Saigon and Siam

For my last morning in Hanoi my mother and I wandered along the river and across to the centre of the small red bridge over  the lake where there is a Buddhist Temple  (of course there is...what else would there be).  Anyway, along the way I was accosted by a television crew and a guy who was a game show contestant who wanted me to sing him a song and then sign my name.  I sang him ‘My Heart Will Go On’ by Celine Dion.  I chose that one because they are always playing it at the breakfast at our hotel and I assume that every Vietnamese person must be familiar with it.  He was familiar with it and he even sang along a little bit.  I wished him luck and we then he scurried off at a trot with the entire film crew chasing him.  I hope he wins and I guess I will never know.

 

We had a delicious but expensive ice cream and cappuccino in a cafe overlooking the impressive traffic by the lake’s roundabout.  I took several pictures but they really don’t do justice to the dance that is traffic in this country.

I left my mother at 11:30 am and I was sad to see our time together end.  Three weeks together from Pearson International Airport to the Old Quarter of Hanoi.  A saying here is “Same Same but Different” and that is how I would describe travelling with her and then travelling without her.  I have many memories and am really glad that we did this together.

I arrived at Ho Chi Minh City and took a taxi to my hotel and the difference between Hanoi and Saigon is immediate and amazing.  Right away Saigon struck me as a grand old dame of a place.  It is truly a world-class city with broad avenues with lights, flowers, lovely grand architecture, and shining high-end stores.  I did not have a lot of time to explore the place though and that is my only regret. 

I met up with the tour leader Kevin and the other members of my tour through Cambodia.  It has been strange to go from a small group of older women to a large (15) group of people of all ages.  After our orientation meeting where I once again got an information overload, we set off for a 30 minute walk along the broad streets to a restaurant in what must be one of many fun market areas.  We were a huge group and there was another G-Adventures YOLO tour also eating there so it took forever to order our drinks and food and in fact...the Pho I ordered was not nearly as good as the one I had in Hanoi.  I think that was the first disappointing meal I have had since I arrived in SE Asia.  Win some lose some and I think I have won most.

The next day we travelled by private bus to the Mekong Delta, met up with our local guide Diep, got on our little ferry, and then started what has been my most touristy day so far.  We were taken to one of the fertile islands in the Delta where our guide showed us varieties of fruit trees and houses, and we were then treated to a lot more fresh tropical fruit than we could eat while some people played traditional music for us.  I started to feel like Kathryn Hepburn and it was a little strange. 

We then got back on our boat to travel to another island where we saw how coconuts have been used to make all kinds of creative things including chips (made from boiled-down milk), and most amazingly, toffee.  The reduce the coconut milk until it is thick and then beat it into a toffee, and then they might mix it with other things like coffee or chocolate....I will watch for that in stores because it is something I have never had before and must be tried by everyone in the whole world.  We were then shuttled onto a boat with a man working a long paddle and were slowly rowed back to the boat.  We passed by people’s houses along the way and saw kids being ferried (literally) home from school on the mainland by one of these rowers making the return trip back to the candy factory.  I tried to imagine what it would be like to live here and this be your daily grind and it was so strange that I had to stop.

After returning to the hotel, many of us walked to the nearly infamous Rex Hotel, passed the Oh-so-posh reception, and went up the bar on the fifth floor.  We then paid western prices for a cocktail and a chance to kick back in one of the best bars in the world.  The western journalist used to make this their unofficial headquarters as did the CIA.  I think my mother would have loved this because is was the perfect compliment to the Hanoi Hilton experience of only a few days earlier.

Anyway, I finished my evening  eating dinner surrounded by a cast of thousands in the market area where dozens of tables are set up outside and the food is kept alive in nearby tanks until they are barbequed on nearby grills.  It was fun and freeing and I think I spent more money on food and drink that day than I did during my entire time in Laos.  You only live one.

This morning we boarded our public bus to make the long road trip to Phnom Penh.  Immigration at the Cambodian border was very typically Asian and we sort of stood around in a big clump while they processed our fees as our passports.  I had both hands and thumbs digitally fingerprinted, and then I was in Cambodia. 

Cambodia is poor.  Laos was also poor and may in fact be technically more poor but because of the nightmare of the 70s, is has not been able to keep it’s farming intact the same way that Laos has.  We had to cross a river at one point and the whole bus was loaded onto a public ferry.  The locals were packed onto trucks with chickens and dust, and we were sitting in a comfortable air-conditioned bus.  They were just as interested in staring at us as we were in staring at them and I kind of regret not buying some of the creepy food that the women were carrying around on their heads.  Our tour leader Kevin bought some roasted crickets and I admit that I could not bring myself to eat one (although some people did)

 

That's all for now. Thanks for reading! Leslie

Halong Bay

I am writing this again from our hotel room in Hanoi.  Today is our last day in Hanoi before we part ways and my mother flies home and I continue on to Ho Chi Minh City. 

 

Two days ago, we met our Vietnamese local guide Sunny and we walked to see Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, as well as the complex where he lived and worked.  The Vietnamese, and I think in particular the North Vietnamese, speak with a tremendous amount of reverence when they talk about him.  The mausoleum is policed by white-coated army men and you have to give all of your belongings (including your camera) to your guide and then you are marched, two by two, into the building and solemnly process past the man himself as he lies in state.  The man himself is the father of Vietnam but I am sure that the modern Vietnam is not at all what he wanted when Lenin was his mentor. 

