28th December 2014 - Luang Prabang LAOS

28th December 2014 - Luang Prabang  LAOS

So on to Laos or to give it its correct name - the Democratic Republic of Laos and when we see the words Democratic republic, we know know it means that officials have very nice lives and the poor are extremely poor and no middle class the speak of.

Landlocked by Burma, Vietnam, China and Cambodia and controlled by its Marxist and Communist government as seen on its national flag.  The official language is Laos but in reality there are 54 languages as there are many hilltribes accounting for 40% of the population.

The "hmong" tribes here, which are the same race as seen on north Vietnam, were recruited by the CIA to provide in internal disruption strategy and the "Hmong" problem is in part resulting in the country being ranked a miserable 158th on the human rights index.

It also suffered significant US bombing as the Ho Chi Minh trail passed through the country.

Like all the countries we visited, this was yet another one governed by seemingly unnecessarily rules and regulations and the battle through the airport was interesting to say the least. Most interesting is the stunning beauty of the country and the "Trueman Show" like tourist development of the city.

After some pretty hard sights in Vietnam and Cambodia, Laos provides an unrealistic view of indochina but for many tourists, its near enough and without the tricky conditions.

The party bus - well kind of...everybody had to be home by 10.30 by law

The scenery that you could see on the 1 1/2 flight from Hanoi into Luang Prabang was stunning and the harsh arid scenery of Vietnam was replaced with lush green forests and hills.

You could be fooled  onto think that many gold temples are originals.  The temples are but many have been painted in gold paint to add to the tourist draw.

The communist flag flying pretty well everywhere here.

The scenery facing east from a  high spot overlooking the town.  There is no denying the beauty of the area.

Another Buddhist temple - We would like to say they looked different bit we cant and as the people of this part of the world affectionately say..."same same but different".

Janette and her new found "Hmong" tribal hat ...looking like a "Hmong"

Tuk Tuks are in use here but they are bigger to carry larger groups of tourists

Luang Prabang International Airport.  Probably only about 8 planes a day but it took us well over an hour to get through with visa payments, unexpected forms and queues. on the other side, a car park with only a few cars in it built at least everyone was employed.

Our hotel was a small tuk tuk ride from town and we will explore it further tomorrow but as we had only landed at about 2.00pm, we had more exploring to do.

LP has a soft curfew at 10.30 so everyone has to to be home and nothing happens after that which is why the Tuk Tuks make a frantic scramble at that time because they know that there is no more business.

After Thai Bart, Cambodian Reils, Vientnam Dongs and Laos Kips Steve was really struggling with the various currencies and handed his wallet over the Janette. When he thought he had enough for a new car it turned out to be barely enough for a plate of chips

29th December 2014 Luang Prabang LAOS

Luang Prabang - Loas  29th Decemebr 2014

Today we explore some of Laos.

Steve and Janette got up at 4.30am to go into town to see the Tak Bat Buddhist monks where at sunrise all the monks (about 500 of them) all proceed up the main street beside the temple and local people give them food which is the only food they get all day. It was quite a sight and for local people to do this every day is pretty impressive.

The Monks at 5.30...not the happiest of looking but not surprising as they probably had to get up at 3 to collect breakfast bare foot and even then its only rice !!

So onwards we went to the Pak Ou caves well outside Luang Prabang which houses a secret temple with thousands of buddah statues in caves in the hillside beside the mighty Mekong. The boat for this trip was at least 5 x larger than the tin bath we went in to the Perfume Pagoda, so Janette was looking much more chipper about this trip, however in the true spirit of travel with the fated four it pays not to count your chickens…..

The boat filling station -  one guy with lit cigarette on board

Well true to form and the joy of travel... the boat engine fails and we are drifting down stream

The clutch on the boat went so we had to wait at the garage while the boatman did some running repairs. Mandy thought about using the loo but decided against it. Off we set again and got about 800m from there only for the clutch to go again. Our boatman then tried to ground us on a sandbank but couldn’t and we were soon heading backwards swept along by the strong Mekong currents. The boatman eventually managed to get us in to the bank on the other side at a farm and we then hijacked a poor Laotian man and his boat (with ventilation) to take us across the river to where our driver would meet us to pick us up. We finally scrambled up the bank at the local transport office to the surprise of the men loading rice sacks for onward distribution!  Not your average tourist trail this….

