Pak Ou Caves and the Return Home - July 25 and 26

This morning we packed up our bags to leave at the hotel while we traveled up the river two hours on a slow boat to see the Pak Ou Caves.  I know it seems risky for me to get on a boat, but rivers seem the only water travel still possible for me.  And I'd read that while they caves weren't necessarily worth the trip, taking a slow boat down the Mekong River, the lifeline of Laos, was.  Unexpectedly, Julia felt queasy on the boat, but I felt fine. The slow boats float right along the surface of the water with the driver in the front and the motor in the back, and our boat could fit six passengers.  The views of Laos from the river are beautiful - both sides of the river are lined with hills covered in lush vegetation.  It was also interesting to see the villages going about their daily life, washing clothes, fishing, etc.  And, my favorite site was boys at play, jumping out of trees to our surprise as we passed.

Our boat stopped first in the local village Ban Xang Hay, nicknamed "Whiskey Village" for the moonshine produced there.  We skipped the samples they offered and continued into the village to see the weavers at work.  It is uncomfortable being an outsider in a small village but they were clearly waiting for us to arrive (it is a stop all boats make every day).  I had been attracted to some of the textiles I'd seen in markets, but these were clearly actually handmade right in the village.  I was running very low on kip (the local currency) but an older woman in the back edge of the village got my attention by naming her price in dollars.  She sold us four small weavings (larger than scarfs, smaller than blankets) for $10 total. 

We went to get back on the boat to continue down river to the caves but our boat was gone. They put us on a different boat and then told me I had to get on a separate new one, which for some reason I did (even though Rachel told me that seemed like a bad idea), separating myself from the girls with me holding the passports and the money.  Thankfully a tour guide on this new boat I had entered could sense my dismay and had the boat circle back around and get the girls.  A few minutes down river, our boat stalled and the driver needed to empty water out of the engine.  It turned out to be no big deal but in the moment I had images of being stranded in the middle of the Mekong River - and was so happy we were all together.  

Where the Mykong and Ou rivers meet, our boat pulled up with the others outside the Pak Ou caves, the lower one visible from the river.  The caves are full of Buddhas that are damaged in some way so were brought here by local people over hundreds of years.  While the lower cave lets in some sunlight, the upper cave is pitch black, requiring a flashlight to see anything.  It is also a pretty steep climb up stairs to get there. While again it wasn't raining, we were drenched by the time we reached the top.  Did you know wrists could sweat?  Every inch of us did.  The upper cave is full of even more Buddha statues and far fewer tourists willing to make the trek up.

Our boat ride back to town took half the time with the current behind us.  We arrived ready for lunch and ended up back at the fancy 3 Nagas restaurant for a delicious meal of traditional Lao food followed by another scoop of their delicious coconut ice cream.

After we had just enough time to go to the major temple in town, Wat Xieng Thong, built in 1560 and situated as a gateway to the city where the two rivers join.  It's reputation for outstanding beauty did not disappoint; even after a very short visit Julia declared this her favorite temple of the trip.

large funeral carriage 

tree of life mosaic

We then picked up our bags and took a tuk-tuk to the airport to begin our long journey home.  Our first flight got us back to Bangkok by 7:30 pm, plenty of time to go through immigration to enter Thailand, go back through immigration to exit Thailand, and wait for our departing flights. Julia's trip through Japan left Thailand at midnight while Rachel and I didn't depart for our trip through Hong Kong until 3:30 am.  My grand vision of us hanging out by the gates together was thwarted when they wouldn't even let Rachel and me check in for our flights until midnight.  We were stuck outside the security area with hours ahead.  So, we made the most of it.  We found a massage place and all got 60 minute massages and ate dinner before sending Julia on her way.  Rachel and I tried unsuccessfully to get some sleep after we got through security.  We had two hours to sleep on our flight to Hong Kong and then another four hours to kill at the Hong Kong airport before the long flight home.  Jim had scouted out the best places to sit at the Hong Kong airport a few days earlier, so we knew just where to head.  Thankfully (and with the help of Dramamine) I was able to sleep a good portion of the long flight so didn't feel too wrecked when we arrived Wednesday morning, earlier than we had taken off.   We waiting at SFO for Julia to arrive from Japan.  She had had an 8-hour layover in Narita, so went into Japan and had another set of adventures to report.  All in all, a wonderful trip!!!  