 

We then walked to the Museum of Literature.  It was established almost a thousand years ago in honour of Confuscianism and was a place where boys could write an entrance exam and then study there to become doctors.  There are several courtyards with sculpted gardens.  It is strange to see Chinese architecture and Chinese characters when we have been seeing Buddhist temples and other writing for the past several weeks. 

 

We then had lunch at a local restaurant recommended by tour guide.  We walked into this little, dark, and grungy place full of locals who were busy eating their lunch in silence and they looked up over their spoons at us and I don’t think they stopped watching us until we left.  It was some tasty soup though.  The woman who ran the establishment was chopping the raw beef on a wooden block right behind a glass counter where she takes the money, and the seats were low and uncomfortable.  It’s not meant to be a place where you sit and relax for an hour.  You eat and go.  It’s the Hanoi way.

 

After lunch we went to the Hoa Lo prison (known as the Hanoi Hilton by the US POWs during the Vietnam war).  It was built by the French during the colonial period and they detained members of the communist resistance there.  The entire experience was liberally dosed with propaganda.  Let me explain.  They have models of prisoners in shackles as they would have been kept in those days, and our guide made a point showing us the slanted floors so they could not lie comfortably, and the guillotine that executed leaders, and the cruel and crude toilets they were forced to use.  All through these rooms, the lighting was dark, with ominous music playing from hidden speakers.  We then spilled out into the sunshine of a bright courtyard with uplifting music as we were shown the dug-out sewers where some prisoners escaped and the birth of a free Vietnam.  Even more obvious and interesting were the rooms that followed which depicted the life enjoyed by the American POWs during the Vietnam War.  Most of them were air force pilots who had been shot down and many of them stayed in the prison for four or five years.  The lighting was good, the music gentle, and there were pictures of the Americans playing cards, basketball, smoking cigarettes, and other fun activities. 

 

Even the Nazis had a concentration camp whose sole purpose was to give the impression that Jews and other inmates were treated humanely.

 

Anyway, the whole thing was eerie and strange.  They are so fiercely proud of Ho Chi Minh’s ideals and loved the legend of the man.  The government and police are corrupt and unless you are a member of the communist party, you can’t get as a good a job or salary (especially in Hanoi).  They are proud to have vanquished both the French and the Americans and I think they have become so scarred by these wars that they can’t think straight. 

 

That evening we went to see a performance of water puppets.  It was a series of short little shows accompanied by live music and told folk legends (like the creation myth of the Vietnamese where 100 eggs were made from the mating of a water dragon and a phoenix, or the courting ritual of tribal people).  The stage was water that was about waist deep and the puppeteers were behind bamboo screens operating the puppets with poles and pulleys.  We were tired after a full day of walking around so it was nice to just sit and be entertained for a little while.

 

The next morning we left the G-Adventures group and were picked up and driven to Halong Bay with other tourist who had signed up for the same tour as us.  It takes about 3.5 hours to drive to Halong Bay and the landscape was field after field.  Many were rice fields lying fallow because of the season, some were green.  But it was all very flat with the occasional village.  I could not tell if the villages were undergoing a lot of construction or just in complete disrepair.  There were some buildings literally crumbling into piles of rubble and garbage and I can’t imagine why anyone would choose to leave it like that.  It is evident that there is still considerable poverty in the countryside of Vietnam even if the cities have a great deal of business going on.

 

Halong Bay itself is a tourist processing machine and there are dozens, if not hundreds, of boats in the harbour waiting for groups of tourists to be ferried over.  I was worried at first that it would be hugely crowded all the time but once we got underway the boats spread out quite a bit.  Our accommodations are luxurious with lovely dark wood everywhere and a very sophisticated bathroom.  The food is all included but drinks are not and I was shocked to find that the prices are almost as expensive as they are at home (even for water).  We met up with some families on vacation and even a group of really sweet Argentinian boys on holiday after graduating from school. 

 

Once we were some distance away from the harbour, we went ashore to see the ‘Amazing Cave’ and honestly, it is the most impressive cave I’ve seen so far.  The sheer number of tourists who traipse through there every day has meant that they have had to illuminate the cave and also carve steps so that people can walk safely. So it was not as exciting to walk through as the cave in Laos, but it more than made up for this by its sheer size and impressive formations.  The largest room was enormous and there were so many interesting things to look at.  I am not sure that photos can actually do it justice.

 

Before dinner one of the staff showed us how to roll and fry Vietnamese spring rolls which we then enjoyed on the bow of the boat just after the sun had set and the bay was lit up by all the boats that had, like us, dropped anchor for the night.  My bed was right next to the window and I kept the curtains open partway throughout the night so that every time I woke up I could look out the window to see the karsts looming up in the skyline and the lights from the nearby boats.  It was very quiet and such a change from the hustle and bustle of the city of Hanoi.

 

The next morning we rose early and were led in some Tai Chi on the deck before heading down for breakfast.  We were got into kayaks and paddled our way through a small cave between karsts into a secluded cove and got to explore for about half an hour.

  It was a cool experience to be able to get so close to the walls of the karsts and see them up close.  Even with this experience, I think my favorite past was just lounging on the deck reading and dozing while we slowly made our way back into the harbour.  This took a couple of hours at a slow speed and watching the giant limestone karsts ghost by in the distance, obscured by fog, was absolutely wonderful.

