Back in Chaing Mai

We left Laos on January 14 early in the morning and found ourselves in Bangkok by 11 that night. Our bus over the border took us to Ubon and within 10 minutes of being there we were on another bus headed for Bangkok.The pictures of the motos were taken from the back of our tuk tuk on the way to the bus station. The first bus was great with mostly Thais or Lao people on it. The border was a bit nutty though, very hard to figure out where you were supposed to be. Finally figured out that after getting your exit stamp from Laos you were meant to walk down a path hidden behnd a building that looked like a tiolet house and make your way to the big Thai Immigration building. The picture is of me standing buy the entrance to the path. As I've said before you never really know what you're buying a ticket for and the bus turned out to be a milk run taking much longer than it would have otherwise taken. I raced through the station to the food area and bought some bbq chicken and sticky rice and thank heavens for that because there were no real food stops and no vendors came on the bus. Just before leaving Laos we were on the back of a loaded truck and there were several pauses for food. We were bombarded by vendors sticking food through the sides at us. It was the most I had ever seen coming from all sides and lots of calling out to get our attention. This bus was very different than that.

When we arrived in Bangkok we headed to our normal hotel and there were no rooms. Bangkok had gone from almost no tourists to a zoo in two months. We were unable to book ahead because we needed to buy some minutes for our Thai sim card. Anyway the hotel had a sister hotel across the street and we were able to get a room there at a much higher cost. A breakfast buffet was included though so it made it a pretty good deal.

The next day we moved across the street and got ourselves organized and decided to go to a movie downtown. We saw the newly realeased "Girl with the Dragon Tatoo'. It was in a really trendy mall with stores like ''Fendi' and 'Gucci' etc. We've been to the movies there a few times but it was still really confusing but we managed to get to our seats in time. I really liked the movie and could follow it well as compared to the European version which I had started to watch at home and abandoned. It was really hard to watch the two rape scenes though, very graphic and realistic. When we left the theatre building we were able to check out the lavish Christmas decorations outside the mall. They were sptunning, a real spectacle Asian style. It was the last day they were up. We had seen the mall two years ago at Christmas as well and it was also amazing. When we left we had to get a taxi home as we didn't know if the boats were still running. It was very cool. There was a lineup of people waiting and an attendant asked you where you were going when your turn came up and then he used a megaphone to announce it and a taxi that was willing to go to your area came forward. Sometimes it's hard to get metered taxis because they don't want to go where you want to because they may not get another fare there or they don't want to use their meters and want to charge an exorbitant rate. Taking the water bus and sky train to get there cost just as much as getting a taxi back.

The next morning we got up at 6:30 to go to the Myanmar Embassy for our visas. We got there at 7:30 and although it doesn't open till 9, we were already about 20 people back in the line. By the time it opened there were at least 150 people in line and the first ten were from agencies and had stacks of passports. We were lucky to have a Burmese/American man on one side of us and an American who had been there many times on the other. He told us we needed copies of our passports and that Philip's pictures were no good because they had a colored background. Philip popped around the corner to a copy shop and they were set up for pictures as well. They also had copies of the applications. He came back all set and we had the paperwork filled out before we got through the door of the embassy. It was real meyhem inside. It was unclear which line to get in so we chose one and hoped for the best. They took our paperwork and then gave us a number and then we had to wait for another counter to call our number. Luckily the American got through first and told us we could pay extra and get it later that afternoon because when our turn came up the man said to come back on Wednesday and I piped up saying that we prefered today and he agreed that for a fee we could pick up between 3:30 and 4:30. We made our way back to our hotel and returned again by 3. The line was back and same thing inside, nobody knew which line to get in. We each got in one and it turned out I was in the right one and by 4 we were on our way home again. I've heard so many stories about that embassy and visas. One was that you shoud have your flight tickets first but the day we went we didn't have tickets and they seemed to feel that those who had tickets were presuming entry and it was frownded apon. Maybe everyday is different. I do know that we are thrilled to be going because there is a flood of people going there and the country is on the brink of big changes in everything including tourism.

