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| Merry Christmas to anyone reading the blog - glad he didn't have us for his dinner..... |
Sunday, 25 December 2011
Merry Christmas
Saturday, 24 December 2011
Golden Triangle 20th December
Musings from the Golden Triangle 20th December
Chiang Saen, Northern Thailand. At confluence of Mekong and Ruak rivers where the Mekong splits Burma and Laos and swings eastwards as it hits the Thai border.
Early morning run along the banks of the Mekong. Sun rising slowly through the blanket of thick mist that embraces the riverside cornfields and villages and clings more hazily to the hillsides that are touched gently by the remaining pink hues of the fading dawn rays. Golden heads of rivergrass dance, chatter and sparkle, boatmen yawn as they ready their sampans or long speedboats, fishermen prepare and repair their nets, brightly clad smiling babbling children clamour and scramble into the back of vans and trucks and trishaws, roadside workmen huddle by a fire. Friendly gestures ask if I am not cold. It is 10 degrees and they all wear jackets and scarves...
Across the river in Laos, wisps of smoke from morning fires, tops of trees and glinting temple roofs begin to appear out of the misty shroud into the sunlight and close above me towers and presides over all of this a (ubiquitous) brilliant giant gleaming golden Buddha, flanked by garishly decorated, morose-looking elephants - a religious but also defiant symbol to the Burmese that their border stops right there in Buddhist Thailand....
Burma lies to the North-West over the river. To the North and East is Laos, where we have spent 6 wonderful days. This is the Golden Triangle: epicentre of all that is fascinating and terrible about the centuries-old trade, trafficking and smuggling of gold, spices, goods, animals, humans and opium - the black gold. China is not far to the North up the Mekong. Its influence in this area is still huge.
Chiang Saen, Northern Thailand. At confluence of Mekong and Ruak rivers where the Mekong splits Burma and Laos and swings eastwards as it hits the Thai border.
Early morning run along the banks of the Mekong. Sun rising slowly through the blanket of thick mist that embraces the riverside cornfields and villages and clings more hazily to the hillsides that are touched gently by the remaining pink hues of the fading dawn rays. Golden heads of rivergrass dance, chatter and sparkle, boatmen yawn as they ready their sampans or long speedboats, fishermen prepare and repair their nets, brightly clad smiling babbling children clamour and scramble into the back of vans and trucks and trishaws, roadside workmen huddle by a fire. Friendly gestures ask if I am not cold. It is 10 degrees and they all wear jackets and scarves...
Across the river in Laos, wisps of smoke from morning fires, tops of trees and glinting temple roofs begin to appear out of the misty shroud into the sunlight and close above me towers and presides over all of this a (ubiquitous) brilliant giant gleaming golden Buddha, flanked by garishly decorated, morose-looking elephants - a religious but also defiant symbol to the Burmese that their border stops right there in Buddhist Thailand....
Burma lies to the North-West over the river. To the North and East is Laos, where we have spent 6 wonderful days. This is the Golden Triangle: epicentre of all that is fascinating and terrible about the centuries-old trade, trafficking and smuggling of gold, spices, goods, animals, humans and opium - the black gold. China is not far to the North up the Mekong. Its influence in this area is still huge.
Friday, 23 December 2011
More photos: Chiang Mai area, N Thailand, 21/22 December
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| White Temple, Chiang Mai: modern art Thai-style |
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| Hitting the trail....... |
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| Hunger strikes..... |
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| Calm reigns, but battle about to commence.... |
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| I could be jealous..... |
Sunday, 18 December 2011
Bangkok (9-12 December)
Bangkok! 9-12 December
Approaching the centre in our minibus from the Cambodian border, we enter a sprawling entangled world of ten-lane motorways, frantic flyovers and skyscrapers straddling and dwarfing a jumble of low-rise jam-packed houses or shacks in a maze of small streets, jostling with small businesses and street traders and lining a network of malodorous grimy canals and the wide river where busy ferries and riverbuses, barges and tourist longboats busily ply their trade.
Everywhere bustle, noise, smells, traffic, fumes and grime, intermingled with utter gems like the bright brash and sumptuous Royal Palace, the ancient Wat Pho temple complex, where the 50 metre long gold Reclining Buddha draws admiration, astonishment or prayers from visitors and 2,000 golden buddhas fill the tiny alcoves that hide in the cloister walls all around.
