Posted 10:27 PM by MelanieandSteve
Blog Written 25 Feb 2004
(last blog 7 Feb, Melbourne)

Sawaydee, Sabaydee, and Xin chao from South East Asia.

On midnight after our last blog, we boarded the redeye to Thailand. With memories of college all nighters, we arrived at our Bangkok hotel at ten the next morning, numb from lack of sleep, and crashed out for the day. Napped and refreshed, our Indochina adventure began.

-A stroke of meteorological timing and luck: We arrived in Bangkok following a multi-day streak of perpetual rain. It cleared as we we arrived. We hadn't seen a drop of rain for the next seventeen days until today; its pouring.

Asia: Our experience: In a clockwise fashion we have journeyed through Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. Listed below are landmark highlights, however the true highlights of this trip have been the feelings we get walking the streets, interacting with people, absorbing the atmosphere, and simply appreciating peace.

THAILAND: We spent a short time in Thailand. In Bangkok and Chiang Mai we experienced a society with most of the same conveniences we're used to at home - they have Big C (the equivalent of our Walmart), food courts, computer and stereo equipment, ATM's, and everything you could want or need - as convenient as home. But store fronts are often less attractive garage door style entryways, many people vend from the sidewalks often selling foods that only the most daring might venture to try, and motor traffic is a melee of chaos. Thailand has been the most hustly bustly of the three Asian countries so far as well as the most anxious to sell and make deals.

HIGHLIGHTS IN THAILAND:

-BANGKOK: Super-Busy. A good place to stock up on supplies for the rest of our trip.

---GRAND PALACE: The place where "Anna and the King" resided apparently: one of the most ornate, gold-adorned places we've ever seen - huge, with Siamese, Cambodian, and Ceylon temples - shimmery - home of the life-sized jade "Emerald Buddha". A great first temple experience. One of many - perhaps too many?

---WAT PO: home of the "Reclining Buddha" plated in real gold and 42 meters long from head to toe (15 meters from ground to shoulder.)

---LONGTAIL BOAT RIDE: that and the local sky train ride home from Wat Po warmed us up to fun forms of local transport.

-CHIANG MAI: overnight train ride to this prettier northern city, encircled (or ensquared) by a river spotted with fountains, lined with flowers, and dotted with parks. But just to make sure you don't get too lost in wonderland, the crazy traffic and never ending honking of horns persists like everywhere else.

---BAMBOO RAFTING: our guides assembled rafts from scratch just for us - binding shafts with rope. We hopped on. Standing, we helped navigate by pushing on the river bottom with bamboo poles. Steve fell in more than once, and the whole group enjoyed some chilly waterfights.

---ELEPHANT RIDES: Usually one rides on a bench-chair strapped to the elephant's back. Melanie wanted to ride bareback like the elephant masters. "If you want something, ask for it," and they let her ride on the neck. The loose skin on the elephant's neck made the ride feel a little precarious. We thanked our elephant with bananas, apples, and sugar cane. She thanked us by blowing banana-snot at us out of her sneezy trunk.

---TRADITIONAL THAI DINNER AND ARTS EVENING: We were told to expect poor restaurant service in Thailand. We got that part of tradition this evening. But on the positive note we did get a taste of their yummy food and a great dance and music show complete with the wavy hand movements, sword dancing, and colorful costumes.

---NIGHT BAZAAR SHOPPING: If we were souvenir shoppers we'd have weighted ourselves down with the miles of street deals. Instead, we enjoyed sidewalk browsing and watching our fellow travelers bargain up a storm.

OVER THE BORDER: Thailand was a whirlwind. Things slowed down a bit for deeper experiences in Laos.

