Mekong Meanders

Ahhh, Luang Prabang—tonic for our souls. The greens of the giant shade trees contrast with the burnt sienna robes and barefoot silence of countless Buddhist monks collecting alms. Gleaming temples, French-era palace and villas and the multi-ethnic peoples who live here give Luang Prabang a romantic and relaxed feel. It is a tourist showpiece for the country of Laos in part because it is Unesco Heritage listed and also because of its uber-cool French restaurants and wine bars. Above, the Wat Xieng Thong is its most magnificent temple, built in 1560 and featuring classic Luang Prabang architecture with roofs that sweep low to the ground.

Buddhist monks beat a drum as a call to pray.

South of town is a wide, many-tiered waterfall called Tat Kuang Si, tumbling over limestone formations into a series of cool, turquoise pools. To beat the intense heat Tim jumps in for a dip just after we snap this photo.

After whiling away a few dreamy days in Luang Prabang we hire a driver and guide and head north in an air-conditioned minivan to the hill country visiting many local tribes including the Hmong, Akha, Lahu, Tai Lu, and Khamu.

We buy a colourful, little hand-embroidered bag from this lady from the Lanten tribe. It is fascinating to observe the dress of the different tribeswomen, each so unique, from the colours to the jewellery to the way they do their hair. Sandi admires (and covets) their interesting silver jewellery.

Everywhere we go, and we mean everywhere, are scenes like this one—locals harvesting and drying a type of broom plant to export to China to make, you guessed it, brooms. Along with silk, teak wood and tourism, it has to be one of the top products that keep the country's economy going.

Carrying home their days sweep of broom.

Visiting Thai Lu villages like the one above is a highlight of our trip to remote Luang Nam Tha, the most northerly province.

The local villagers are extremely shy about getting their picture taken and hard as we tried, again and again they refused us, so sad to say we have only a few. Tim secretly snapped this devoted sister toting her brother who’s almost as big as she is.

In Muang Khua we leave our car driver and board this boat with our pilot, Lun, for the two-day ride down the Nam Ou and Mekong Rivers.

The river trip is a highlight and a welcome relief from the bumpy, dusty roads and gives us a glimpse into authentic Lao life. We decide it isn’t such a bad life as shown by these two, happy, little boys frolicking in the waters without a care in the world.

Fishing on the banks of the Nam Ou provides a livelihood for many of the villagers.

We stop at Bansop Jam, one of the small villages along the river, where women pass the day weaving and embroidering fine silk into scarves and other home decorations.

We can’t believe and can’t resist the beauty of the hand-woven and embroidered silks in Laos. They are everywhere from the smallest villages to the mass markets of Luang Prabang and Vientiane. Now there REALLY isn’t any room left in our backpacks!

Sand’s haul of silk scarves.

The craggy, karst mountains reflect in the river offering magical views as we speed by.

There’s gold in them thar... river beds? Yup, cruising down the Nam Ou we see dozens of local villagers panning for gold. We watch this young man swirl away and after 10 minutes he proudly shows us the fruit of his labour—a teeny, tiny sliver of gold the size of the head of a pin. Appreciate your gold ladies!

Back in Luang Prabang after returning from our northern adventure we rise at 5:30 a.m. to meet up with the monks who perform a daily ritual of collecting alms of rice. They softly walk barefoot around the block of the temple while locals, and now some tourists, drop fingerfuls of sticky rice into their baskets.

On occasions we’ve caught glimpses of international economic news which all seems extremely gloomy. Since we started out our pound sterling budget has been depleted by the steady devaluation of the currency. Tim decides we need to cut costs and so we set out on the next leg of our journey on the sleeper bus. Help!

They call this a sleeper bus but we’re not sure why.

The ubiquitous tuk tuk has become our main means of transport around town. For all of you who believe that only England drives on the ‘wrong’ side of the road (left), Laos is the first country in our five months of travelling where driving is on the right side. Bhutan, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand are all on the left, as will be Malaysia when we get there. Sandi finally feels right at home but Tim’s a little disoriented.