The next day we decided to go to the bus station and buy our own bus tickets. In Thailand it's all private companies and they all are trying to get you on their bus. There were many companies for Chaing Mai and we tried a few before settling on one that was due to leave in ten minutes. The bonus was that they were offering a discount to fill the bus. I can only say that the middle to back of the bus must have been cheaper seats because we got seats second from the front and they were some of the best on the bus. How else would they not have been taken? What a shocker. It was another two story bus with a stewardess and it was the poshest bus we had ever seen. There were electrical outlets for computers, individual screens for viewing a selection of movies in a number of languages, reclining seats with footrests, massage built into the seats, lots of leg room and food served free of charge onboard. There were two seats on one side and one on the other instead of the usual two and two. It was an amazing ride and not expensive. I'm not afraid of the double buses when I know they are going on divided highways because they don't sway as much and there are no pedestrians that can get injured!


We're back in Chaing Mai to finish dental work and are off to Burma next week. It's a gorgeous sunny day here but quite chilly. We were expectng real heat!

Don Khon and Don Det

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After making our way down the length of Laos we ended up in the very southerly part on two ilsands in the Mekong. The islands are attached by a concrete bridge, leftover from the colonial era in the 1800's when the only railway in Laos was built to bypass the major falls on the Mekong at the Cambodian border. These falls were effectivly cutting off trade with Indochina and the French wanted this trade. It eventually became a ruin as land routes took over.
These are two sleepy little islands where life seems to stand still are still an amazing place to visit despite being on the Lonely Planet circuit. People who don't want to party stay on Don Khon and those who do stay on Don Det where everything is 'happy'. Happy shakes, happy pizza and even happy mashed potatoes! do you get my drift?
We, of course, stayed on Don Khon! Within minutes of arriving after yet another truck ride with no space and lots of grinning babies, followed by a boat ride with the boat mafia ( fixed high prices) we were eating a delicious meal looking over the river.
A few steps down the road and we were sitting on the verandah of our home for the next week. Electricity came to the islands in the last five years providing fans, aircon and lots of good reading light. Our bungalow was in a row of three looking over the Mekong to Don Det. There were two comfortable slouchy teak chairs and a hammock on the verandah and we spent most of our afternoons there reading and dozing in the hottest part of the day. Everyday we rented bikes and rode the trails aroound the islands through villages and rice paddies.
One day we happened upon a temple in the middle of a rice paddie on Don Det where some children were sitting in the open air wat with two old ladies chewing beetle nut and looking nice and relaxed. We had a bag of soaps and tooth brushes and individual shampoos we've been collecting from guest houses which we gave to one of the ladies indicating that she could share them. She passed them around and the kids took them as happily as children at home would take candies, barely letting them out of their grubby fists to play the game I had in my pack.
We played the dice game I mentioned in an earlier blog and everyone took turns. The older kids caught on really fast. At first the head monk seemed peeved with us but when he realized we were actually teaching them numbers and addition he was much more congenial. The first ladies turn was so moving. She rolled the dice in her hands and then gently and carefully put them down on the mat. a most unique way of rolling dice and somehow endearing as she grinned through her beetlenut teeth. Over time the nut erodes the teeth and it's quite an eyesore but they find it attractive.
At one point a gong went off and the kids suddenly adopted prair positions. We followed suit and the kids couldn't hold their laughter in. We don't know why we were so funny but they thought it was hilarious. After the prayer the monks ate their lunch shile we all sat quietly. We later realized that the old ladies had brought the food to the temple.
as soon as the monks were done the ladies and jumped into action clearing up the remains of the meal and we said our goodbyes leaving the game for one of the boys. I tried to tell the other older boy that I would come back the following day with one for him but his face fell and he didn't understand me.
After leaving the temple we rode along until we saw a home with a boat and asked them if they would take us to the mainland to the market. One of the daughters of the family was home from school for lunch and having some English she was able to convey what we wanted. Return to the mainland with an hour to shop. The price was arranged and off we went after bailing out the boat. The trip over was spectacular and under half of what we had paid the mafia to get there in the first place. We bought a soccer ball, pens, notebooks and marbles as well as treats.
The next day we returned to the temple to leave the game for the boy as well as some of the other things. I had also bought a pineapple and some oranges for the monks and the younger monks were thrilled to get the fruit as well as pens and paper.
We don't think that the kids who were in the temple go to school and after the monks ate on the second day we realized that they were given the leftovers to eat just outside the temple grounds on a little covered platform in the air. We stopped to visit with them and they let us take their pictures . As we were standing there one of the old ladies came by and let me take her picture as well, one of the best people pictures we've gotten so far. She did close her mouth though so you can't see the beetlenut smile.
Everywhere along the bike routes there were water buffalo and their young, going in and out of the water and wandering at will. They have a few months off as the rice won't be planted for a few months yet.
To give you an idea, to cycle around the perimeter of Don Det would be about an hour and fifteen minutes if you don't stop to take pictures and explore or talk to people. Don Khon is a bit larger and has water falls on both sides of it. The area in the Mekong is refered to as four thousand islands. The waterfalls are created between some of the islands. On one side they were really big and beautiful. We took pictures of fish traps and the contraptions that hold them in place. In the height of the fishing season they can catch up to half a ton per day in one trap.
The villages were interesting with most of the houses on stilts with raised gardens on bamboo frames. Life is very laid back and most folks have lots of time to laze in the shade of their houses with friends and family, at least at this time of year.
We stopped by a school one day which was built for the children of Don Det by a Japenese woman. A three room school and very primitive but a school full of happy kids. As we were waiting for the teacher to come back from lunch the kids were getting braver and braver and daring each other to come and sit by us. we just started to take some pictures discreetly when two German tourists came with a guide and starting sticking their cameras in the kids faces. It was sad they were so oblivious that the woman stood right in the middle of the game the girls were playing and didn't even notice what she was doing despite the kids trying to ask her to move. It made us put the camera away. We left the soccer ball and some pens and paper for the teacher and went on our merry way.
Each night we went to our favourite place to eat. It was a young couple with a small baby. She was a terrific cook, inspired I'd say and the presentation was above and beyond. Unfortunately we were going to take pictures the last night but they weren't open.
We spent our last morning having an early breakfast to the sounds of monks chanting next door and spending a few hours enjoying the verandah before heading over the water to the mainland and back to Pakse.
Tomorrow we'll head back to Thailand and on to Burma in a few weeks time. Looking forward to Thai food again but sad to leave Laos. We didn't get off the beaten track as much as I'd hoped, thwarted by cool weather and the holidays but it was every bit as friendly and wonderful as I remembered it.