LAOS: Laos had a more laid back character than Thailand. In Huay Xai, for example, in the mornings and evenings, people sat on their porches with fires smoldering under stone pot ovens cooking up breakfasts and dinners. The doors to their sweet wooden homes were always open and unlocked. Inside, you could see that the furniture was sparse - sometimes there was none, or maybe there was a single table at ground height, no chairs. But it seemed everyone had a TV. The children were beautiful, the peoples' faces glowed, many were too shy to let us take their pictures and they seemed to be more reserved than Thais or Vietnamese. The climate was gentle and relaxed, and once in a while, friendly Lao people would make an effort to practice their English with us. Like Thailand and Vietnam, venders abounded, but crafts they sold were hand made and individual, unlike some mass produced junk we've found elsewhere. While price negotiations were expected, we found that venders were less desperate to sell -- hence less willing to come off a price. Laos left us with a very good feeling.

HIGHLIGHTS OF LAOS:

-GETTING THERE: No bridges, we crossed the boarder by boat on the mighty Mekong River, 12th largest in the world.

-HUAY XAI: A border town but homey, relaxed, and sweet.

---SUNSET, RIVERS, AND TEMPLES: found ourselves in our river view room in Huay Xai in time to hike the hill to the nearby temple, Wat Jom Khao Manilat, for sunset over the river.

---PEOPLE: Steve and I spent some time talking with a friendly English Speaking Monk, Samhon about some of his beliefs and his unique life style.

---LIFE: Melanie strolled through the town at dusk enjoying the people, their specially sweet wooden home, and wood stove fires on each porch. The feeling was the most laid back place yet.

---SLOW BOAT ON THE MEKONG: 6 hours of water relaxation on the way to Pakbeng.

---PAK OU CAVES: break from the river ride for a hike up to some caves, of course adorned with Buddha imagery and eager venders.

---FAST BOAT FURTHER DOWN THE MEKONG: Decked in helmets and life vests as well as optional ear plugs, we shivered in the chilly morning air at speeds of 80 KM/H on the three hour ride to Luang Prabang. Exciting and fast. Dodging massive bergs of sharp rock made it a risky thrill.

-LUANG PRABANG:The former capital of Laos until 1560, this charming town is well preserved and probably a lot like it was back then. It was a favorite city among our Asia travels.

---MORNING ALMS TO MONKS: every morning, people head to the streets at about 6 am. Lines of monks from the 30 temples in this small town enter the streets to receive peoples' gifts of foods and treats (mostly sticky rice). It's a solemn morning event and beautiful, as the streets are decked with hundreds of marching bright-orange-robed monks.

---KUANG SI WATERFALL: huge, lustrous waterfall, with steep pretty hikes to the top and crystal clear water that Steve enjoyed jumping and swimming in.

---SAM CHIT: Sam Chit, a local monk, struck up a conversation with us. He said we were the very first people he had ever mustered up the courage to try his school learned English on. We learned that this 17-yr-old has been a monk for 5 years and during that time has had zero contact with his family because they can not afford to take the train to visit each other and there is no post in the mountain village where his folks live, so he can not send letters. This is apparently common. Temples offer free education. Sam Chit showed us some of his complex geometry problems.

---CHANTING FROM THE TEMPLES: in the evenings, monks gather in the temples to chant. Sometimes, from the streets, we could sit and hear chants coming from different temples. Perhaps most special was the chanting we heard at a temple on top of a hill perfectly timed along with sunset over a river.

-LEARNING ABOUT BUDDHISM: we've read up some, asked lots of questions of our guides and of some monks we've met. Every male in Laos is expected to be a monk for at least a short time, sometimes as short as a week. This explains how a small town like Luang Prabang can have 30 temples.

-ROYAL PALACE: at this museum, we saw the residences of royalty, and a display of gifts made to Laos from foreign countries. From the U.S., we saw rocks brought back from the moon by American Astronauts of APOLLO 11 and 17.

---TRADITIONAL MASSAGE: We went to the traditional massage by blind people.

VANG VIENG:

---BAR TOWN: good food, but not too impressive at night.

