Day Fourteen - Rain

Torrents of it, tipping off the roof, followed by the sight of clouds of mist rolling down the sides of the nearby mountains.  Not much to do, then, but to do the laundry and hope that the humidity sinks below 80% before the clothes begin to sport mildew growths.

Your intrepid reporter

Your reporter's cake

Of course, it brightened up later and we were able to make the trip into town for a coffee and a slice of cake. Then a late lunch down by the Mekong. God! We are going to be so fat by the end of this trip.


In a fit of remorse, we have booked a trip for later this week up to the Kuang Si Waterfalls, which will at least involve some walking up hill.

Tonight, we will go and see of we can find some cheap T-shirts for me in the night market.  Look, they've swapped a lifetime of poverty and subsistence farming for a market stall that gives them a good grasp of Chinese and most European languages, plus mobile phones, food and clothing. Just don't start on at me again, right? I can get really angry, you know.

A bug from our hotel.

Day Thirteen - Bang! Luang Prabang Prang!

One of the Hotel Vangsavath's amenities was the free loan of bicycles. We thought it would be a good idea so set off into LP on this pair of single-geared behemoths.

The important thing to know about LP and Laos as a nation is that the French ruled it for some 65 years until the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in 1953. This accounts for the hordes of French tourists and the "cafe and croissants" ambience of the old quarter. Why they come in such numbers when hardly anyone here speaks French is a mystery to me but maybe it's much like us Brits thinking we have a special affinity with our former subjects in India.  So, coffee and cake it was then.

Caffeine itch scratched, we cycled along to the Royal Palace, which these days of course is a museum. Opposite is a set of three or four hundred steps leading to a small but spectacularly situated temple called Wat Chom Si, from where you can see the town stretched out two rivers of LP, the Mekong and the Nam Khan.

Royal Chapel

We decided against visiting the museum today and against climbing up to Wat Chom Si because we needed to conserve our energy in the heat and we also really wanted to get to the Wat Xieng Thong, one of the major reasons why LP is designated by Unesco as a World Heritage Site.

The Palace grounds are attractive though and we had time to admire the Royal Chapel which is a bit different to our own Queen's private place of worship at Windsor Castle.


The temple complex of Wat Xieng Thong marks the end of the old town where the Nam Khan flows into the Mekong. It was built in the sixteenth century and, despite being the place where the kings of Laos were crowned, had fallen into a state of disrepair by the last century. Today, when we visited, you could see monks in their saffron robes up on ladders and scaffolding, carrying out important repair work. Part of the restoration programme has focused on giving the monks the necessary skills to do this.

Inside one of the small Buddha chapels

The Royal Funerary Carriage

It was a hugely impressive place to visit.  The journey home, therefore, by bike through the mundane side of town was something of an anti-climax, which probably accounts for my decision to start filming with my mobile phone whilst steering the bike one-handed. Check out the masterly video below.

 

As Maggie rode on, I holstered my phone back into its case, and set off again, only for a passing truck to hit me. It struck my handlebars a glancing blow, then my elbow a split-second later. As the tailgate shaved a layer of skin off my elbow, there was an audible gasp of horror from the Laotian ladies in the back of the pickup.  I was okay but I made a good show of rolling up my sleeve to staunch the blood (there wasn't any!) as they rounded the corner, all goggle-eyed.   I'd wanted to capture on film the chaotic nature of the traffic in LP but the best demonstration happened after the camera was turned off.

Anyway, back to town later for the consolation of a vegetarian buffet meal from a street stall for just 10,000 Laotian Kip - there are over 12,000 Kip to the British pound  so pretty cheap. Pretty decent food too.

Day Twelve - Hotel Vangsavath

Today, we jumped on our short flight from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang.  Our aircraft was a petite turbo-prop number, carrying some fifty souls.  Despite the flight only lasting an hour, the indefatigable cabin crew still managed to load us, stow us, instruct us on aircraft safety, water us, feed us a sumptuous banquet (see below), offer us dazzling trinkets from duty-free and offload us, all in that short time. I think they do two or three return flights a day, so they must be knackered at the end of their shifts.

My sumptuous meal.

Laos is a single-party socialist republic (hammer and sickle flags aplenty), following a long civil war ending in victory for the Pathet Lao in 1975. It is a mountainous land, bordered by Vietnam to the East, Thailand to the West, Cambodia to the South and Burma and China to the North-West. Much of its income is derived from hydro-electric schemes on its many rivers, selling power to its neighbours.

Its people are a mix of ethnic groups with the Lao people forming a 60% majority and other tribal communities like the Hmong  and various Mon-Khmer people forming the remainder. 