A local woman in Vientiane off to try to sell her wares (woven sticky rice baskets).

Stupendous Pha That Luang in Vientiane is the most important national monument in Laos.

In Pakse we book a 3-day tour that takes us by boat south along the Mekong to Champasak, once the capital of a Lao kingdom and one of the most impressive archeological sites in Laos, the Wat Phu Champasak, worshipped since the mid-5th century, though what remains is from the late Angkorian period.

Cute, giggly local girls.

Lazy days cruising the Mekong...

Our boat pulls up to the bank of the small village of Don Khon in Si Phan Don (Four Thousand Islands) and we spend the night broiling in 37 degree heat with only electricity and a ceiling fan from 6-10 p.m. It is the first time we welcome a cold shower. Si Phan Don is where the Mekong fans out forming an intricate network of channels, rocks, sandbars, and islets and also home to the impressive Khon Phapheng waterfall and rare Irawaddy dolphin (we’ve never heard of them either).

After a cycle around the small island of Don Det we decide we’ve had enough of ‘roughing it’ and head back to Pakse to recuperate with cappuccinos, air-con and massages. We thoroughly enjoyed soaking up the heady mix of culture, ecology and laid-back c’est la vie of Laos.

Had to throw this one in—dried frogs anyone? Enough to make you croak.

Fashion Find

Tim’s Valentines Day gift to Sandi—a traditional, vintage Hmong silver necklace. Needless to say it scored him a lot of love! The Hmong are one of the largest hill tribes in the Mekong region, spread throughout much of northern Laos, northern Vietnam, Thailand and Yunnan. They are known for their embroidered indigo-dyed clothing and ornate silver jewellery. Beware of fakes.

Tim's Trivia Corner

The Lao kip is one of few currencies in the world that is only issued in note form (no coins). At 8,500 to one US dollar the above 500 kip note is worth about 1.1 US cents.

Today it’s off to Siem Reap, Cambodia and the Temples of Angkor Wat.

Happy Valentines Day

Slightly belated but it’s hard to find an internet cafe cruising down the Nam Ou and Mekong Rivers in the far reaches of northern Laos. We found these sweet little hearts to mark the occasion (as well as giving each other lots of hugs and kisses), stitched by a woman from an Akha village we visited and we adorned our backpacks with them. To us Valentines Day is every day and we hope it is for you too. Love to everyone! xox

Destination Thailand North

We begin in Bangkok, a thoroughly modern city of 20 million people that seems a world away from India and Sri Lanka’s exotic-ness. The Sheraton Hotel, a stones throw from the Oriental, Shangri-La and The Peninsula, offers us a great deal—three nights for the price of two—a quarter of the price of the other top-end hotels so we check in to a beautiful room on the 26th floor overlooking the Chao Phraya River for only $90/night. We like Bangkok already.

We do all the good tourist stuff visiting Wats, shopping in uber-chic Siam Square and the historic Chatachuk weekend market. Our choice of restaurants is disappointing with the exception of the Mahanaga where we join one of Tim’s old friends, Matthew, who he hasn’t seen for 22 years. Matthew gives us the VIP treatment arranging to whisk us through customs at the airport, having his driver pick us up in his Mercedes and treating us to a lavish dinner. Thank you very much Matthew, we owe you BIG-time!

The huge 46 meter long and 15 meter high reclining Buddah at Wat Pho, Bangkok.

We visit Ayuthaya on a day trip, Thailand’s ancient capital from 1350-1767 and home to 33 kings and numerous Thai dynasties. It was a majestic city until the mid-18th century with three palaces and 400 splendid temples on an island threaded with canals—a sight that impressed early European visitors and us. The elegant chedi of Wat Phra Si Sanphet, Ayuthaya, above.

Another reclining Buddha has Tim thinking he wants to recline for an afternoon snooze too.

The center of the old city is Wat Mahathat but most impressive is the handiwork of the encroaching forest that has created the temples most visited image—the Buddha head embedded in twisted tree roots.