Amongst forests of crass and gleaming multi-national towerblocks, a modern architectural gem emerges when we happen upon the new Bangkok Arts and Culture Centre, with its open plan swirling staircases and airy exhibition halls. A new 'Water and Empathy' photographic exhibition records and commemorates the Bangkok people's heroic response to the October floods, illustrating the pain and the tragedy as well as the creativity, mutual support, resilience and humour of the mostly smiling population. Sandbags remain all round the city, especially near the riverbanks, but yet outlying villages and suburbs continue now to have to protest in order to bring attention and aid to their 'less important' communities.
Highlights for us in Bangkok are the Palace, Wat Pho, the riverbuses, a great cookery morning in a Thai home, an early evening wander through Chinatown as the street stalls start preparing mouth-watering snacks and dishes and a spectacular dance and drama performance of Thai culture, music, legend and daily life through the ages and across the tribal areas, costumes and languages. A welcome respite is found in a leisurely afternoon in an oasis of green space and calm at Lumphini Park, where, against a hazy backdrop of towering blocks and temple spires, real Thai people walk, stretch, exercise, workout, have picnics, play, sleep, court, ride paddleboats or play kickvolley, where the players perform amazingly acrobatic moves, often in mid-air to smash the basket-weave ball back and forth with startling speed, skill and agility.
Night-train to Laos comes next..
Approaching the centre in our minibus from the Cambodian border, we enter a sprawling entangled world of ten-lane motorways, frantic flyovers and skyscrapers straddling and dwarfing a jumble of low-rise jam-packed houses or shacks in a maze of small streets, jostling with small businesses and street traders and lining a network of malodorous grimy canals and the wide river where busy ferries and riverbuses, barges and tourist longboats busily ply their trade.
Everywhere bustle, noise, smells, traffic, fumes and grime, intermingled with utter gems like the bright brash and sumptuous Royal Palace, the ancient Wat Pho temple complex, where the 50 metre long gold Reclining Buddha draws admiration, astonishment or prayers from visitors and 2,000 golden buddhas fill the tiny alcoves that hide in the cloister walls all around.
Amongst forests of crass and gleaming multi-national towerblocks, a modern architectural gem emerges when we happen upon the new Bangkok Arts and Culture Centre, with its open plan swirling staircases and airy exhibition halls. A new 'Water and Empathy' photographic exhibition records and commemorates the Bangkok people's heroic response to the October floods, illustrating the pain and the tragedy as well as the creativity, mutual support, resilience and humour of the mostly smiling population. Sandbags remain all round the city, especially near the riverbanks, but yet outlying villages and suburbs continue now to have to protest in order to bring attention and aid to their 'less important' communities.
Highlights for us in Bangkok are the Palace, Wat Pho, the riverbuses, a great cookery morning in a Thai home, an early evening wander through Chinatown as the street stalls start preparing mouth-watering snacks and dishes and a spectacular dance and drama performance of Thai culture, music, legend and daily life through the ages and across the tribal areas, costumes and languages. A welcome respite is found in a leisurely afternoon in an oasis of green space and calm at Lumphini Park, where, against a hazy backdrop of towering blocks and temple spires, real Thai people walk, stretch, exercise, workout, have picnics, play, sleep, court, ride paddleboats or play kickvolley, where the players perform amazingly acrobatic moves, often in mid-air to smash the basket-weave ball back and forth with startling speed, skill and agility.
Night-train to Laos comes next..