A Full Day in Laos - July 24

We set the alarm for 5:00 am so we could be on the streets in time for the daily alms ceremony in which the monks walk the streets in silence to collect their food (mostly sticky rice) for the day from locals who wake early every day to prepare their offerings. We watched from across the street having read about the dangers tourists pose to this sacred ritual - the crowd where we were was definitely a mix.  Waiting in line after the almsgivers was a small boy with a big basket.  After the monks collected pa
ckets of rice, they each dropped one that had been given to them into the basket of a little boy who was collecting for his family.  More than just getting to see this ancient ritual take place, waking early also gave us a chance to walk the streets before they come fully to life during the day.  They are lively late into the night, so this was a rare quiet moment.

We had the option of just starting our adventures for the day right then and there at 6:00 am but thought it might be wiser to see if we could go back to sleep for a couple of hours.  Not surprisingly, two of the three of us could...but at least I used the time to get caught up on the blog!

Our second start to the day began with breakfast in our serene back portion of our guest house.  We made arrangements to visit the waterfall later in the day, but had about an hour for a quick, sweaty walk straight up 150 meters to the top of Mount Phousi.   There are several sacred sites to see along the way, like the Wat Tham Phousi shrine with a big-bellied Buddha nestled in a grotto and a reclining Buddha.  At the top the hill is the golden Wat Chomsi and 360 degree views of the rivers and hills of Luang Prabang.  It is apparently a good viewpoint for either sunrise or sunset, but it was pretty great in the middle of the morning too.

Lao tuk-tuks - different from Thai

 We raced back to the hotel in a tuk-tuk in time for our scheduled minivan pickup to the Kuang Si waterfalls at 11:30 am.  The van was packed with 12 passengers and a crazy driver who, after a leisurely start, began careening around mountain curves posted with 30 kph limits at speeds upwards of 100 kmh!  Somehow we arrived safely.

The walk into the waterfall takes you through a bear sanctuary for moon bears who have been subjected to a variety of cruelties. I don't think I've ever seen a moon bear - I was surprised by all the fluffy fur around their faces.  They were very cute running about and seemed happy relaxing in their new surroundings.

We came upon the lower pools of the falls and kept walking up to gradually bigger sets of falls.  People were swimming in the watering holes at the bottom of each set, but we chose the restaurant route and sat playing cards, drinking smoothies, and eating a leisurely lunch.  It was hard to motivate ourselves to go further up along the path, but when we turned the next corner we saw the breathtaking falls.  It is a bold statement, but my immediate thought was these are the most beautiful waterfalls I have ever seen in my life!   We tried for quite a while to take a picture that could capture them, but it proved impossible.   We got a lot of cute shots trying though.

We survived the van ride back to town as well.  Our plan had been to get to the Royal Palace but it has closed for the day and was not open on Tuesdays (our only other day in town) so we will have to get back to Laos at some point.  We walked through the grounds as much as we could and wandered through some temples and through the Night Market as it was setting up.
 Our walk took us to the more French-influenced villa side of town and it struck me what a different impression one would get of Luang Prabang if you stayed on this side of town the whole time (versus the area of our guest house).  It was very cute and full of little European bakeries and restaurants.  Much to Julia's dismay, Rachel and I were drawn to a place serving pizza and pasta with vodka sauce.  We were also able to pick up some great looking pastries for the morning.   We finished the night at a place called 3 Nagas, a restaurant in one of three restored historical buildings, serving scoops of homemade ice cream. We enjoyed scoops of coconut and mango sorbet while playing a few more rounds of cards.

From Bangkok to Laos - July 23

One problem with super nice accommodations, besides the total disconnect I feel when I do step out onto the streets and remember where I am, is that I find it much harder to motivate to leave the hotel.  Today we needed to leave for the airport around noon so we spent the morning lounging around.  We made reservations on Bangkok Airlines to fly to Laos, mostly because they fly out of BKK (which we will need returning to Bangkok for our same-day flights back to the US out of BKK).  I was expecting big things given that they included checked luggage, we got to specify a vegetarian meal (for an hour flight) and they let us hang out in the free wifi/free food lounge at the airport before our flight – all on economy tickets. So I was pretty surprised when they bussed us to board the plane and it wasn’t much larger than the ones they used to fight in Dunkirk.  I had terrible visions of a repeat of yesterday’s motion sickness but Rachel distracted with me with an episode of Orphan Black (yes, Jim, we finally started and are hooked!).  When we arrived at the Luang Prabang International Airport I understood why we were on such a small plane…

We checked in to the guest house and went wandering about the streets looking for a tour guide I had found online.  We made several wrong turns and were even chased out of one residential street by a pack of dogs.  We eventually gave up on finding my guy given the hour and headed to the main street in town, the Night Market.  I don’t know if the craft quality is much nice in Laos or if it was just nice to browse out of the heat of the day and with no crowds – probably a combination of both – but it was a much better experience than yesterday's in Bangkok. We hadn’t been able to change any money at the airport but a nice woman in our hotel traveling with her daughter and grandson for ONE YEAR lent me enough kip to get ourselves some dinner.  I love travelers!  We didn’t end up needing her money as there was an exchange place at the Night Market.  We ate a very late dinner at a café advertising vegetarian food and enjoyed one of the leftover French influences here – bread!  

