LAOS' TOP TEN (PLUS TWO)

We surveyed the 4 participants of the One World One Trip team for their Top 10 (plus two) of Laos and the results are in:

12. Tak Bat (giving alms to the Monks)
11. The people we met in Luang Prabang
10. City of Luang Prabang, the night market and the rivers
9. Fruit Shakes
8. The Royal Ballet's Ramayana
7. JoMa Bakery and Cafe
6. The food of Vientiane
5. Mt. Phousi and the Buddha Garden
4. Movie night at L'Etranger Books and Tea
3. Kuang Si Waterfall
2. Ock Pop Tok (Weaving Center)

AND THE NUMBER ONE FAVORITE OF LAOS IS:

1. Saeng, Wang and Villa Phathana

Note: Results for this country's survey were tabulated by Avocet

Vientiane - the capital of Laos

After eleven days in Luang Prabang, we took a forty minute plane ride to Vientiane for a two day stay. Vientiane is the capital of Laos but for us it's like a small town!! It's true - Vientiane is a pretty tiny capital.

For us, three days is really, really, short. We're used to three, two, one, etc. week stays but there's not much to do in Vientiane so Mommy and Daddy said it was enough.

On the day we arrived we didn't do anything except go to our hotel, settle in, and have dinner. Vientiane has much more French influence then Luang Prabang. There are French restaurants all over the place, French writing on signs and menus, and that doesn't even include all of the French tourists!!! Anyway, for dinner we did go to a French restaurant. THE FOOD WAS GREAT!!!!!!! I had smoked salmon ravioli which was very delicious (especially since I love smoked salmon!!) and for dessert I had caramelized apple pie (not so good)!! If we had stayed here longer we would've eaten our way through Vientiane.

The next day we went sight seeing. Vientiane is home to the famous Pha That Luang (a monument to a Buddha), a huge arch called Patuxai, and a couple of famous Wats. Pha That Luang is a big pyramid shaped Stupa that is painted gold and has a gate around it. There are multiple small shrines with Buddha statues and burning incense. There's not much to it but it's a national monument.



The Patuxai arch has a strange history. It started when the U.S. Government gave cement to the government of Laos to make an air strip for planes to land. Instead, the government of Laos took the cement and built this huge concrete arch!! It's very pretty with carved designs and a great lookout at the top. However, on the sign board inside the arch of the arch (ha ha!!) it said, “it looks pretty from a distance but up close it looks like a big concrete monster.” Saying that is kind of like wearing a t-shirt that says, “I'm ugly!”!!! After you get out of the arch there are two fountains and gardens. The lookout at the top of the arch was also nice. A very good view and very good souvenir shopping!!



That's mostly all the stuff to do in Vientiane so we've spent today either walking around, or going to the bus station getting info on how much it costs to get to Nong Khai by bus. Oh well. I got to finish my book anyway!!!

54, then 53, then 54

I had my birthday party on the night of the 4th of December, two days ahead. This early party was due to us travelling on the 6th, my actual birthday. So I was "54" on the evening of the 4th. The party put me into a very good mood, but at the stroke of midnight, I became a young man of "53" again.

The next morning, lisa came back from the Internet access shop and told me only a few people were there and the connections and speed were strong. I headed out as quick as I could! I successfully edited about 20 pics in our KodakGallery.com account and loaded up and edited a few more. Wow, things were working without fail. It's time to play the lottery. This Internet luck doesn't happen all the time in SE Asia.

I got back, joined the family, had breakfast and a couple of hours later headed to a waterfall called Kuang Si. Incredibly beautiful. lisa and I both agreed that this was the most wonderful waterfall we had ever seen. You couldn't climb to the top which was wise as you could kill yourself. A writer I later met in Vientiane fell three meters there and broke his wrist. He said "Thank God the cameras were OK!! Downstream were pools in which to swim and lush forests surrounded by two hundred foot rainforest giants. On the way back I conversed with two English medical students who were out of school for two months traveling in SE Asia. Luang Prabang is a conversationalists dream and these two were not an exception.




That evening we went to L'Etranger Books and Tea, a place that had intimate low lighting (something semi-rare in Laos) and a nice cozy feel. There we had dinner and watched Mama Mia!, the movie. Very nice; especially since the owner allowed us (the girls especially) to pick the movie. Originally it was to be a semi-slasher adventure movie and she switched it because "we just don't get too many kids here."


All in all, the day went perfectly. Internet GREAT. Waterfall and nature WONDERFUL. Conversation with other travellers INTERESTING. Movie night FUN. A wonderful way to reenter youth at "53" before reaching "54" at midnight.