---KARST TOWN: Karst is limestone structures: Melanie was amazed in the morning when she stepped out for her sunrise jog to see the glorious steep mountain landscape across the bamboo bridge on the river. She ran across the bridge, through the rice fields, and up to the huge stone mountains.

---THAN JANG CAVE: cool hike through this pleasant cave, topped off with a swim at the cave's base. In Laos, dress is conservative. We swam in our clothes.

---STEVE GETS ANOTHER MASSAGE: never too much for just $2 an hour. This one, he liked better than the blind massage in Luang Prabang.

KAYAKING ON THE WAY TO VIENTIENE: the Nam Lik River: Steve and I each navigated our own single person kayak and enjoyed a day of rowing, splashing, water fighting, and testing our rapids skills. Steve capsized in the biggest rapids. Mel was the only single boat paddler who did not capsize. Steve then jumped in and swam the rapids. Both of us went cliff diving further down the river (Mel, with her knees knocking due to the cliff heights).

VIENTIENE: The capital city - dusty and bustly like a capital city. Lots of sidewalk holes to watch out for.

---MORE TEMPLES: definitely getting our fill of Buddhas and Temples - kind of like our experience with Cathedrals in Europe. Steve and I opted out of a trip to "Buddha Park " in this town in hopes of experiencing something a little less Buddha-ish today.

--PADUXAI: Modeled after the French Arch de Triumph and nicknamed the "Vertical Runway", this monument was build in in-your-face style by the Lao people using cement given them by America for the purpose of building an air landing strip. Beautiful, and complete with gorgeous city view, but apparently not America's favorite Laos landmark.

---PHA THAT LUANG: "the Golden Stupa", is a huge stupa entirely covered in gold. So bright and blaring, unforgettable, and to it's over-showy credit, at least different.

20 IN A TUK TUK ON THE WAY TO VIETNAM BORDER: the little covered taxi pick-up trucks are tiny. The 14 of us piled in back for a 4 hour, bumpy dirt road ride to the Lao-Vietnam border picking up other local customers along the way -at times totaling well over 20 people, and a cage full of chickens to boot. Many people balanced on the back of the truck standing up and hanging on to the bars. A fun final memory of dear Laos. On the way our guide pointed out where they found two American soldiers' bodies just last week.

VIETNAM: Vietnam has been a virtual post card - scene after scene fits exactly to the settings we've seen in books, post cards and National Geographic. The minute we crossed the border into Vietnam, the landscape turned from arid karst to water falls and jungle, "Platoon" style. The land is full of rice fields spotted with workers in their conical hats, riding old bicycles, or driving their water buffalo through the fields. Old wooden long boats skirt the rivers, and every day seems like a lesson in "the traditional days of Vietnam". The Vietnamese people show a lot of interest in us. As we walk down the street, we hear lots of "Hello's" and catch lots of stairs. Their attitude toward us has been consistently friendly, though there are times that they look at Melanie and laugh, and we're not always sure why. But it's usually a friendly tickled laugh.

HIGHLIGHTS OF VIETNAM SO FAR:

---PAGODAS: Differences in Vietnam's architecture, approach to Buddhism, and imagery within the religion as compared to Thailand and Laos (where we were beginning to get 'templed out,') have made visiting these cultural religious sites again interesting. We've seen Pagodas and temples. The difference: Pagoda's in Vietnam are to worship Buddha. Temples are for gods. Also, in Vietnam, Pagoda architecture is different: less gold, less ornate, warmer, woodier, and often with a multi tiered roof. The Buddha figures themselves have varied: here we see lots of the "Happy Buddha", which is the fat bellied Buddha most often depicted stereotypically in the States. In actuality, this fat Buddha is less common than the subdued skinny one. We almost never saw a happy Buddha in Thailand or Laos. Buddhism in Vietnam is a more strict, conservative sect than in Laos. Interesting they would be the ones to celebrate the more jovial, fun loving, uninhibited fat happy Buddha. We have visited a few Pagodas: The ONE PILLAR PAGODA, an icon of Hanoi with it's lady Buddha, and the THIEN MU PAGODA where the famous Monk Duc worshiped before going to Saigon in 1963 and making world news by setting himself on fire to protest South Vietnam's treatment of it's people. We saw the Austin Motor car that drove him to the site in Saigon.