Luang Prabang (LP hereafter) is the old capital, replaced by Vientiane in 1520 to avoid a Burmese invasion. We'd decided to visit after friends had said that, if they could revisit just one of their previous holiday destination, it would be LP. Our taxi drive from the little airport revealed none of its charms, just dusty roads with loads of Lao people on motorbikes, tin-roofed shops and street vendors selling nameless fruit and vegetables.  Our Hotel Vangsavath was quite nice though - a mother and son operation, in an old teak-built mansion with our room having its own verandah overlooking a stagnant pond. We'd started the Malarone tablets, however, as a prophylactic against malarial infections so we weren't too bothered.

Hotel Vangsavath at night

We caught the hotel's motorised tuk-tuk (a sort of larger rickshaw with four rows of bench seats and open sides, all the better for you to leap from if the local helter-skelter traffic got too terrifying) into town which was about a mile and a half away. The main street is transformed at dusk each evening into one large night market selling local wares, some food but mostly garments. Beyond the market - and it seems huge on first sight - the road opens up into a parade of restaurants, currency exchanges and trip/trek vendors. Then you can turn left down into the historic district that stretches out along the Mekong's banks, or you can turn right to find the trendier bars down by LP's other river, the Nam Khan.  We settled for a fairly brief outing and promised ourselves a fuller exploration of the town's attractions tomorrow.

Lao beer is very good by the way. Here is one I spotted earlier this evening. Maybe I will try one before the end of our week here.

Day Eleven - Mountain top temple

A relatively early start saw us driving up a mountain road to Thailand's highest spot at the Doi Inthanon National Park.  No-one had thought to tell me that it might actually be cold up there and I just had a T-shirt and shorts to keep me warm, so please excuse any camera shake in this set of photos.

A short descent from the mountain top took us into the park's monument to the current King and Queen of Thailand.  The chief attraction of this is the pair of matching pagodas, one for each of them.

Finally, our journey back to the hotel took us to a small coffee plantation recommended as interesting by our helpful driver, Tong (this is him in a rare photo).

It's a very basic operation, with a few small coffee trees behind this shack; fermenting, drying and roasting, grinding all take place on site. They get the ground coffee professionally bagged but the sample coffee we were given to taste was gorgeous!

Of course, we bought a pack of their coffee to bring back to the UK, so let's see if its romantic appeal survives the journey home.

Rustic canteen near Doi Inthanon, Thailand

Tomorrow, we fly to Luang Prabang, the old capital of Laos. Our friend, Wiew, returns to Bangkok to feast on its frenetic busy-ness, which she loves and which we can only take in small measures.  It will be interesting to contrast the two nations - the weather should be fairly similar to Chiang Mai's -but I wonder about the political and cultural differences.  We'll see.

Day Ten - Tribal Theme Village

Perhaps that's an unduly provocative (or guilt-ridden?) title for this post but there is some uneasiness with the concept of refugee communities setting themselves up as photo and retail opportunities for tourists.  However, this project at Baan Thong Leung allows families from several displaced hill tribes to make a living and it pays for the local school. As long as I remain respectful in my dealings with them, I think it's okay. Plus they are photogenic, after all.

 As well as Hmong people whom we'd encountered earlier in our stay in Chiang Mai, the village was home to Yao, Lahu and Padaung tribespeople. This latter group are famous for the brass neck coils worn by many of the women.  They are often rather crudely referred to as the "giraffe-necked women" but contrary to popular belief, their necks are not stretched by the rings. Instead, the rings' weight presses down the collar bones and compresses the rib cage. It is this deformation of the clavicle which gives the appearance of a long neck.

Day Nine - Elephant Nature Park

After the tremendous response to her first article, we welcome back guest blogger Maggie Simpson, who writes about a trip to the Elephant Nature Park at Chiang Mai.

Elephants in Thailand have a precarious existence in the 21st Century.  Those still living in the wild are losing their natural habitat, due to deforestation, mainly to make more land for crops.  'Domesticated' elephants are hardly better off.  Elephants are classed as livestock and have no protection under the law.  They are taken from their mothers at a very young age and put through a process called the 'pajaan', to make them submissive and obedient to commands.  This is a very cruel and distressing process which can, if you wish, be viewed on a campaigner's YouTube video here but, in all honesty and if you are at all faint-hearted, I would not recommend watching it, having viewed it myself during a trip we made earlier today.

In the past, these elephants were used mainly in the logging industry, but logging is now banned.  Their owners cannot afford to feed them if they are not bringing in an income.  Some are sold, others simply abandoned.  From a population of over 100,000 in Thailand at the start of the 20th century, elephants now number fewer than 5000. Some have found work in elephant safari camps, which can now be found all over Thailand, and are a major tourist attraction.  Some of them are excellent, treat the animals well, and entertain and inform the public.  Others less so.  Other elephants are used on the streets of Bangkok and other major tourist areas for begging and to sell trinkets and other goods to members of the public.  Even if and when they are well treated, this is an unnatural and unhealthy way for them to live.  We were alerted to the varying nature of elephant camps by an article of Trip Advisor, recommending the Elephant Nature Park, near Chiang Mai.