After four nights luxuriating in Bangkok (and, gulp, we admit, watching the Australian Open) we fly to Chiang Mai and stay at the Baan Orapin Guesthouse—a great find from our trusted Frommers Guidebook. It’s an oasis with 12 rooms and tranquil garden set around a small pool and the best breakfast we’ve had in a long time. We feel Thailand is like returning to the western world with all the comforts of home—there’s Starbucks, Haagen Daas and 7-11 stores and we think the sights are already lackluster to those we’ve seen anywhere else on our travels. Cleanliness is MUCH higher than India and most cars and buses are brand new. The economic downturn doesn’t seem to have affected the Thais and the only thing we notice is the lack of western tourists.

We make a day trip to Doi Suthep and in the heat of the day struggle up 306 steps to see Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, one of northern Thailand’s most sacred temples. Tim stands in front of the exquisite copper-plated chedi topped by a five-tiered gold umbrella. It is being renovated surrounded by apropos, reverent gold scaffolding.

Like Britain, Thailand also drives on the left so in Chiang Mai Tim feels comfortable enough to rent a car and do the driving for an eight day tour of the north. After one overnight in the hippy town of Pai we head to Mae Hong Son where we visit the Paduang refugee villages of Nai Soi and Mae Aw where the ‘long neck’ Karen tribeswomen live. They wear a continuous coil around their necks that weighs up to 50 pounds and can stand as tall as 30 cm. The neck coils depress the collar bone and rib cage which makes their necks look unnaturally stretched. Nobody knows how the custom got started, one theory being it was meant to make the women unattractive to men from other tribes. Another story says it was to stop tigers carrying the women off by their throats.

Sandi proves it’s not as difficult as it looks but quickly decides simple hoop earrings are the better choice.

Near the small town of Soppong is Tham Lot—a large, limestone cave with impressive stalagmites. The total length of the cave is 1600m and for 600m a wide stream runs through it and we must hire a bamboo raft to take us through making stops along the way with a gas lantern-carrying guide. Some of the caves contain ancient, teak coffins carved from solid tree logs carbon dated between 1200 and 2200 years old. We stay the night at Chiang Dao at a little guesthouse run by an eccentric, ex-Oxford professor and the next day visit the cave complex of Tham Chiang Dao which extends 14 km into the mountain.

At the peak, 1800m above sea level, Tim chimes the many bells at the hilltop Buddhist temple, Wat Phra That Doi Tung. From these hills we are looking right into Myanmar.

Thailand’s northernmost town, Mae Sai, is the starting point for exploring the Golden Triangle, the border area where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet, once made famous for lots of opium growing.

Along the roadside we see many miles of emerald-coloured rice paddies being harvested by hard-working local women. Where are the men?

Onto Chiang Saen and the ruins of the Wat Pa Sak with Buddhas sculpted in the mudra (‘calling for rain’) pose, with both hands held pointing down at the image’s sides—a pose common in Laos but not in Thailand. We enjoy a pleasant evening dining on sticky rice, grilled chicken and green papaya salad from the evening food vendors sitting cross-legged on grass mats along the river bank.

Ginny, the friendly manager of our hotel gives us a paper lantern with an attached candle to light and tells us to make a wish before letting it be carried away into the heavens. On special occasions northern Thais light hundreds of these lanterns wishing for prosperity, health and happiness.

In Chiang Rai we visit the Wat Phra Kaew, the city’s most revered Buddhist Temple. In 1990 a Chinese artist was commissioned to sculpt an image from Canadian jade (yay Canada!) modelled after the Emerald Buddha in the Wat Phra Kaew Morakot in Bangkok.

Young monks outside the Wat Phra Kaew in Chiang Rai.

We end our northern tour back in Chiang Mai in time to get caught in the evening’s Chinese Festival of Light parade. We’ll finish the south later but first it’s off to the airport again tomorrow to board a jet to Luang Prabang, Laos for another adventure!