Laos part 1
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| Cycling through country villages, Vang Vieng |
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| Grandmother doing the work |
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| Sun going down from riverside bar, Vang Vieng |
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Friday, 9 December 2011
Cambodia 5-9 Dec
Finger-printed and temperature-gauged at the border crossing...then a quick old McBrayne-Cambodian ferry across the Mekong again (this river will continue to be a marvellous theme threading through a large part of the trip) alongside trucks, bikes, carts of all descriptions and whole families on single motor bikes. To Pnohm Penh, the refreshing capital, despite the greater evidence of poverty, delapidation and garbage along the outlying streets and rivers, where in the centre the new hotels and bars mingle happily with the French colonial vestiges and the local Khmer shops and small businesses which abound. We focus on long meandering walks along the riverside and through the back streets stall and markets where everyday life continues apace and visit the Silver Pagoda in the Royal Palace, remarkable for the 5,000 silver tiles that form the floor and the 600 meter long mural of the life and times and legends of the kings and the people that line the monks teaching cloister all round the Pagoda, and the Wat Penh, allegedly commemorating the founding of the city and a place of pilgrimage for Cambodians from far and near. In between, we manage to fit in the best most relaxing fabulous massage ever and a wee drink and snack at the Foreign Correspondents bar overlooking the river to recover......
Next day getting used to new ambience, smells and tastes we head for Siem Reap by bus. Also different is the slower pace and lesser amount of traffic, the even greater courtesy of all drivers who actually stop for pedestrians and the Tuk Tuks here feel absolutely safe to travel in , at least most of the time - see trip to Tonle Sap lake. Grilled aubergine dishes and the famous Amok become treats, so we had to do our second cookery morning to further our knowledge of Cambodian cookery, this time starting at 9 am and cooking a meal for 4 (with Xylon and Wendy from SA) which would have fed 12 - or indeed many more Cambodian families - what a waste. Need to think about this..... (Cambodian food quite distinctive through preponderance of coconut milk, egg and sugar - sometimes all 3 - in main dishes and desserts. Bit of an acquired taste. Average price 2 pounds per meal...)
High point of this visit to Siem Reap, however is Angkor Wat, really a national and religious sanctuary being restored and cared for after neglect under the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975. Our guide, Sam, now a grandfather of 5, worked in a killing fields labour camp for 4 years from age of 16, survived because a good worker, met his wife in the camp and married her 2 months after being released. Formerly a teacher and primary headmaster, he learned English and trained to be a tour guide to double his salary to allow his children to continue school and higher education.
But Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom temple complexes, from the dawn spectacle onwards provided 9 hours of gawping, wonder and astonishment at the engineering skills, the intense years of labour, the heavy sense of history and centuries of prosperity upheaval sacking tragedy and decline after the 15th century, as the once mighty Cambodian empire was overtaken by the rising power of Siam. Afternoon required rest and pondering, before sauntering through the markets, doing a little shopping (our first, apart from the Hoi An tailors, as trying to discipline ourselves to resist buying every beautiful artefact or article of clothing we see!) and having a Dr Fish foot massage/bath. Weird and hilarious!!.
8 December: free day around Siem Reap. After the cookery (above), we had gniger tea in the Butterfly gardens then grabbed a tuk-tuk to take us out of town southwards down dirtroads past rows and rows of small traders and family businesses and homes, all on stilts, alongside Tonle river to Tonle Sap lake and the floating villages (including floating shops, schools, churches and even floating pigsties), extraordinarily nestling together in amongst the tops of the low forests which are virtually submerged during the rainy season (just finished). Relatively poor yet bustling, vigorous, proud and busy fishing and trading communities. We return up the river as the sun begins to set behind the mangrove forests and the schoolchildren row and paddle themselves home from floating school to floating homes, the fishing families prepare and clean the nets, bring in the last anchovies with amazing skill, cook their meals or rock babies to sleep in hammocks strung across the small open rooms. Small children hop from house to boat to house or cavort in tubes, tyres or basins in the river. Unforgettable. See last blog post for some photos.
Next day getting used to new ambience, smells and tastes we head for Siem Reap by bus. Also different is the slower pace and lesser amount of traffic, the even greater courtesy of all drivers who actually stop for pedestrians and the Tuk Tuks here feel absolutely safe to travel in , at least most of the time - see trip to Tonle Sap lake. Grilled aubergine dishes and the famous Amok become treats, so we had to do our second cookery morning to further our knowledge of Cambodian cookery, this time starting at 9 am and cooking a meal for 4 (with Xylon and Wendy from SA) which would have fed 12 - or indeed many more Cambodian families - what a waste. Need to think about this..... (Cambodian food quite distinctive through preponderance of coconut milk, egg and sugar - sometimes all 3 - in main dishes and desserts. Bit of an acquired taste. Average price 2 pounds per meal...)