 

Our driver took us back to Hanoi using those famous and terrifying techniques that are popular here and get things done (heading into oncoming traffic, driving on the sidewalk, weaving in and out of lanes)...it’s best not to sit at the front where you can see what’s going on.   Underneath nearly every overpass near Hanoi is a collection of men sitting around on those short little stools and drinking beer.  I think that those areas are where people get dropped off and picked up by motorbikes and in fact we dropped off the bartender from our boat at one of these establishments.  I kind of wish we had these in Canada.  It might make rush hour more bearable.  I kind of like Hanoi.  The motorcycle drivers are very observant and as you cross the street, they simply drive around you (they never stop) and once you accept this, it's much easier to navigate.  What is shocking though, is the sheer volume of bikes trying to get everywhere, all at once, at any time of day.

 We spent our final evening in Hanoi wandering around through the old quarter and were rewarded to come across a group of kids break-dancing in front of the Monument to honour King Ly who brought Confucianism to Vietnam one thousand years ago.  Excellent strength and really difficult moves.  Those guys were amazing.

Tomorrow off to Ho Chi Minh City to begin another G-Adventures trip through Cambodia.

Thanks for reading!

Leslie

 

If teenagers ruled the world...

Now I am sitting in my hotel room in Hanoi and am uploading this post immediately after the previous one. It's nice to have decent bandwidth.

After leaving the homestay, we drove into the town of Veng Viene. Wikipedia describes the place really well. If teenagers ruled the world, they would design it like Veng Viene. Small and walk-able and along the Mekong river. You can float slowly on an inner tube down the river or rent a motor bike or bicycle to visit the nearby caves.

There are many cheap bars with lounge seating and looping episodes of ‘Friends’ or ‘Family Guy’ on the big-screen televisions.

After a nice lunch in the shade along the Mekong, we set out to hike out to a nearby hill and I had every intention of climbing it until after I paid my entrance fee and got about one-third of the way up. There are solidly-built bamboo ladders and bridges helping you over the more precarious bits but otherwise you are scrambling up over large rocks with a pretty impressive drop. They shut the entrance at night with barbed wire otherwise drunk tourists might attempt it. Apparently a couple of years ago 11 tourist died in Veng Viene because they tried to do some of the activities drunk.

 After the hill we hiked through the jungle to the Lusi cave and paid a tiny amount of money to one of the two sketchy-looking locals guarding the entrance. Armed with flashlights, we followed him up a short hill and into the limestone caves. He turned out to be a fantastic guide with good enough English and that great dirty sense of humour that we seem to be encountering a lot in Laos. He pointed out rock formations that looked like toilets, elephants, podiums, and many, many penises (Lao penises you understand). Anyway after about twenty minutes we turned around and came out to walk back through the jungle and fallow rice fields to come home.

Before going to dinner we bought a couple of BeerLao from the corner store and shared it while watching the sunset from our balcony.

That and the excellent barbequed fish I at for dinner made for a pretty good day.

The next morning we drove the four hours to the capital city of Vientiane and shared a minivan out to the Buddha Park. It was full of all kinds of statues both Hindu and Buddhist and was pretty spectacular to walk through. I just wish I knew more about what I was looking at.

This morning we took a tuk-tuk up to Pha That Luang which is a lovely and large gold-painted monument that is the most important national symbol in Laos. It is surrounded by lovely gardens and tourist go there by the busload. One of those tourists actually wanted to get a picture taken with us...in fact that also happened in Beijing. Kind of a surprise but whatever. Anyway, we then walked down past the Putaxai monument which is a Laos Arc de Triomphe and the story goes that they were given the concrete to build a new airport but instead they used it to buld a monument to the Lao who died in pre-revolutionary wars.

This afternoon we flew to Hanoi and managed to get our visas on arrival even though there was a mistake on my pre-approval letter. Turns out they barely read those things and just want the $45 US so I now have a nice Vietnamese visa to add to my collection. Better than landing jail in a communisty country. Anyway, Hanoi is an assault on the senses after Laos. In fact, it's crazy. It's batshit crazy. The traffic is gonzo and motorcyclist are EVERYWHERE and the stores are jammed together like pasts of Amsterdam...but with so so so much more chaos. I kind of like it.

Lao Lao = Wow Wow

I am writing this from my room in Homestay #3 in Veng Viang.  They have no internet here so if you and this is the first of a few  posts I had to wait until Hanoi to upload.

We met up with our guide Mr. B (I think he picked his name himself) and went through the ethnicity museum in Laos where we learned a few things about the 60-some tribes of people in Laos.  The Lao themselves are the most populous but there are many Hmong in the area around Luang Prabang.  We then drove on to the Khong Si waterfall and walked through the bear sanctuary to see the beautiful cyan-coloured water and impressive falls.  It was a very nice morning.  For our afternoon we went to the Royal Palace museum and saw for ourselves the riches of the throne room renovated by the last king before he abdicated the throne during the unrest of the 70s.  The car collection is still intact and it was cool to see the Lincoln Continental.  There were also many gifts to the king from countries around the world.  I think Canada gave some kind of coloured glass plate and the US gave a model of the Lunar Landing Module and a moon rock. 