SIX MONTH STATE OF THE UNION

As of today, December 10th, we have been on the road for six months or one half of our trip. On the one hand, it feels like it was not that long ago that we were sitting in the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport waiting to leave the US. On the other hand, it feels like a life time ago. Time is a very funny thing. Overall, it feels that the second three months have passed much faster than the first three months. I'm not sure if that trend will continue for the next six months or not.

At this point we are ¾ the way through what we perceived to be our toughest countries. We knew that Europe, Australia and New Zealand would be the easiest places. Africa, India, Thailand, Laos and China would be the toughest. And the countries of South America, somewhere in between. Europe was in fact very easy, but as it turns out, so was Thailand and Laos. Africa was not what I would call easy, but much easier than expected. Only India was in fact as challenging as what we had predicted. I'm guessing that China will be that way as well.

On the road we don't take anything for granted and we have much to be thankful for. At this point we have had 13 flights which have all landed safely and our luggage has always been there waiting for us. We have not missed any trains, planes, ferries, buses or other forms of transportation and nothing has been more than two hours late and has never been a hardship. We were out of India by the time of the Mumbai bomings, and out of Thailand before the Bangkok airport closed and things got intense there. We are now back in Thailand for 11 days with a flight scheduled out on December 21st and at the moment it looks as if flights will be leaving Bangkok as scheduled.

We have all had days where we are “tired of traveling” but then we seem to be able to snap out of it after a short while. Avocet and Siena say they “miss home” with a certain amount of frequency with the specifics usually being: their friends, the house and their stuff. They make no mention of missing school. Marty misses his friends and his car and me, well, I miss my friends but that's about it. We are all longing to get back to apartments! We have managed in guesthouses/hotels fine and have learned to make common areas our “living room,” but we really miss having a kitchen a lot. It's nice when someone else cooks and cleans up for you but it really does get old eating in restaurants. We wonder if we'll ever eat in any restaurants in Sydney after having had to do it for four months!

Everyone has been healthy (another thing we are thankful for) with the exception of an occasional tummy ache or headache. This is particularly significant at this stage of the trip as we had assumed that we would all have gotten sick in Africa and/or India. Our first aid kit is intact with the exception of the use of some bandaids, antiseptic ointment, Advil, Dramamine and an occasional OTC sleeping aid. It would be nice if we could come home with the kit looking the way it does right now. We have less than a month more of taking our Malerone (anti-maleria) pills and will all be happy to stop taking them. Fortunately, we have not had any “known” side effects of taking them.

I try to think of how we have all changed for certainly, after an adventure like this, we are bound to change. We've watched Avocet and Siena blossom into amazing beings; they are sophisticated way beyond their years. We all see how we can live with a lot less than we're use to, not unlike the many people we see in the countries we are traveling in. It's clear to us that relationships are what life is all about. It's what we miss most from home and what we so much enjoy in our travels. And having been in Buddhist countries for the past month, learning and living the concept that the past is over and done and the present is what we have, will be something that we will continue to strive toward. My guess is that all the ways in which we have changed won't be apparent until after we get back home.

What's most amazing is that even after six months on the road, sometimes we have to pinch ourselves and say, yes, this is really happening. We are here in Thailand, half way around the world and we are spending a year of our lives traveling the world. It's hard to believe it now and I'm sure when we return home it will all seem like a dream.

Saeng and Wang

At Villa Phathana, the rooms were very nice and the included breakfast was delicious but that wasn't what was so special about the hotel, it was Saeng and Wang. Saeng and Wang were the 2 receptionists at our hotel. At first they were very nice, by just talking to us. Later on, we started goofing around with them and eventually discovered Wang's interest in the game of Hangman. We also got Saeng's email address and we started to email. At the end, we also got Wang's email. When we left Luang Prabang, one of the worst things was leaving our new friends.

~Avocet,

Eventually, we learned what their working shifts were. Saeng worked form 3:00 PM till 7:00 AM. Wang got there at seven and was therefore there during our breakfast time. After breakfast we would sit down at the table in the lobby and play hangman, tic-tac-toe, word games or drawing games with Wang. He always beat us in hangman though because he had practically memorized every word in his English-Lao dictionary!! Whenever we would get back to the hotel late at night, Saeng would be in his little sleeping bag under mosquito netting waiting for us. At the end of our stay in Luang Prabang, Wang gave us each a Christmas card and a bag of three hair bands and a nail-clipper. We had a very enjoyable stay there!!!

~Siena



Wang


and Saeng!

THE MEKONG

The Mekong. The name stirs up memories of helicopters scurrying over its surface in television shots of the Vietnam War. To me, as a late teenager, this river meant death. Or at least the possibility of it. Two days ago I turned fifty four and thirty plus years ago I DEFINITELY had no desire to be a soldier in a war that was half way around the world. I didn't want to see this river.