High point of this visit to Siem Reap, however is Angkor Wat, really a national and religious sanctuary being restored and cared for after neglect under the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975. Our guide, Sam, now a grandfather of 5, worked in a killing fields labour camp for 4 years from age of 16, survived because a good worker, met his wife in the camp and married her 2 months after being released. Formerly a teacher and primary headmaster, he learned English and trained to be a tour guide to double his salary to allow his children to continue school and higher education.
But Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom temple complexes, from the dawn spectacle onwards provided 9 hours of gawping, wonder and astonishment at the engineering skills, the intense years of labour, the heavy sense of history and centuries of prosperity upheaval sacking tragedy and decline after the 15th century, as the once mighty Cambodian empire was overtaken by the rising power of Siam. Afternoon required rest and pondering, before sauntering through the markets, doing a little shopping (our first, apart from the Hoi An tailors, as trying to discipline ourselves to resist buying every beautiful artefact or article of clothing we see!) and having a Dr Fish foot massage/bath. Weird and hilarious!!.
8 December: free day around Siem Reap. After the cookery (above), we had gniger tea in the Butterfly gardens then grabbed a tuk-tuk to take us out of town southwards down dirtroads past rows and rows of small traders and family businesses and homes, all on stilts, alongside Tonle river to Tonle Sap lake and the floating villages (including floating shops, schools, churches and even floating pigsties), extraordinarily nestling together in amongst the tops of the low forests which are virtually submerged during the rainy season (just finished). Relatively poor yet bustling, vigorous, proud and busy fishing and trading communities. We return up the river as the sun begins to set behind the mangrove forests and the schoolchildren row and paddle themselves home from floating school to floating homes, the fishing families prepare and clean the nets, bring in the last anchovies with amazing skill, cook their meals or rock babies to sleep in hammocks strung across the small open rooms. Small children hop from house to boat to house or cavort in tubes, tyres or basins in the river. Unforgettable. See last blog post for some photos.
Thursday, 8 December 2011
Siem Reap, Cambodia 7-8 December
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| Angkor Wat, Siem Reap just before dawn. Wondrous day. |
King Ayarvayan the 100th (the Ancient)
Queen of Angkor for the day.
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| Fisherman heading out on Tonle Sap Lake, Siem Reap, Cambodia 8 December |
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| Reurning from Tonle Lake trip at sunset 8 Dec |
Sunday, 4 December 2011
First successful attempt at including photos....
23rd November
A few of our lovely fellow travellers (Anne centre of course), from Leeds, South Africa, Australia and NZ.
Kayaked round the karsts in the twilight (right).
Saturday, 3 December 2011
HANOI TO HUE AND HOI AN and the Tailor's.....on to HCMC
24 Nov: Last day in Hanoi. Have never spent 4 hours at a Folk Museum before! Fascinating info about all the different languages and cultures of past and present Vietnam and an outdoor area with re-constructed houses, halls, pagodas and a water puppet theatre. Feel we know a lot more about the country we are traveling through - and its people. (New building joint funded by French govt - and opened by Jacques Chirac.) Spent a mesmerising hour in the popular 3 storey market near hotel in Old Quarter, Dong Xuan (no, nothing to do with Don Juan), getting unusual snacks for overnight train journey to Hue, including half a duck (cooked) bought from a tiny stall run by some lovely elderly ladies at the end of a dingy alleyway. Got a new larger second rucksack at market too, handy for extra food for long journeys - for the things Anne will be bringing home......
Overnight train journey took 13 hours to Hue and impressively arrived on time. Rather cramped, but clean 4-berth compartments shared with couple from Midlands Helen and Mark. Enjoyed the conversation, a few Hanoi beers, the duck and the boisterous cards with S Hemisphere group in next compartment. Can't beat them at rugby, but can at cards! Fitful sleep with the occasional impression that you had been stuck inside a washing machine that was rattling you around at top speed... Amazingly, Anne slept through quite a lot of it.