Saturday Market and Movie in Bangkok - July 22

Julia has been missing running on this trip and wanted to take full advantage of the hotel gym so she ran NINE miles on the treadmill this morning while Rachel totally slept off her short illness until 10 am.  We had a very late breakfast right before they closed down for the morning. We walked to the Skytrain - one of Bangkok's major public transportation systems which I pictured in my mind would look similar to the Peter Pan ride at Disneyland, but really is just a metro system in the air.


 Our destination for the day was the Chatuchak Weekend market - Thailand's largest market with 8,000 stalls over 35 acres. It is said you can spend a full day shopping here, but for that to be true you have to enjoy shopping.  We (all three of us) are terrible shoppers, and on top of that it was hot and crowded. It was the first day I had to use my umbrella to provide shade from the sun. Our mission was to find Rachel an instrument from Thailand.  The information desk told us there were two stalls (among 8,000) that sold instruments and they were, naturally, in sections on opposite ends of the market.  We found one stall, didn't like anything, and went in search of the other, which we eventually found, but in the end didn't buy anything at all - except for a slice of pizza, some coconut ice cream, and a smoothie.

Our original plan for after the market was to go to the Mermaid Cafe outside of town - a place that Melissa had sent us a link to and looked fun if nothing else.  We were trying to figure out how to best get there when a wonderful employee at the Doubletree named Name said he would call for us to make sure it was open.  We felt he was wasting his time because Google had already told us the opening hours, but lo and behold he got off the phone and told us it was closed for renovation.  We were so grateful he saved us a 45-minute taxi ride each way (not accountng for traffic).  So, we were without a plan for the second part of the day. On the way to the market we had noticed a movie theater near a Sky Train stop and decided to beat the heat by going to an afternoon.  The theater was in the Siam Paragon - one of the highest end malls I have ever seen.  It was jarring to go directly from the Weekend market stalls to another market place, but this one with a Rolls Royce dealership inside.  In addition to a movie theater, the mall has a gourmet grocery store, bowling alley, aquarium, convention center, and art gallery.  The automated ticket interface for the theater was more advanced than anything we have in the States and we were able to select seats and buy our concessions from the machine.  We got (the best available) seats in the third row to see Dunkirk.

One of the most interesting things to me about modern-day Thailand is the seemingly uniform adoration for the recently-deceased King.  I mentioned already that the entire country is in mourning, draped with black and white clothe.  There are larger-than-life pictures of the King everywhere, even decorating the sides of many of the skyscrapers downtown.  They announce their love for him before planes take off.  And in the movie theater, I was surprised that after the trailers and before the feature, we all had to stand for a 2-minute montage to Rama IX and the incoming Rama X.  I am curious to understand if this adoration comes genuinely from the people or if it is required by the monarchy.

Unfortunately the movie was a real low point for me.  The entire WWII movie was filmed either at sea or in the air and I actually got seasick watching it, which must mean the cinematography was outstanding. I will spare you all the gross details, but suffice it to say I may as well have been crossing the Channel myself by boat.  It wasn't a good experience for me when I did that in 1989 and it was almost as bad this time.

We managed to find our way out of the maze of a mall and get back to the hotel via Sky Train.  Though more motion wasn't ideal, it was better than sitting in Bangkok traffic.  The girls took great care of me and left me in still darkness (where I needed to be) while they went out for dinner at a place that they said was aptly named Thai Food Very Good and Very Cheap.  The biggest bummer of the night was having to cancel the plans I had been most looking forward to all day - a two-hour body scrub and massage.

From Chiang Mai to Bangkok - July 21

they are happier than they look

By the time we got totally packed up this morning, we only had a couple of hours to explore before heading to the airport.  We went for breakfast and then walked back up to the Wat Phra Sing where Rachel read we would find a cart selling the best Thai Milk Tea in Chiang Mai. We found it and it was good!  Then we walked back down our street stopping at more temples along the way. These are not temples you would find in a guide book.  It is amazing how many temples there are.  I particularly enjoyed seeing the monks’ robes hanging out to dry at one we stopped by and Jim enjoyed the reclining dog in front of the reclining Buddha.