 

We then climbed the 318 steps up Phusi Hill to the summit, and then walked down the opposite side visiting many beautiful posed Buddha’s on the way.  We wandered along the old city to the bar ‘Utopia’ and enjoyed a much-deserved BeerLao.  There was a yoga class going on and at one point the instructor came over and asked us to keep it down a bit.  I guess with a yoga class in the middle of a bar and volleyball game going on, that happens a lot.

 

For dinner we went for a home meal and had a welcoming ceremony from three old women of the area.  I kind of wish I understood what they were saying as they tied white strings around our wrists but Pookie says it’s just a blessing of sorts. 

 

I found it very difficult not to buy a lot of things at the markets in Luang Prabang.  Many of the textiles are made by hand right there in the city and I now have three silk scarves with exquisite patterns.  Laos has no industry and it is know for farming, textiles, and handicrafts.  So I have been eating well, and have bought lots of little hand-made things for myself and gifts.  The cross-stitch work is excellent and I just wish I could think of a use for some of it.  The people here are poor and genuine and you want to help them out.  It’s a strange place too through because there is closed-circuit television everywhere and a curfew of midnight.  It’s not free but somehow still very happy. 

 

Our second day in Luang Prabang started with a walk to the rendezvous with the Grasshopper Adventure Cycling tour guide.  After being outfitted with our bikes our guide Bruce, who is Hmong tribe, took us through the town of Luang Prabang and then on into the countryside.  We visited the Wat Xengthong temple which was built in the 1500s and is so strangely beautiful and so different from all of the other temples we have seen.  Every year, people from all over Laos come to this temple for a five-day festival and run water down a pipe to shower a Buddha.  They then take this water home.  Laos is a sweetly devout Buddhist country and you can see that in almost all aspects of life. We stopped for a coffee along the river at the oldest coffee shop in Luang Prabang.  We shared a table with a group of old men who probably come there every day. 

The coffee was sweet, smooth, and rich, and served in a clear glass with a tiny spoon.   We then crossed the river on a private ferry and pushed our bikes up the sand to follow a dirt road to the Sa Paper factory where they make the paper that we seen in the local markets and all over Luang Prabang.  After this factory, it was off to the pottery village where you can see the pits where they dig the clay, dry it in the sun, grind it into powder, and then throw it, all by hand.  I would have bought some pots from the small girls who came out to us but I knew they would not survive the trip home.  Another interesting highlight was a visit to a nearby local ...let’s call it a distillery....where the traditional Lao Lao whisky is made and distilled surrounded by pigs and geese.  They ferment the rice for about a month or so before distilling it crudely over a charcoal fire and finally pouring it through a little filter. 

The finished product was smooth and clean and not at all like the hooch the village served us when we were passing through along the Mekong River.  I think that stuff was suitable as a hospital disinfectant and nothing more.  The trip was about 30 km in total and took us all through town and all the countryside.  We finished off with a nice dinner at a local restaurant where the walls are covered by the owner’s lovely photos.  I wish that I could take a bike tour every day because it is such a nice way to see things.

 

After changing and showering the dust off, Susan and I went for a traditional Lao massage.  It was like Shiatsu only with a few key differences.  They led me up some stairs and gave me some clothes to change in to.  The pants were so big that I could wrap them around me an entire extra time!  Imagine and opium den with cushions and curtains, and Marlon Brandon (the later years) – sized loose cotton clothing...and then a Lao woman using pressure points and sometimes crawling on my back.  Loved it.

 

The day finished off with Lao food at Tamarind.  That place is very accustomed to western travellers and their menu aims to educate as well as describe the short menu.  We ordered some fish steamed in a banana leaf, chicken in lemon grass, and barbequed pork.  This, and a nice Lao Lao whisky cocktail, was the perfect end to the evening.

 

Today we rose early to watch the alms-giving ceremony.  Every day the monks leave the many temples in the city and walk all around the town three times.  The local people wait for them in the dark and when they pass by, put some food into their baskets.  The monks take the food back to their temples and share it, and that is their food for the day.  It was really interesting to watch.  Susan and I bough a package of Oreos for the young monks but Pookie talked us out of giving it to them and once the ceremony started I could see why.  There are maybe 15 or 20 monks who pass by at a time so it would have been better to have many tiny packages of Oreos instead of one big one.

 

After breakfast we got on our bus and then drove up into the mountains.  The road was originally built by the French and has been gradually improved but it still has hairpin turns and many switchbacks, and as we approached Vien Vang, the road quality got really bad.  Our lunch stop was a highlight through because of the spectacular view.  Even the bathrooms are perched on the edge of the mountain with an open window...in each stall.  Easily my favorite toilet in the world.

 

We arrived at our homestay and this evening, we got a chance to see regular people living their every day lives.  Our hosts, along with our guide Mr. B (who has a great sense of humour and a tendency to tell dirty jokes –

always a surprise when you’re on your best behaviour), showed us their gardens where they keep vegetables,

and their fish farm and mini orchard.  We had another delicious meal which started with the head of the village offering us yet another taste of the Lao Lao.  This one had some strange roots in the bottle and tasted different yet again from the one I tried in Luang Prabang.  After dinner, we sat around the fire for a while talking to the neighboring children.  The kids here are so sweet and cute.  Apparently there is a risk of being kidnapped and brought to Vietnam.  That’s the saddest thing I ever heard.  We asked them how old they were and the oldest girl answered in English and we could see her going through the numbers in her head.  I got a good look at the stars tonight and had a good time finding some familiar constellations (in the wrong place in the sky of course).