---HO CHI MINH MAUSOLEUM: Former President Ho Chi Minh's will called for cremation. However, the Vietnamese so revered "Uncle Ho" for his role in kicking out the French that they couldn't let him go. Lenin-style, they had him embalmed and people line up to walk by his tomb and see his 40-years-preserved body. It is guarded by armed soldiers. We watched a changing of the guard ceremony - as serious as Buckingham Palace, but with the communist goose step added to the march.

---TEMPLE OF LITERATURE: A temple dedicated to Confuscious and Vietnam's first university was built in 1076. Sculptures honor Vietnam's four symbolic creatures: the dragon for power, the unicorn (lion-like) for strength, the turtle for longevity and education, and the phoenix for beauty. Here we watched a traditional music performance. The instruments were creative: including what looked like a huge pan pipe, but was played by clapping hands near the opening of the bamboo pipes without actually touching them.

---WATER PUPPETS: in Hanoi, the traditional water puppets are controlled with sticks from underneath water by back stage puppeteers. The puppets act and dance to a live Vietnamese orchestra. Amazing the level of charm and reality that can be attained by puppeteers from such a distance and by the mere use of a stick. A tradition since 1070.

---HOM KIEM LAKE: In several cities, but particularly Hanoi with it's Hom Kiem lake in the city center, locals go out at 5 or 6 a.m. for aerobics, tai chi, badminton, jogs, or other less familiar exercises such as face patting and ear lobe pulling. Smart entrepreneurs bring weighing scales hoping to make some money by letting the fitness fanatics check if their work out has taken effect. The scene is amazing and almost comical - worth getting up early to see. Melanie ran the lake. For once, she wasn't the only one exercizing in the morning. During one run, Melanie saw a giant water turtle. Legend has it that a giant turtle from this lake took a magical sword from a king after the King used it to win a war.

HALONG BAY: Boat cruise on this not-to-miss bay of hundreds of steep, small, karst islands with a mystic and dramatic appearance. Gorgeous. The cruise also took us to Titop Beach with a long steep hike to the Pagoda at the island's peek. Also we explored a gorgeous Cave deep inside one of an island mountains with structures unlike any we've seen.

HUE: a busy town and hot bed for Vietnamese history both during power struggles with China (the Te Son Rebellion), and with America (the Tet Offensive).

--- the CITADEL around which the city was built is now a ruin (reminiscent of ancient roman or Greek ruins, though not so ancient) destroyed by the wars of the 20th century. Inside a two-meter thick wall lies the old royal residences, royal temples honoring emperors and gods, as well as the forbidden purple city where the king's concubines stayed. We saw a traditional Vietnamese dance and music show and enjoyed the subtle differences from the traditional art forms we'd seen in Thailand and Laos. Still as colorful, the focus here was less on hand movements and individual form but more on group formation, shapes, lifting people, making human pyramids etc.

---TUDUC'S TOMB: 19 century Emperor Tuduc built a city-sized retreat where he often escaped his sorrows over French occupation as well as over his failure to conceive an heir with any of his over one hundred wives. Now, he's buried somewhere within the complex - but the secret of exactly where died with those who buried him in 1883 (no one would tell because they didn't want the French to get at his royal riches).

HOI AN: A town of Tailors and silk trade, and a former fisherman and merchant-boat port of call and rest. It lives up to its name meaning peaceful place. We took a walking tour and found lots of influences from former Japanese and Chinese residents and visitors.

--BIKES AND BEACHES: on rented bikes, we and some of our fellow explorers rode off to the coast and enjoyed a swim and some sand play. Biking is a great way to see the people and the land more closely and intimately.


