Images of Laos

Enjoying a fruit shake (fresh tropical fruit, ice, and sweetened condensed milk) on the banks of the Mekong in Vientianne


Naga (dragon) at the bottom of a temple staircase covered with sticky rice left as offerings


Lao script


Bike riding with parasol


On the very scenic and hilly bus ride from Vientianne to Luang Prabang, we had to stop to give the bus some drinking water. (Notice the guy with the gun to protect us from Hmong insurgents and highway robbers.)


At the market vendors used plastic bags tied to the end of sticks to keep flies away


Jen swimming in a waterfall pool


Monks, always picturesque orange dots


Rice crackers drying in the sun


Sunrise in Luang Prabang


Sunset in Luang Prabang

Trekking in Laos

We did a 3-day guided trek in the mountains near Luang Prabang walking through beautiful areas filled with unknown (to us) flora and fauna and visiting several Hmong and Khamu villages.
We hope to post more about this experience soon but are just sharing some photos for now.

Catherine and our guide walking through one of the buena vistas


Children playing marbles in one of the Hmong villages we visited


This is a typical home in the Khamu village where we stayed: built on stilts, thatched roof, woven mat walls, wooden floor.

Monk Chat

Saffron-robed monks and novices (monks-in-training under 18) are a common sight at the wats (monasteries) and in the streets of Laos. Many Lao people are very respectful of monks and novices as this shows respect for the Buddha. One must take care not to stand above them, not point at them, and women must never touch them. In addition, one must dress modestly when visiting a wat: no shorts and for women, no bare arms or knees or buddha forbid, cleavage. However, while remaining overly dressed for the 95 degree weather, one must remember to remove one's shoes before entering the sim (sancturary).

Dozens of wats later, we've got it down but we were a bit flustered at the first few wats we visited, a bit awed by these children (some as young as 10) who we heard were treated with deference by their parents and lay teachers. When some tittering novices would called "Hello" to us at a wat we would say "Sabaidee" (hellow in Lao) but keep our distance; if one came near us to ask where we were from we replied but kept walking. Then at a wat in Luang Prabang, as we exited the sim and were putting on our shoes, a sweet-looking novice peppered us with the questions with which we would become so familiar: Where you from? Where are you staying? How long are you in Laos? How do you find it? How old are you? We eagerly joined in this conversation as we had many questions about the monasteries and Buddhism in Laos. We soon found out that many novices are sent from distant villages to become novices as much so they can continue their education as for the merit their parents earn. (Many Lao children stop attending school around 6th grade.) Novices and monks may listen to music but they are not allowed to play musical instruments or sing or dance (Religious music and chanting excepted); riding a bike would be unseemly; they eat only two meals a day and not at all after noon. We also found out that the main motivation for them to speak to tourists is to practice their English. At least one novice told us he hoped to become a tour guide. None of the novices told us he wasn't going to continue on to become a monk but it soon became clear many of them probably wouldn't. ("We learned a little Japanese so we can talk to girls!" a couple of our new friends giggled.) We had intended to watch the sunset on the banks of the river but as the light faded, we had a hard time getting away from the wat. The novices were not the quiet, reflective creatures we'd expected. After asking if we'd return to help them with their English they explained that "maybe" in Lao meant "no" and tried to guilt trip us into returning. As luck would have it, they saw us cycling by a couple days later and we decided to help them with their homework. Their lesson that week included an article on "hip-hop fashion". We had a tough time explaining "backward baseball cap" to the robed, shoeless boys and an even tougher time figuring out how they would use their new vocabulary in Louang Prabang.

Here we are following the rule of Don't Touch a Monk

We have been enjoying a relaxing stay in beautiful Luang Prabang, a historic city on a peninsula between the Mekong and Nam Khan Rivers. Almost every block contains an incredible Wat (Buddhist temple). Here is a photo from the Xieng Thong Temple, constructed in 1560.

Tomorrow we leave on a three-day trek to several Hmong and Khmu villages.