 

Anyway, life is quiet here and everyone turned in early.  Our hostess led us back to our homestay house and we went in the back door because the shop in front was closed.  I would have liked to stay up a bit longer because Mr. B was playing chess with rocks (big rocks vs. Little rocks) but I didn’t think our wonderful hosts deserved being kept awake by me since they would have had to let me in the door.

 

I am loving Laos and I wonder if I’ll every come back here some day.    

Luang Prabang Day 1

iv> I am posting this using the excellent (

again) wifi available at our guesthouse.  It seems to us that the rooms keep getting better and better and this one has a rain showerhead and the water gets very hot.  The hottest since I've arrived in Southeast Asia.  

This morning we woke early and some of us walked with our guide Sanh up to the local market where people buy their food for the day.  It's like a farmer's market at home only the wares are spread out on blankets and there were all kinds of things I didn't recognize.  Sanh did his best to point out certain things like banana leaves, various mushrooms, and hibiscus flowers.  The sun was just rising when we had our breakfast, and prepared to board the slow boat again for the trip into Luang Prabang.

The boat we were on today wasn't as nice as the one yesterday.  All of these slow boats seem to use old car seats or airplane seats (some even recline!) nailed to wooden slats and nailed (or not as the case may be) to the floor of the boat.  Today's boat had a toilet that you cannot flush but need to pour water down manually to clear the bowl.  You know what, it works just fine. 

Before lunch, we stopped at another village but this one is larger and more prosperous than the other.  This village has a temple and the villagers can make some wages by selling the beautiful scarves that they weave on looms.  We had a little boy follow us for a while and once Sue (who is bubbly and English) started playing with him, we soon had many more village children following us around.  They gave us a small bunch of the tiny and fragrant bananas you find here and also fresh local tamarind.  The sun came out just in time to let us get the boat to shore and that visit was the highlight of the day.

We stopped at the Pak Ou cave which is just outside of Luang Prabang.  This cave carved into a limestone cliff has hundreds of tiny buddha statues placed there over the last few hundred years. 

Once in Luang Prabang, we found our guesthouse and then headed out for dinner in the very, very trendy and 'Falang'-friendly downtown area.  There are many outstanding restaurants and the one Pooki led us to was all lit with delicate paper lanterns, water features, and spacious tables made of exotic wood.  There is only outdoor seating and we enjoyed the Lao BBQ which is set up like Korean BBQ only they bring a bucket of glowing coals and a metal cooking bowl and you cook your meats on the metal and blanch the vegetables in the hot broth.  It's kind of a bittersweet idea actually because the Lao people are so poor that they normally cook over coals because they have no appliances, electricity, or gas.  The menu also had a page dedicated to helping foreign tourist understand the culture of Luang Prabang.

We then briefly explored the night market which is full of genuine textiles and handicrafts until it closed at 10pm.  This city has a curfew of midnight and the local people have to go home to sleep in order to get up early enough to give alms to the monks.  I have made some mental notes on what I might want to buy tomorrow.

Anyway, it is getting late and we have another full day tomorrow. I am still having problems with images so they might appear out of order.  Thanks for visiting.

Leslie

Laos of Arabica

Hello all

Due to the Great Fire Wall of China, I had been typing my experiences journal-style into my hotmail account and saving them in my drafts folder.  And then I have had some sketchy internet access that it is only now that I feel I can try to upload anything at all.  The irony is that I am at a lovely little guesthouse in Pak Beng which is on the Mekong River in Laos in between the Thai border crossing and Luang Prabang.  This little town only got electricity a couple of years ago.  What you are about to read was written while I was in Beijing and then on the slow boat this afternoon.


I am winding down my second full day here in Beijing and this is the first chance I have gotten to sit down and compose any stories describing the time we have been having so far. I will try to tell as many of them as I can here now.

First of all, I have not been able to load blogger since I got here and this could be because I'm working on a tiny netbook or because the wifi here at the Grand Hotel Beijing is not so great all the time.

So I will begin by telling you that our flight on Air Canada was packed to capacity and according to the flight attendant, this is quite normal. There were many little kids on that plane and frankly, I tip my hat to parents who are brave enough to take a little kid on a 13 hour flight. It was full and crowded, and practically everyone on board had brought one of those large wheely carry-on bags and so as a result, my mother and I could barely fit our coats in the overhead compartments, never mind our small backpacks. The nice Chinese student next to me in the aisle (yes I was in the middle since my mother non-chalantly hopped into the window seat - I don't blame her) had a seat whose audio didn't work. I don't think I've ever seen someone watch so many consecutive episodes of a Chinese soap opera on a laptop. I was even wondering how the storyline with the sweet, pregnant girl, would end after she ended up in hospital when she found out some other couple having an argument about something hit a cyclist with their car....but I digress.

Flight was smooth, people were nice.

My first impression of Beijing was from the airplane and you can see the smog over the city. It's impressive since it's the dead of winter. Also, this just in, it's the dead of winter and the temperatures have been well below freezing, so I tip my hat (again) to the Beijing people for going about their daily business, being willing to wander through the markets and eat the street food with frozen hands, and just generally being very jovial about the whole affair. They would make good Canadians that way.