The park and its charitable foundation were set up by Sangduen Chailert, known locally as Lek (Thai for "Tich" or "Shorty") and her husband Adam Flinn. Visiting the park costs a bit more than the competition but all the money taken is used to look after the elephants, as well as dogs and cats rescued from city streets.

The elephants are not asked to do any tricks, or even carry people on their backs.  They are persuaded by food, one of their main occupations, to let the public feed them, and also wash them in the river.  They are very gentle and will let you walk among them quite happily.  They each have their own 'mahout', or driver, charged with their personal care and well being.  This is a very close, and in this case, affectionate relationship.

After feeding time, we walked across the park to meet with Jokia, an elderly female elephant, who was deliberately blinded by her owner, and her best friend Mae Perm, who acts as her eyes as she leads Jokia around the park and forests.

 Elephants have a gestation period of 2 years.  This baby elephant is just 2 months old.  When its mother was rescued, they didn't know that she was pregnant.  Her 'mahout', came to feed her one morning and found her with the baby.

A logging accident left Medo badly lamed. In order to make some income from her, 

her owners tried to mate her with an agressive bull elephant, which attacked her and
seriously 

injured her spine.  These days, she enjoys being bathed by visiting tourists.

We left, feeling privileged to have spent time with the elephants and full of admiration for Lek's work. Later we heard that the park's management were being harassed by local government officials, the story of which is explained at greater length in the petition site given below.  We signed and we very  much hope you can give a few minutes to read the story and sign the petition.

Change.org - Lek's elephants

Jokia enjoying a morning break.

Two of the lucky ones - rescue cats

Day Eight - Hmong village trip

Nhong and Pew were meant to be travelling on to Chiang Rai today (that's N's home town) but missed their bus so decided to come out with us for the day.  They'd arranged a driver for us for the duration of our stay in Chiang Mai, so it was just a matter of us picking them up from the bus station and then off we went to Doi Pui, a Hmong village.

The Hmong are a tribal people originally from Southern China but long since dispersed to Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.  Many Hmong had fought against the communists during the Laotian civil war and fled south to Thailand to escape retribution after the Pathet Lao became the government in 1975.

These days many have formed expatriate communities overseas in places like the US, France and Australia but for those who remain in Thailand, it is usually a matter of scratching a living from selling ethnic wares and general knick-knacks to tourists visiting their villages (as we did today).

After lunch, we headed for the temple Wat Phrathat at Doi Suthep outside Chiang Mai.  I had been intrigued by these curlicues displayed on most Thai Buddhist temples and had no idea what they were. Closer inspection revealed that they were the tails of great snakes or dragons which are routinely used to decorate these extravagant buildings.

I was also intrigued by the number of different representations of Buddha that we encountered.
I guess we're all familiar with the image of the meditating Buddha and we may even have one of those Chinese fat laughing Buddhas perched above our fridge. We saw the mighty reclining Buddha in Bangkok but in what other ways was he shown in temples?  Eating? Working? Playing?

Well, it turns out that in Thailand, ordinary folk have for centuries associated certain poses from Buddha's life with days of the week, so if you'd like to know what your Buddha pose is, have a look at this link.

P.S. We have decided that this could well be a once in a lifetime trip, so since we are so close by, we are going to take a trip to Laos or, more properly, the Lao People's Democratic Republic. You can get a bus to the border which will take a day, overnight stay there, then board the slow boat down the Mekong for another day. Four days travel would be a bit of a stretch, so we've booked ourselves on a return flight to the old capital, Luang Prabang, leaving on Tuesday 29th.

Day Seven - Holisticacious

Okay, see if you can tell me the difference between these two photos:

? <=> ?

The answer, dear friends, is 75 minutes of excruciating pain.  Today was our relaxation day too.

Maggie had gone for a reflexology treatment earlier in the day and so I thought, I'll go for the relaxing back and shoulders massage, while M treats herself to a facial/ skin pack/ thingy and head massage. We were taken to our separate rooms at the hotel spa. My masseuse was a harmless-looking little old lady, full three score and ten, who wordlessly pointed at the midget's pyjama set neatly arranged at the foot of the mattress on the floor and left me to change. On her return, she proceeded to kneel on the back of my thighs and pummel my back.  I should explain at this point that my back is a veritable turtle's carapace of frozen muscles and stuck stuck stuck tendons.  I therefore proceed on the assumption that I deserve whatever pain comes my way and it's got to be therapeutic, right? Well, I bit the pillow, whimpered *almost* soundlessly and just endured it for over an hour.  Some of the manipulations were quite pleasant as moments of relief, as for example when she bent my thighs back over the small of my back,  bringing back childhood memories of watching Mick McManus and Jackie Pallo wrestling on Saturday afternoon's World of Sport. Other moments, as she attempted to separate muscle and bone, are perhaps best glossed over here.

