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.