But there the similarities end.

The Beijing airport was really cold. Like, surprisingly cold considering that we came in through the new fancy terminal built for the Olympics. We turned down the offer for an $80 private car to our hotel, and took an express bus to a downtown location near where we wanted to go. We then figured out the subway (also cold!). We got off at Tian'amen Square East and figured we should be able to see our hotel once we climbed up the stairs.

Wrong.

We asked three kids in their late teens where to go and showed them the map we had from the hotel. They were so excited and helpful and kept running up to one of the many, many green-suited policement who patrol around the Forbidden City to ask for help but, sadly, no one knew where this 'Grand Hotel Beijing' was. The policeman would point in a direction, the kids would say "Yes! I know where to go!" and would bid us to follow them. They also used their GPS and led us on a 30 minute walk in the cold (and dark! it was 8:30 at night) in wrong direction and we ended up at another hotel. Lucky for us, THAT hotel knew where our hotel was and we walked there in another ten minutes. Those kids were so excited to be helping and were feeling absolutely no pain in that cold (not like us)...but really, after a certain point, I started to think we would break their hearts if we gave up on them...strange. Perhaps what is strangest is that our hotel is HUGE. I mean, like, huge with a giant indoor atrium, four restaurants, and it's right next to what is perhaps the fanciest hotel in Beijing. This was the first in what would be several misfires while trying to find our way around.

Our first full day in Beijing, we went to Lama Temple in the morning and saw many people paying their respects to the Buddha with incense and prayers. It had many beautiful buildings and even monks in full dress and it was nice to see so many people so happy to be there. We then walked along some streets and made our way through one of the famous 'Hutongs'. These are alleyways and old streets that have been preserved to give a sense of the city before all of the current modernizations. There are neat shops and artists and restaurants. Unfortunately, our enjoyment was dampened a bit because our guide book went missing. Whether it was lifted out of the side pocket of my jacket or simply fell out at some point will never be known. Unfortunately, it meant that we had to head back to the subway and hotel to regain our bearings. We found a large bookstore and now have a couple more maps but I was really sorry to see that one go because it had everything we needed at a glance. For dinner we decided to try a Peking Duck restaurant recommended by Trip Advisor but it was so impossible to find that we had to give up! Even the GPS was not in the right place and none of the locals we spoke to were able to help us. We must have searched for 45 minutes. Eventually we gave up and went to a place on Wangfujing St. Beijing definitely kicked my butt that day.

On our second day we wandered into the Forbidden City and a nice young couple led us to the main ticket entrance to the Palace. As happens so often here, a person approached us and tried to convince us to spend our money. Her name was Dina and she is one of the locals with guide certification who make a living convincing tourists to hire them for a period of time. Anyway we did hire her and I'm glad we did it because not only did she have lots of interesting stories to tell us, but she took really good care of us by making sure we had good views and good pictures. I learned that the Emperor would have over 3000 concubines and the lifestyles of these women was determined by how much she pleased the Emperor and Empress. Many of them committed suicide at young ages because they were lonely and never allowed to leave the Palace grounds. The Palace grounds are huge and there are several Halls with different purposes (ceremonies, sacrifice, prayer, business etc). Most of the buildings were re-painted in advance of the Beijing Olymics and were beautiful with the green, blue, yellow, and red colours. I got to meet the nephew of Pu Yi (the last Emperor) who is a professor and caligrapher. I turned down the chance to buy a scroll created by him simply because it was too large and I don't know where I would put it (plus also expensive). I still kind of regret that but it was not a practical purchase at all.

After climbing the hill in the park behind the Forbidden City, we walked along a local street and got many stares. The Beijing people seem to stare first at my hat (with an owl head) and the my boots (fake fur muff thing). Back at the hotel, we made a lightning decision to see a Kung Fu perforance (since there were no acrobats available) and took off to a new part of town. The taxi let us off in the wrong place and pointed us in the wrong direction, but after showing the ticket with the location in Chinese, we eventually found it. The performance short and sweet with presentations of Kung Fu martial arts in a variety of styles (Tai Chi, Monkey, Tiger, Drunken Boxer! Jujitsu, Single and Double Whip, Swords etc). After the performance we had dinner at one of the many wonderful and modestly priced places surrounding the lake in the SaiHaiChi district. We quickly flipped past the descriptions and photos of stewed baby turtle or bullfrog and found and excellent beef dish as well as a delicious cauliflower dish. An excellent day that made up for how badly Beijing had been kicking our butts.

Our third day began with a pick up by our tour guide Ben and a drive out to visit the Ming Tombs. They are nestled in between two mountains and a river (excellent Feng Shui) and reflected the Heaven and Earth / Square and Circle ideas we have come across often in Beijing. It was really cold though and our first impression of the Tombs were of women offering to sell us hot coffee. It doesn't take long in Beijing for you to figure out that you are an easy mark and people will never stop hastling you. I am now carrying the business cards of three different guides who told me they don't mind if I throw it away. Anyway, after our visit to the Tombs Ben took us to a Jade Factory and that was when I realized that we were on one of those tours where you are taken to a variety of places where you can spend your money on way overpriced merchandise. I'm a little annoyed about that because we booked the tour through the hotel and were pretty clear that we didn't want any shopping. I guess they really don't know much about the companies they contract.