Now we eat in fancy riverside cafes on its banks in Luang Prabang. We watch locals transport their wares and food items up and down the river. It is different from my thoughts from the past. It is nice. We watch boatmen repair their wooden crafts, dipping into the water to check something or other. We watch women, probably their wives, hike their long skirts and bathe in its brownness. The river is alive with activity.


The four of us took a “longboat” (my term) from the dock area of Luang Prabang to the Pac Ou caves. The trip took two hours upriver and only one hour back. You think of the Mekong and you think hot. Not the day we went. I'm guessing the temp to be in the low sixties when we left at 9:00. The shallow, almost flat bottom boat slid quickly across the surface. This speed, plus the cool temps, made the passage bitterly cold. Av crawled on lisa's lap for warmth while I held Siena, her hands inside my fleece and mine in hers. Brrr....


The Mekong is very shallow. When you saw “waves” you knew there were rocks just inches below the surface. In high water season it doesn't matter, but now our boatsman had to be vigilant, winding his way through the deeper parts. You would see grasses grow out of the water, not at the edges, but in the middle. The river is wide, possibly a mile at its widest.

We saw villages on the riverside that were well up on the banks. This is the low season for the river with its obvious high marks showing on the banks many meters higher than where the river now stands. Gardens abounded. Here people grow vegetables to eat to sustain life, not as a hobby. On the way to the caves we stopped at a touristy village to look at stuff to buy. Not really interested in shopping, the four of us visited quickly and returned to the river. I noticed an older woman hoeing in the soil. I reached down and touched the soil noticing how rich, loose and apparently fertile this ground is. When I asked her if it was lettuce, she nodded her head.



They say that there are lots of villages on the upper banks of the river. We can't see any of them from the water, but you know they are there because you see people walking down to the shore. The river is alive. It isn't at all the vision of death that I thought years ago.

TAK BAT

Tak Bat is the Laos ritual of giving alms to the Buddhist Monks. Every morning at 4:00 AM the monks awaken to the sound of drums. If you are staying near a Wat, you too will awaken at 4:00 AM to the sound of drums. They then meditate and chant for the next two hours. At 6:00 AM, just as the sun is beginning to rise, the novice monks travel the streets collecting the food that they will eat for the day. Since monks do not grow or purchase food, they are dependent on the community for their nourishment. The community takes care of their monks and in exchange, the monks tend to the spiritual needs of the community. It is a symbiotic relationship that has existed for hundreds of years and the ritual of Tak Bat is quite a beautiful site to witness and to participate in.

At dawn, you head out to the streets having prepared your offering (or at least ordered it) the night before. The most common offering is sticky rice, however, you can offer fresh fruit, candy or really anything that you desire. You lay out your bamboo woven mat on the cold ground, remove your shoes, sit down, place your basket of warm sticky rice in front of you and wait. In just a short time, a sea of orange will round the corner and you rise to your knees. The monks approach you wearing nothing other than their robes,which aren't all that warm. Their feet are bare against the cold pavement. As they walk up to you, you reach out with your right hand holding that which you are offering them and place it in their alms bowl. You do this in silence and with a bowed head. There should be no eye contact at all. You make an offering to each monk as they pass until the line has ended. At that point there may be a break until the next line of monks reaches your street.

It is difficult to give alms during Tak Bat and take pictures at the same time. If you want to take pictures, the community asks that you do so at a distance so as not to detract from the ritual. They understand the tourists' desire to document this event but at the same time, they are trying to maintain their ritual with the dignity it deserves. Unfortunately, despite the fact that there are many signs posted of the Do's and Dont's of Tak Bat, many tourists are in the monks' faces with their cameras. It's quite sad and degrading.

We as a family participated in Tak Bat one very cold morning here in Luang Prabang. We ordered baskets of sticky rice from our guesthouse the night before which were waiting for us when we got up. We stationed ourself just in front of our guesthouse and waited. As the first monks rounded the corner there was a feeling of anticipation – we were about to take part in a ritual that has been done in this part of the world “forever.” It felt very peaceful and solemn and touched a deep part of my soul. There were fewer monks than we had expected but it was a rewarding experience none the less. This morning I went out again by myself. This time I went to a different location, closer to one of the town's many Wats, with my basket of sticky rice and a kilo of clementines. I watched as the locals held their rice basket in prayer and I too held my basket in prayer for my Mother who is sick at home. I then handed out all of my rice and clementines.


It must be a humbling practice to rely on others for the source of your food. It certainly felt like a humbling practice to ask others for spiritual help for my Mother.