Don't forget to scroll down as we continue to add stories from our recent visits in Vietnam. We've just added a post on the welcome dearth of Vietnamese Quickie Marts.!

Arrival in Laos

On Wednesday we arrived in Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. We're having fun seeking out the differences and similarities with neighboring Vietnam.

We have been amazed by all of the Buddhist temples. Pictured here is a site we visited today, Pha That Luang. King Setthathirat ordered it built when Vientiane was made the capital in the mid-16th century. Unfortunately, it was badly damaged in the 18th century and completely abandoned and dismantled in the 19th but rebuilt in the early 20th. It was regilded in 1995 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Lao People's "Democratic" Republic and radiates from quite a distance.

Tomorrow, we head to the atmospheric city of Luang Prabang, a Unesco World Heritage site.

Images of Vietnam

Here are some images from our travels in Vietnam:

Jen joining an early morning aerobics class in Lenin Park in Hanoi


We did not taste these cookies to see if they are as addictive as they sound


A typical Vietnamese (& Lao, Cambodian, Chinese, etc.) squat toilet


Sign at Hoa Loa Prison (nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton), now a museum. Notice that rule #3 includes a warning against frolicking.


On the river in Hoi An


Do you see what they´re trying to fit on this motorbike?


Typical offering to ancestors


School girls cycling in their school uniforms - the traditional ao dai


Outdoor acupuncture


One of many propoganda signs
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Streetside shopping


Beautiful back-breaking fields of rice are everywhere

Highway Cafe Names in Vietnam

Forever Coffee
You and Me
I Love You
Cafe Love
Cafe Compac Disc Windows
Kitty
Cafe Forget Me Not

The Things They Carried...

...on their motorbikes!

This is a random sample of items transported on motos in Vietnam:
mirrors
panes of glass
TV
luggage (on driver's lap)
potted plants
presents (3 large)
crates of fruit/veg
crates of pop (tall stack)
gigantic bags (of rice?)
huge bunches of bananas
palm leaves
large water bottle for water cooler (in front of driver)
bolts of fabric
large speakers
hoe (over driver's shoulder)
pig (dead)

Black Hmong villages outside Sapa, Vietnam

Our last excursion in Vietnam was to visit the hill tribe area in the Northwest. We took a 2-day guided trek with a Canadian woman and our guide, Dom, who is from the Black Hmong village where we spent one night.

The landscape of the hills and valleys was gorgeous but we were there during the cold drizzly foggy season. The views through the clouds were still beautiful and otherworldly but the "trails" were virtually melting away under the wet fog and many footsteps. With the help of our guides, we slid our way down many ridiculously steep declines and inched through dense mists along the very narrow and quite slippery mud ridges between the rice terraces, trying not to bellyflop forwards or tip backwards into the mud.


Here's Jen with the eight-year old girl who helped her during one particularly awkward stretch. Amazing to owe our lives to the strength and agility of the girls' small steady hands.

Almost all of the girls that we met in these remote villages could speak English remarkably well considering most have had little or no schooling. Over the past five years or so when an increasingly large number of tourists have been visiting this region, they have quickly learned all the English they need to make a convincing sales pitch for their village's local handicrafts.

Dom took us to her home where we shared food and drink with her family and neighbors. Seated around the table, we were offered tasty morsels of food and drink after drink of the local rice wine (tasted like grain alcohol). The family speaks the Hmong language and found it hilarous to ask us to repeat phrases after them and point and giggle when we butchered them. Against the back wall, you can see some colorful items from Dom's mother's work as a shamen.


Here Dom is trying to pile Catherine's hair into a traditional hat worn by women in her village. Dom is wearing a new jacket of indigo-dyed linen (the color is why her tribe is referred to as Black Hmong) with amazingly intricate embroidery she did herself. All of the women and girls in her village work throughout the year to make new outfits to wear after the Lunar New Year Holiday.

Halong Bay

We joined a very very touristy boat trip to see the natural wonder of Halong Bay in Vietnam. More description to come.

Decked out in our most Seattle gear on the top boat deck


One of the 200+ family homes on the water