Anyway the 'Jade Factory' tour ended in a Hall of Mirrors with several rooms (all mirrored and all looking the same) so that you can wander around lost for hours and perhaps eventually you will buy something. There was also a 'VIP' room in the back where we were sat down and given a lunch of very typical American Chinese food.

Eventually we did escape and then it was on to the Great Wall. We went to the Badaling location because of its proximity to the Ming Tombs. We took a sliding car up to the first tower although this car was more like the Ghoster Coaster at Canada's Wonderland. You have to see it to believe it. Anyway, the wall was beautiful and stark just like I imagined it and very windy and cold. The mountains are brown as is the shrubbery so the Wall itself kind of blends into the countryside during this winter season. We climbed to the fourth tower and then back again and took the little Ghoster Coaster down.

Then Ben surprised us with a visit to a Chinese and Tibetan pharmacy where we each got a foot massage while a traditional doctor read our palms and tried to convince us that we needed tibetan herbs to the tune of over $100 per month. I'm not knocking traditional medicine, but the whole thing might have been a bit more credible if the prices were similar to what you can get in Toronto. The whole time the doctor kept looking at me earnestly and telling me that I should open my mind to new possibilities. That place really makes no sense to me. It was large and with many different people working there. There were several little nurses all in pink caps and gowns so they all looked like Florence Nightingale if she had been barfed on by Barbie. There must be some honest business and treatments going on there but the tourist fleecing trade is definitely part of their portfolio.

Finally, Ben took us to a silk market which was so similar to the one in Shenzhen that I went to five years ago that I feel like I could have given the tour. Our little guide was miffed that none of us bought anything. Sure I'd love fine silk sheets. But they were $300 per set.

Dinner was found in the Olympic Plaza's Gourmet Street (the massive food court underneath the shopping mall at Wangfujing and Chang'An. All malls should have an area like this where you can find complete restaurants (with lines out the door) where you can sit down, have a glass of carrot juice, and a pretty decent meal. I've never seen anything like it.

On our last day in Beijing, we went to the Temple of Heaven Park and walked around there for the morning.  There are groups of people playing games, doing fan dances, Tai Chi, or just sitting and enjoying the sun.  We went into the Temple of Heaven area and took many beautiful pictures of the lovely circular temple.  We then walked up a busy and not-so-inspiring street to get the very modern and glitzy pedestrian mall that used to be the Emperor’s walkway up to his Palace in the Forbidden City.  There is a  lot of construction going on in this area and so there are Hutongs and shopping streets that don’t even appear on our maps yet.  After lunch we went to see The People’s Memorial and Tian-amen Square.  We found it difficult to get to because there is a very strange lack of signs indicating how to get into the Square.  The only way in is via the broad underground tunnels that are useful for crossing streets but for some reason one tunnel does not connect to another tunnel.  Perhaps this is on purpose for security reasons but it made it tricky for us.  In any case, we knew we were in the right place when we found a group of the impassive and beautifully uniformed Chinese army men standing by a metal detector.  There are two large screens playing inspirational propaganda and it’s hugely popular with the Chinese people.  Despite what happened there in the 80s, people are still fiercely proud. 

 

We woke up early in the morning to get to the airport in time for our flight to Bangkok.  We had absolutely no difficulty checking in for the first leg of our journey but the flight was slightly delayed, and we had to take a shuttle out to the tarmac, so as a result we barely made our second connection.  It was a little stressful because we had to wait for our luggage and pick it up, check in again (no priority at all!), and then clear security AND customs.  It all worked out but like I said, a little tight and annoying because of that now-famous lack of decent signs. 

 

Once we arrived in Bangkok, we took a taxi into town and met up with our guide and other travellers with our G-Adventures tour.  After an introductory meeting, we all went across the street to a restaurant.  I had been looking forward to the food for the entire trip and I was not disappointed.  Spicy fruit salad and soup...very nice.    After we spent our first night in Thailand, we spent the morning on a ride through the Khlongs (canals) into the heart of the city.  It was such a perfect introduction to Thailand.  There are beautiful flowers, and water dragons (!) and shabby elevated huts next to spectacular wealthy chalets.  We then had a guided tour of Wat Po which is a fantastic and large Temple in the centre of the city.  The Thai temples are spectacular with shining, mirrored stones that reflect light in all directions.  Each temple is always guarded by a Naga (a mythical beast made of parts of a lion, fish, elephant...and I can’t remember the other two).  Inside the temple is the massive reclining Buddha all painted in gold.  His feet are as tall as I am and covered in exquisite pictures made of mother-of-pearl.  There are also 108 little pots where you can donate money (one penny in each pot) and listen to the tinkle of the coins as you walk along the row.  I also saw first-hand how the local people are frustrated by foreign tourist who arrive and then don’t know how to behave according to local customs.  The culture in Southeast Asia is very conservative and our at one point our local guide told some girls that they were not dressed properly to enter the Temple compound and that they should cover up.  I don’t think that many tourists bother to learn much about the local culture and don’t realize how very important and central religion is to life here. 