Well...now what do we do !!!

We drove to the bank opposite the Pak Ou caves and collected our new boat, Janette was checking this one in detail… and set off for the caves. Dismounting onto a pontoon made of bamboo was the days next challenge but the team bounced along and finally made it onto dry land in one piece. The Pak Ou caves while very impressive, paled into insignificance in comparison with the fun getting there !

They are smiling now but they were not like that this morning

A breathtaking 3,800 gold Buddhas inside these caves and nearly as many steps to get up to them - we were all hyper-ventilating when we finally got to the top.
The trip back down the Mekong to Luang Prabang in the afternoon was a real highlight and thankfully uneventful. The scenery was just stunning, Laos is a very pretty, tropical, hilly, fertile country and the sky was bright blue, the sun was hot but not humid a really enjoyable and relaxing afternoon.

Back in Luang Prabang we set off on a walking tour of the town starting with the Royal Palace, a couple more Wat’s and ending up as usual with a rummage through the food market. It is a pretty place with lots of nice little restaurants & bars and cafes, a little more tourist population than we have been used to for the last few weeks, but very sweet.

Back into town across the rickety wooden footbridge in the evening for a wander through the night market which was fun & then sat in one of the bars in the market watching the world go by in the warm balmy evening. Very pleasant end to the day.

After a breakfast outside on a deck overlooking the Khan river (very pleased as our first stop this morning was the Wat Xieng Thong temple which is a beautiful,small complex with the most lovely external and internal decorations. Like the Royal Palace in Bangkok but on a miniature scale which gave it real charm. Our guide "Pon" took Steve to part of the temple where there is a statue of buddah and they say if you can lift it over your head you get good luck. Steve duly managed to lift the buddah so we were assured of good luck from here on (or so we thought..!!).

Gold leaf being applied to the temple although the temple did not have it originally

The unbelievable 13th century wood carvings of all the trades and occupations of day to day life and ceramic wall decorations

Getting across the Mekong is not easy - this woman is carrying shopping

We set off up the Mekong, stopped off at the local Texaco garage for a fill up and at this point the day started to unravel fast. 

Being stranded in what could have easily been the biggest maritime disaster in history was bad enough bit getting Janette back on a replacement vessel was proving difficult without gas and air. Paul was there to record the event in case she fell in !!!
We all believed that this was to do with Steve having raised the statue and got good luck - maybe he misinterpreted the instructions !

"We will get the sand across one way or the other ".  The transporting sand and building materials by transferring from a lorry to a boat and back to a lorry as there are no nearby bridges.  Sometimes the lorry or the boat gets stuck and require a bit of village muscle.

27th December 2014 - Last Day in Hannoi VIETNAM

After 2 weeks in Vietnam, this is the last day staying in Hanoi and we have very much enjoyed all the stuff we have done in this warm and hospitable country but today, we are spending in Hanoi itself. After today, we are no longer able to shout "good morning Vietnam".

Our plan for today was simple, a dead revolutionary, a famous prison of mass torture,a temple or two, some water puppets, a bit of shopping and a cookery class.!!

Phase one - the dead revolutionary.  It not possible to be in Vietnam and not be reminded about the understandable importance of Ho Chi Minh or "Uncle Ho" as is is known. Never more so that Hanoi where he is one of the few dead world heroes that you can actually still see because he has been preserved.  There are actually only 2 others in the world that you can actually see - Mao and Lenin. Janette had always wanted to see "uncle Ho" but despite therapy she could not be dissuaded so off we went through lots of communist rules, regulations even to the point of telling you how to stand in the queue!!.

HCM wanted his ashes scattered on the South, central and North region however the "Party" refused and had him embalmed by the Russians who are apparently leading experts in stuffing people!! (aint that the truth!).

Whilst he goes back every year for a "top up", he is still very much on display here and the highlight of janette's day was to see him in the flesh.  He did look a bit off colour but I guess you can accept that as he has been dead since 1978
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          Janette poses for a family photo - all 5 of them (including HCM).

That girl is so strange!!

 "Uncle Ho" in his mausoleum.  Created a unified Vietnam and saw off the french and the Americans.  Despite being dead for nearly 40 years, there are still very large queues to see him.  When you walk around, you are even told how to walk and Steve was told off for having his hands behind his back.

