down the river lined by farms of chillies (yum) oranges, and a variety of other fruit and vegetables.

Out of the water to visit some hill tribes the different cultures of the hill tribes were explained to us during the drive, and we read some articles about them as well. Minnie was a fantastic guide in this way, she went our of her way to make sure that we understood the cultures, and the details of the people and the places that we were about to visit. The first tribe that we visit, Akah I believe we pull up to just an intersection with a few people outside. We get out, and Minne describes some things about the people. I bring out some sweet treats for the kids, the first was a little scared, a new face, you know how kids are, then one hears, about us, then another, and soon without any calling or yelling, every kid from the village is at my side getting a sweet treat. They may have eaten the sweet, but the sweetest treat was mine seeing the smile on the face of a small child who really has nothing, and maybe make them happy for a while. How glad am I that we stopped to get those treats. Take a look at the pictures and see if you can tell who is happier!

Off to another hill tribe village, this time a village of the long neck people originating in Burma. Now these people are fascinating, how can their necks be so long, they are people that have the same bone structure as every other human, so what is the deal. I read up on it and I know, what it is you should too. I don't want to spoil the research for you just tease you into looking it up yourself. If you ask me later I will tell you.

We must have been one of the first few groups to go through, as they had stalls all set up selling their traditional handy crafts they all sell the same stuff and want you to come to their shop. Who to chose, and I don't want anything anyway. I feel for them as this is their only livelihood, plus the admission fee that we pay to see them (it is good for them to get something and not just be a spectacle). Oh did I mention I ran out of treats for the kids at this place I wish I had more :-) Another hill tribe, and then off to the hotel in Ciang Rai. What a full day and lots of fun. 

Day Seventeen

Another day in Luangprabang, we had only one full day to see all the attractions. We decided to see everything that we could in town, because anything out of town would take a minimum of 4hrs to max of 6hrs by car/boat. We met Marca by Mekong river taking pictures so we decided to sight seeing together. We went to King palace first, now it's a museum then few more wats after that I was poop. We went back to hotel to rest till dinner time. Ian couldn't wait to go back to his favorite restaurant (street foods). Nothing else to do at this time except shopping, my favorite pass time.  

Golden Triangle

Up in the morning, and off again, we are going to the most northern place in Thailand, forgot the name off the top of my head, sorry Minnie, a place where we can find views of Myanmar across the river, and a bridge across the boarder.

We decided not to go, as the things are same same. Ok why did I say same same, well because I have been seeing t shirts that say same same on the all the time, I did not know what it meant at first, now I know, everything in every market is the same, thus same same. I bought a t-shirt of the golden triangle here, at the closest point I could get to Burma without swimming across the river, which I watched one guy do, and just walk into Burma, go figure the visas and travel has to be planned ahead of time in order for us to get in. In the car again, to see the golden triangle, did you know that there is not actually a triangle of gold, but rather just an island in the middle of the Mekong where the three countries meet together.

The gold is from the currency used to for the drug trade that happened here in the past it is pretty much cleaned up now. We visited the opium museum and found out lots of how and why it became big in the area. got to try some as the museum was doing a little bit of cleaning up, and was letting some go cheap. Wow I can see why the recommend taking it while laying down, a little to strong for my liking. Oh you didn't believe that did you it is illegal here as well you know, or maybe not. So off in the car again for a long ride to Chaing Mai to end the trip, or so I thought then came the white temple. Oh I almost forgot to mention Minnie went over and above and took us to a temple that has many monkeys she took us there because she wanted to show us her temple, the one of her birth year I really liked the temple the monkeys the fish, and the fact that she went our of her way to take us there.  

Day Eighteen

Got up very early to see Monks walked on the street in a group of 10plus for Takbath ( people waiting by the street offering mostly rice). We don't have this in Canada due to lack of Monk plus Lao people are scattered away from each others. We have temple in Langley but only one Monk lives there, so people would take turn to bring foods to him.

Got back to hotel, had breakfast & it was time to head out to Vang Vieng. It was a long ride 7 hrs on a twisty road. We got in vangVieng @ 3pm, got in hotel Ian decided to do tubing so he had to rush before it got dark. Few people went out tubing but I decided to explore town by myself. B y the time I got in town I met up with Rolina so we both kind of tired & thirsty so we had fruit juice & chat for over an hour. It was really a nice chat, I knew more about her, she was kind of a loner in the group. she didn't join us for dinner nor drink most of the time. She said she didn't feel comfortable in a big group but like chatting one on one, it's more personal basis that she likes. I really admired her on what she did, she is a maxican girl who moved to Switzerland & lived there for 4 years. After this trip she will go to Newzeland for a month after that she will settle down in Australia. She has no idea what she will be doing there but willing to take whatever come her way to make enough money to live there. Her live story gave me new perspecctive in life that you don't have to have the money before you can explore life in other country as long as you are willing to work hard to stay safe & alive. .....  

White temple

So its a long trip to Chaing Mai, and I am asleep in the car not expecting any more stops when I wake up because we have stopped. My neck is sore from the poor position that I was sleeping in. What is happening, did we stop for a bathroom break no there is beautiful white temple in front of us. It is called Wat Rong Khun the white temple, and is really new so new in fact that it is not even finished.

All white with mirrors lining the whole thing a big contrast to the gold and brick of the other temples what a treat. I go in with Minnie as Phaydy can not go in as she is wearing shorts. I stop to take a reflection picture in the lake in front of the temple then proceed to walk in, before the entrance is a pit full of hands reaching out, as you have to cross those in hell wanting a way out before entering the temple very new and forward.

Everything about this temple is new for today, and not from the past once inside it is so beautiful, not finished yet, but a full mural of history today. In all the ancient temples there are wall murals depicting wars and struggles of people building the temple. In contrast this new temple depicts things of today, the struggles for oil brand names, military power space control. There is a world trade center attack, in the eyes of a scull a picture of bin laden, and George bush.

I could sit there for an hour and not see it all. What a great ending to a trip the last temple is about the new, the first temples so much the old. I started in Ayuttya with old ruined temples and I talked about how I felt standing in a place with such history, and imagined the people that were there at that time. Then I come full circle to a temple so new, not depicting the old, but depicting the new todays struggles, and looking into the future wow. I have been struck in a different way very refreshing. The designer is quite the artist and has many pictures that he has done that are just amazing I will have to share that with some of you when I get back. A great trip we can not make it to Myanmar, and will now travel to Kho Semed for a couple of days on the beach. Blog off