 

Anyway, during the afternoon my mother and I wandered around the market area eating fresh fruit and looking at old coins and other things for sale.  We then met up with the group and went to the train station for our overnight train to Chiang Mai.  We were travelling on a second-class sleeper car and actually, aside from the rather stinky toilet, it was a very nice experience.  You can place your order with the staff who will bring it to you and set up the little table between you so you can eat facing each other.  They also walk up and down selling freshly-squeezed orange juice and fresh fruit.  They set up your bed and even prepare the bedding for you.  The train was slow, bumpy, and they never turn off any lights at all, but despite that, I was surprised at how much sleep I actually got.

 

Once in Chiang Mai, we checked into our lovely guest house, and then we walked around the city a bit before meeting up to go to the elephant sanctuary.  I can now say I have had the experience of riding an elephant!  After the ride, there was a very impressive show where the elephants do tricks like paint, play soccer, and other really adorable things.  They have even been trained to tuck on front leg on top of the other and do a manner of bow.  At the end of the show, you can buy a bunch of bananas and sugar can and feed the elephants.  If you do this, the handlers will get the elephant to hug you, put a hat on your head, and give you huge, sucking kisses!  They are even very adept at taking money out of your hand and giving it to their handlers.  A great experience and absolutely worth the money.  Once we got back to the hotel, we all travelled by minivan up a nearby mountain to see the largest and most impressive Temple in Chiang Mai.  There are 350 steps up to the temple and along those steps you can see some of the Hill Tribe women sitting and selling their wares.  It’s kind of sad actually because the Hill Tribe people are mainly refugees from Myanmar or Laos and don’t have citizenship, but their babies who are born on Thai soil do, and so they are severely limited by not only by clinging to their own culture, but by their very status.  The temple has beautiful tiling on the floor and also shines gorgeously in the late afternoon sun. 

 

That night we had dinner and time to explore the famous Night Market in downtown Chiang Mai.  I bought a silk tie for Russell, an exquisite carved soap for Kim, and a T-shirt and mobile for their children.  There were some beautiful strings of lights covered in delicate artificial flowers that I would have loved to have brought home, but don’t really want to carry for the next several weeks.  Maybe I will be able to find them in the markets of Bangkok towards the end of my trip.

 

The next morning, we went on a bicycle trip to the outskirts of Chiang Mai and visited a hospice that was founded by a priest to help people with leprosy.  Today leprosy has all but disappeared from the area and the hospice served a variety of people needed rehabilitative care.  Many of the people who came to the hospice as children afflicted with leprosy are still there and have learned handicrafts like cross-stitch and paper cutting.  I bought a camera bag and also a set of chop sticks with cases embroidered there.  After lunch, we started the five-hour minibus journey up towards the Laos border with a stop at a candy factory (imagine pecans tossed in chocolate and dried fruits of every kind).  We also had a stop at the very strange but very impressive ‘White Temple’.  It’s made of wood, painted all in white, and covered with little mirrored tiles.  But more interesting than this are the many pop culture references that the artist has put in and around his temple.  He has the head of Batman as well as other super heros hanging from a tree outside the Temple, to indicate that there are no real heros who can save us from ourselves since no one came in to save the  people in the Twin Towers.  Inside the Temple itself, there are painted frescos with Neo, and Star Wars, and so on, and I am sure that each image has some special meaning to the artist.

 

We then drove on to our absolutely adorable guesthouse on the border of Laos.  It looks like something out of Survivor with gorgeous exotic flowers everywhere and lush greenery outside of our quaint little screened in rooms.  We had another delicious dinner at a restaurant looking over the Mekong river and it is from the middle of that river that I am finally having a chance to catch up on this journal.  We are on a privately-chartered slow boat heading down the river on our way to Luang Prabang.  It is hard to describe this leg of the journey.  The water is swift and the scenery outside is getting more and more spectacular as the hills around us get higher and higher.  We made a stop earlier at a local village and walked around like we were in the Epcot Centre ... the villagers watched us as they must watch all of the tourists who tour through their village each day.  They were drying rice, and building new homes, and generally living a quiet life of farming or fishing.  I wonder what it must be like for them to see us.  It felt strange to me to walk through their private lives like that.  There was a girl who was more than happy to pose for pictures on her bicycle, and young girls washing cloths and dishes at a well.  After a lunch fit for a king on our boat (prepared by the women who lives on this boat and our guide Pooki), we are not slowly drifting along as the sapphire-filled hills rise higher and higher around us.  We sometimes pass people with fishing poles hanging in the water, or people panning for gold and sapphires in the river.

Anyway, I'm having some trouble uploading images so I think I'll publish now.  No sense being greedy.  Thanks for reading!  :)

Leslie

ps.  Laos used to be occupied by the French and hence there is excellent coffee to be had...hence the title of this post.

There and, with luck, back again

Today is the day I leave for this trip.  The past couple of days have been a freaky combination of packing, planning, panicking, and printing.  I tried to get some quality time in with Nimue before I leave her...but...you know.

This afternoon a nice family moves in for the week to house-sit for me and  after that, an equally nice guy from Seattle settles in for almost the entire remainder of my time away.  The first need a place to stay during a kitchen reno, and the second is here for a clown course.   Thanks sublets for gypsies.  I hope the cat can handle the five-year old.

I am ready for the -15 degree weather of Beijing and the 32 degree weather of southern Bangkok.  Bring it on.  I am ready to go without coffee for a while, eat congee, fish, and fruit, and finally see Sarah Lamb on stage. 

Goodbye to Nimue.  Next time you hear from me, I'll be in Beijing!