Whatever happened to Dickie Davies anyway?

Day Six - To Chiang Mai

What have you heard about Chiang Mai?  I had heard of yoga retreats and maybe a film theme by Maurice Jarre (not sure about that) and I knew it was in the hilly North of Thailand so I could look forward to cooler temperatures, but that was about it. We got a quick look at the place as we drove in with Wiew, Nhong and Pew but our first port of call was their company's latest coffee shop, which was set in an American-themed complex, all New England/ Cape Cod style clapboard buildings, painted in tasteful pastel shades. An example can be seen in the photo below, also featuring the usual frank Thai approach to public signage.

Anyway, Chiang Mai, which means "new city" because it replaced the older Chiang Rai as capital of the old kingdom of Lanna, is actually a sprawling, polluted metropolis of some 1.5 million people. If you're looking for some "Shanti" time, it's actually not the most conducive place for it. So instead, we've booked into a country resort in the hills above the city. Maggie and I are fully committed to doing nothing strenuous for the next 48 hours, so we were delighted to find this oasis out at the aptly named hamlet of Ban Pong.

Day Five - Royal Palace, Bangkok

I'm just about recovered from the surprise of the dinner cruise organised for my birthday. It was a wonderful outing and I had a great time. As Maggie said in her blog entry yesterday, seeing the temples and palaces lit up at night was a real treat. 

Today is our last day in Bangkok as we head to Chiang Mai in Thailand's Northern hills for a cooler, more sedate break. We're still not sure of our itinerary thereafter but we're in no rush to decide things.

Our proposed drive out to the floating market at Damnoen Saduak had to be postponed until a later date because of our taxi-driver turning up an hour late, so instead we made our way to the Grand Palace from whose gates we'd been turned away yesterday. It's the official residence of the King of Thailand and his family and is guarded by several of these monkey soldiers from Chinese mythology.
 

Once again, it's a spectacular array of temples, pavilions and coronation halls.


I was particularly impressed with this scale model of the temple complex at Angkor Wat.

 

So, tomorrow we fly to Chiang Mai. We have found Bangkok something of a full-on culture shock and although I'm a bit of an adrenalin junkie, it will be nice to relax in the countryside for a while. We're travelling with our host, Nhong and her friend and co-worker, Pew, who both have business in the town as they help set up a new branch of their restaurant chain, which is called S&P. I'll let you know about the philosophy and ethics of Thai businesses tomorrow but we have an early start tomorrow so I'll leave it there.



Day Four - the Love Boat

Guest blogger for the day, Maggie Simpson, picks up the story:

Monday, John's birthday, dawned bright and sunny. A planned early start had us all up and ready before 9am and, without any real understanding of what we were being told, we were off to the island of Ko Kret  somewhere along the Chao Praya river. This mighty "River of  Kings", running through Bangkok, gives a home and a living to many of its inhabitants, and the historic district shows how they lived, (many still do), in close proximity to the water.  Buddha watches over them all.

An exhilarating ride on a very small, low boat, travelling at unbecoming speeds.  We clutched.

This aeroplane appears to have become someone's home!

Ko Kret is some two kilometres in length and about a kilometre wide. The inhabitants of its seven villages make their living mainly by selling their handicrafts to visiting tourists. One of Thaksin Shinawatra's (the ex-premier of Thailand) more far-sighted initiatives was to copy the Japanese Government's "One Village, One Product" scheme which targets rural regeneration by getting the villagers to focus on one core craft for marketing purposes. So in Ko Kret, you will find a Pottery Village:

The day sped by.  We headed for the Royal Palace and Temples, only to be turned away as we had missed the last entry by 10 minutes.  A nearby 'lesser' temple was consolation, impressive and inspiring. Wat Pho is actually Bangkok's largest temple and home to a famous statue of the reclining Buddha. Decorated with reams of gold leaf and mother of pearl inlays, the Buddha is 50 feet high and 150 feet long, making it Thailand's largest image of the Buddha.

And then a mad dash on various commuter boats with zillions of others trying to get home, while we wanted to reach the boat stop for an evening dinner and cruise.  John's birthday surprise.  A beautiful teak rice barge, now refurbished for dinner and slow cruising.

Wonderful to sit down and look at Bangkok from a different viewpoint.  Wiew and her friends had organised a bottle of prosecco and we slid down the river, glass in hand, while night fell, the banks lit up and turned the city into a fairyland.  Fabulous food, immaculate service, Thai dancers, a magical evening topped off by a birthday cake and candles, also organised by our Thai friends, and the whole boat singing happy birthday!




















And so to bed ...