A Lao Skirt and a Big Market

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Well after a month of seeing all the wonderful variations of the Lao skirt or 'sin' and the beautiful women wearing them, I decided to have one made. This is no so easy because there is so much fabric to pick from and the lighting in the market can be dim so that overall it was mind boggling.
We set off for the market walking but pretty quickly decided on a ride so we arrived at the market in the side car of a motorcycle with a little umbrella over us. This market is the largest in Laos and probably the largest I've ever seen with the possible exception of Dalat, Vietnam. There is an overwhelming amount of choice but I finally settled on a fabric with the border already sewn on. Traditionally the band at the bottom would have been woven into the fabric but in recent times the band is separate and they are not hand woven. The lady was able to walk me to the tailor who would make the skirt but the challenging thing would prove to be getting back there in few hours.
We wandered through the market taking pictures in some of the food areas and then went on the hunt for the metal belt worn over the skirt. They are available in silver but although inexpensive for all that silver I decided I wouldn't get that much wear out of one and decided to go for the base metal one commonly worn. The day before while testing the waters to figure out the price I could have gotten one for $95,0000 kip but we couldn't find the vendor again so I had to settle for $110,000 kip. Right now we're getting approx 7,500 kip for a dollar CAD.
After a yummy yummy lunch in the restaurant area we made our way back to the tailor and with only a few false turns we managed to get there. Bear in mind that the overalll size of this market is about the size of the center of the town I live in so this was no easy feat!
After catching another ride home I tried on my gear and here are the pictures of me modeling it.
Those bags of peppers were the size of garbage bags at home and those green beans are called long beans here for obvious reasons, these ones were well over a foot long.
This morning in another market I couldn't resist taking a picture of ! and her wild outfit. The weird part here is that I don't think I've seen one Laos girl wearing a mini skirt period!

Buses Laos Style

We're in Pakse in southern Laos right now after traveling the length of the country. Today we were in the area of a market that was a bus station for all these trucks. We couldn't help but laugh as an old fellow tried to sell us a ticket on this 'bus'. As you can see it was already filled to capacity! This is what I've been talking about. The pleasure and sometimes the pain of it..........