Phase two, the famous prision of mass execution.   The most famous prison of all, built by the french to house political prisoners in frightening conditions, the used by the Vietnames to house American POWs such as John McCain now Senator McCain.
This was also high on Janette's list of things to see.
The prison was famously known as the Hanoi Hilton

The cells of this morbid prison.  Actually, only a quarter of the prison still stands as a lot of it has been demolished to make high rise apartment blocks but the front area and the and the french guillotine are all retained

Inside is a propaganda video of US soldiers being given good food. playing baseball and even souvenirs packs when thy left.  They were apparently lucky to be held prisoner of the North Vietnamese!!!. The prison was the scene of widespread torture of US service men my North Vietnames and execution of Vietnamese plotical prisoners by the French including many women.

The University of Vietnam - a Buddist temple which houses the details of the scholars for many generations and ancient Chinese writings from the 14th century.  Above is the statue of Confusious but he's not talking today despite all the sacrificial biscuits he receives.

 Phase three. The famous water puppets of Hanoi 

                             

Phase 4.  Janette had bought two characters made by this guy from rice - Mandy had bought a puppet from the puppet theatre. Suffice to say, there was no souvenir Ho Chi Ming fudge or tea towels available.

Local market for food Hannoi

Turtles for sale to eat as well as frogs - a legacy from the french

The girls are off the Vietnamese cooking classes tonight so if the blog stops here you will know what has happened.....!! Phase 5 might be terminal.

26th December Hanoi to The Perfuum Pagoda VIETNAM

Hanoi - 26th December 2015

After our Christmas Day time off for good behaviour we were back to the active exploring on Boxing Day !

First was a 2 hour drive in the Hanoi rush hour traffic to get to the river as it started to rain.

The monks built the pagodas out in remote areas so they were always too far away to have their life disrupted.
Ting was in full guide mode and off we went to visit the Perfume Pagoda little knowing what was in store…, secret and inaccessible areas so many, like this one, are in remote mountainous areas with little access. There is no road and only non motor boats are allowed, so we decanted into the smallest tin can of a flat bottom boat you have ever seen for a 1 hour row up to the area where the pagoda is. This was all Janette’s worst nightmares come at once especially when Paul slipped getting into the boat and ended up with 1 leg in the river and a wet bottom !! Finally we all got on board, sat on the wet seats ( the rain was getting heavier..) and set off.

There is always some to photograph you when you do not look at your best 

It really was the prettiest, most peaceful trip with sightings of no less than 3 Kingfishers on the way. When we got to the landing stage, we then had to walk uphill using very steep stairs made from stone that was very slippery due to the rain to the ………..cable car (which is Mandy’s worst nightmare !) We decided we needed lunch first which probably wasn’t our best idea as we then had to hoist ourselves up to the cable car station which was a steep uphill climb !

The view from the cable car on the way up was very atmospheric, with lush tropical vegetation amongst the high karsts and mist.From the cable car another climb and then down into a cave in the karst where the monks in the 15^th Century had built the most amazing pagoda deep in the rocks. It was just stunning and we were then very glad we had made the trip. The atmosphere was very serene and the views dramatic.

Hot baths and tired travelers tonight but a worthwhile day…

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The serene river waters - the pagoda site was an hour by boat from the road

A Kingfisher keeping watchful eye on us

River like a mirror

 The map of the hidden temple site. Its obviously not possible to see every temple due to time and terrain.

Flags for the 5 elements of Budhism - earth, fire, water, land and forest

Inside the cave of the perfume pagoda. One of the most spectacular things we had ever seen.  Moody and spiritual nad so big it was difficult to know how to photograph it.

It is thought that the first temple was a small structure on the current site of Thien Tru which existed during the reign of Le Thanh Tong in the 15th century. Legend claims that the site was discovered over 2000 years ago by a monk meditating in the area, who named the site after a Tibetan mountain where Lord Buddha practiced asceticism.   A stele at the current temple dates the building of a terrace, stone steps and Kim Dung shrine to 1686, during the reign of Le Hy Tonh, at around the same time that Chua Trong was being constructed. Over the years some of the structures were damaged and replaced. The original statues of Lord Buddha and Quan Am were cast from bronze in 1767 and replaced with the current statues in 1793.  More recently, damage was done during both the French and the American wars. Both the gate and the bell tower at Thien Tru Pagoda were destroyed, the bell tower rebuilt in 1986 and the gate completed in 1994.