ALL THREE COUNTRIES:
--EARLY RISERS: Locals get started early in all three countries. Melanie sees them everywhere in the early mornings, but often they disappear either to work or home before travellers get up.

--RELIGION: Each country has a high population of Buddhists. A great result is incense burning everywhere. It smells better than typical incense in America.

-CHICKENS: We wake to roosters. We see chickens "crossing the road". Locals bring baskets of chickens on the tuk tuks (small pick up truck taxis) and we've seen one roadside cock fight. People still have chickens despite recent chicken news coverage, but poultry dishes have been removed from menus.

-STANDARDS OF LIVING appears generally higher than we had expected: the air smells clean. The homes are simple but sweet. People are eating well. There's no lap of luxury, but there also seems to be no trap of despair. A happy discovery considering these are some of the poorest countries in the world.

-TRAFFIC: it's mostly motor bikes: especially in Vietnam where car taxes range at 200%. Everyone honks at every opportunity and there are many close calls. For those of us not used to this custom, it's driving our ears crazy.

COMPARATIVE OBSERVATIONS: between Asia and Home:
-In Laos, not a single ATM
-In Thailand, everything you could want at home - even peanut butter and cheap electronics - beats out western Europe's conveniences.
-In all three countries, you just don't see much crime: People want your business. Want our money, but they don't take it. We saw more crime in a day in Europe than we've seen in three weeks here.
-No visible homeless problem here. You don't see people sleeping on park benches or on the sidewalks like we do in wealthy America.

AN EMBLEM: THE LOTUS FLOWER: the Buddhist icon of the Lotus flower abounds everywhere, particularly in architecture. The Lotus flower starts in the pits of the dirtiest swamps and grows up out of the water into the sunlight and opens clean and beautiful. In Buddhism, this symbolizes the human journey from darkness to enlightenment, and honors the strong soul who can be surrounded in figurative muck and maintain a Clean pure spirit.

OUR GROUP: We are travelling with a group of 11 others from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and the States. Everyone seems to appreciate a sense of adventure and fun and we all seem to improve each other's experience by living it up together. Our tour group markets itself as a "grass roots" adventure service and attracts travelers who want more adventure and less posh (though sometimes we get posh anyway.) This focus brings in young-spirited good people and we really enjoy who we've met.

FOOD: Melanie has enjoyed trying all local specialties, and experimenting with vegetarianism - easy to experiment with here since all restaurants offer veggie and tofu options. Melanie is proud to say she has only ordered "Falang" (western) food one time yet during her Asian travels and has eaten local favorites every other day. She's loving it, but is disappointed that the food is not spicy as she expected. Steve enjoys his local sampling as well, but he also likes his pizza and pasta when he gets the chance. Mel has made it a goal to try different fruits whenever she can: so far the list has included Tamarind, mini corn, sugar cane, Mangusteen, La Moot, Monk Mon Pow, and Dragon Fruit. Most of the above have been good, or at least not bad. Some may be fruits that she has had before but with unfamiliar names. For example, Monk Mon Pow tasted exactly like Jicama.

-BREAKFASTS: In Asia, Breakfast is no different than other meals - breakfast menus include rice, noodles, and soup. Many of our travel partners have found this difficult to fathom and stomach, but its really not bad. A unique breakfast Mel tried was a rice pancake which is like a crape made of thick rolled rice stuffed with meat (oops, Mel didn't know it was meat when she ate it.).

- NOT SO SPICY THAI: Thai food in America is known for being very spicy. Melanie, who has recently grown to love the hotter foods (yes, Steve thinks she must have been abducted by aliens) has been disappointed to find it very difficult to get a restaurant to spice up the food. It's not spicy. True traditional Thai never was, however. Thais got their supposed taste for spices from early trade with the Americas.

Well, that's where we are as of 25 Feb. Our first two Communist countries, and another land we've come to love.

Happy Birthday
Dad
Norm
Grace
Ray

Happy Leap Year