24 Nov: Last day in Hanoi. Have never spent 4 hours at a Folk Museum before! Fascinating info about all the different languages and cultures of past and present Vietnam and an outdoor area with re-constructed houses, halls, pagodas and a water puppet theatre. Feel we know a lot more about the country we are traveling through - and its people. (New building joint funded by French govt - and opened by Jacques Chirac.) Spent a mesmerising hour in the popular 3 storey market near hotel in Old Quarter, Dong Xuan (no, nothing to do with Don Juan), getting unusual snacks for overnight train journey to Hue, including half a duck (cooked) bought from a tiny stall run by some lovely elderly ladies at the end of a dingy alleyway. Got a new larger second rucksack at market too, handy for extra food for long journeys - for the things Anne will be bringing home......
Overnight train journey took 13 hours to Hue and impressively arrived on time. Rather cramped, but clean 4-berth compartments shared with couple from Midlands Helen and Mark. Enjoyed the conversation, a few Hanoi beers, the duck and the boisterous cards with S Hemisphere group in next compartment. Can't beat them at rugby, but can at cards! Fitful sleep with the occasional impression that you had been stuck inside a washing machine that was rattling you around at top speed... Amazingly, Anne slept through quite a lot of it.
Onetime capital of Vietnam, Hue bristles with temples and tombs of emperors through the ages. Less busy, less noisy than Hanoi, everywhere evidence of being a cultural and colonial centre. We travelled throughVietnamese history via the ornate and majestic tombs of Ming Manh, Khai Dinh and Tu Duch, the latter set in splendid gardens amonst ponds and lakes, with special buildings for concubines, eunuchs and maids to the emperor and empress. Finally, the vast Imperial Citadel, modelled on Beijing's Forbidden City complex, much of it destroyed by US bombardments during Vietnam war, but currently being renovated. All this in lashing (warm) rain which somehow added to the atmosphere...... All this culture deserved a treat before dinner, so we indulged in a Vietnamese full body massage for an hour together. Final effect blissful and relaxing despite a fair bit of kneading, pummelling, stretching and joint-cracking by 2 diminutive but very strong young Viet masseuses. Evening meal all together at Bob's friend Ushi's down the road. Excellent. Sat 26 Nov: 8 am coach journey to Hoi An via a famous pass of military significance at the border between North and Central Vietnam with gun turrets, fortifications and look-out towers still in place, and Marble Mountain near Danang, a veritable tourist trap for afficionados of gigantic (and some smaller) marble statues representing dragons and every other imaginable creature. And so to beautiful Hoi An, with its small steets, riverside cafes and bars, its busy market and its tailor shops. Evidently quite a prosperous town and former major port at the time of the silk and spice trades, Hoi An retains a sense of busyness tempered with a more laid-back ambience than Hanoi. A place to wander the streets, enjoy some lunch at a 'Streets' project (where we met the head of the NGO running the project for disadvantaged teenagers) and of course visit a tailor's or two........ Dilemma upon dilemma! What colour, what type of cloth, what type of silk, for which occasion, will it look right, is it too bright?????
Since above, long but comfortable train journey southwards to beach resort Nha Trang for 2 days (red bits to show it!) and a little relaxation including extraordinary experience of natural mud baths.... Then interesting overnight sleeper coach, not well named, but memorable, arriving Saigon (alias Ho Chi Minh City or HCMC) at dawn next day. Saigon crazy with traffic and bustle and if Hanoi was an explosion of motorbikes, HCMC must be a of starburst proprtions. Population 10 million, motorbikes 5 million, so we're getting even better at crossing roads! After incredible (Vietcong guerrila) Cu Chi tunnels and War Remnants Museum 2 days ago (1st Dec) , now back from extraordinary 36 hours down in the Mekong Delta area on boats along and across the mighty mekong river and several tributaries and canals weaving between a myriad of islands in the vast estuary. Huge variety of sights and experiences, including snake wine (local hooch), exotic fruits, elephant ear fish, jackfruits and guava, and a very welcoming homestay with a village family and observing - and trying - local crafts. Almost too much to take in. Everywhere courtesy and warm hospitality. Roamed more popular parts of Saigon and the riverside alone this afterrnoon (3 Dec) and enjoyed local snacks in market and icecream and strong Vietnamese coffee before meeting new guide at 6pm. Bryan from US takes over from Aussie Bob who has been great and a mine of information.
Cambodia tomorrow! Will miss Vietnam, but excitement still mounts....
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