 We also needed to finally go by the temple we could see off our balcony every day as we brushed our teeth.  The old ruins were even more beautiful up close.

view from our balcony

our balcony in the background

Julia had gone on a run around the perimeter of the city wall earlier in the morning and told us about a park that was very close to our guest house, in the opposite direction from the way we have always turned. It was so surprising to see so much manicured green space in the middle of this bustling city.  We walked through the park and fed the fish before heading back to our guest house and to the airport for a flight back to Bangkok. 

interesting place for a double-sided bench

Our flight was easy and uneventful (despite our fear that we wouldn't be able to board with our wood carving because it is heavier than their strictly-enforced weight limit for carry-ons) but the taxi drive from DMK to our hotel in the Sukhumvit area of Bangkok took nearly TWO hours in Friday afternoon Bangkok traffic.  There were times we were stopped still for 10+ minutes before moving another 50 feet and stopping again. Thankfully, we booked the next two nights at the Doubletree on points so when we finally arrived it was to great luxury, especially compared to where we had been staying.  We checked in, went to the complimentary Hilton Honors poolside Happy Hour before going across the street for a massage.  Rachel opted to stay in the room and when we came back to collect her for dinner after our fabulous massages it was pretty clear she was starting to get sick.  She walked out with us to find food but when we ended up at a restaurant directly across the street from our hotel (after other places were closed for the night or didn't understand what we meant by vegetarian) she opted to go back to the room again rather than eat.  Hopefully a good night's sleep in a big comfy bed will do the trick for her.  We all tried to stay awake to say goodbye to Jim at midnight - his flight out left at 3:30 am - but I don't think any of us succeeded.  We have the same late night/early morning flight  on Wednesday, which I'm not looking forward to, but in the meantime, the girls and I are on our own for the next four days...and I am finally caught up on the blog!!!

Chiang Mai Cooking Class and Walking Tour - July 20

Today was our fourth day in Chiang Mai, but the first that we actually spent in the city itself.  We knew we wanted to take a cooking class in Thailand, and I had arranged for us to take a vegetarian class at May Kaidee’s cooking school.  Before hopping in a tuk-tuk to get to the class, we stopped by the (much nicer) hotel across the street from ours and enjoyed their breakfast buffet for 150 Thai Bhat each (less than $5), including a mini-mango sticky rice dish.

When we walked into the cooking class, we immediately knew we were in for a real treat.  The beautifully presented ingredients were laid out among six wok stations. The class was just the four of us and a young couple from Hong Kong – she had surprised him with a birthday trip to Thailand, a frequent spa destination for them.

Our teacher, Nim, got us started right away making a chili paste for Tom Yam soup, and then had half of us make Tom Yam soup (water-based) and the other half make Tom Kha soup (half water/half coconut milk).  Each dish took just minutes to make given that Nim and her family (her husband and sister helped with prep and dish washing as well) had done all the pre-chopping and, as necessary, pre-steaming of vegetables.  

Nim is from a village in northeast Thailand and while we had recipe books to follow she also gave us pens and we took notes on how she really cooked (which often differed from the recipes as written).  She was a delightful woman who really wanted our dishes to taste authentically Thai.  She tasted our cooking as we went along and knew just what was needed to adjust them slightly for the perfect taste.

We took our bowls of soup over to the restaurant side of their operation and knew then that our breakfast buffet had been a huge mistake-- we should have come to cooking class on an empty stomach. I think the food we prepared was some of the best tasting we’ve had since we’ve been here!  After the soup, we went back and made our own peanut sauce, followed by Pad Thai, and sat down to eat this delicious noodle dish. 

Then we went and made two curries – Massaman (yellow) and Green Thai Curry.  By that time, I could only take a couple bites of each.  After taking a short break, we made fresh spring rolls and she demonstrated how to make pumpkin hummus and green papaya salad, both of which need an extra-large mortar and pestle. Then we went back to the cooking side where Nim’s husband showed us the technique for making sticky rice for dessert.  We took the rice and cooked it down with coconut milk and a bit of sugar to get it to the right consistency for sticky rice.  He added banana, mango, and raw coconut.  Though we were totally full, we all managed to finish it—it was amazing!

I really can’t sing the praises of this cooking class highly enough.  We were there from 9 am to 1 pm and enjoyed every minute.  We’ve had such a great trip overall, but this was a true highlight.  We got to see raw ingredients (like Thai ginger and Kaffir lime leaves) that I’d never seen.  I have always felt so intimidated to go into Asian markets, but now that I know what I’m looking for, I’m excited to go home and explore what is available to us. 

After the class we walked across the street to a used bookstore which had one of the best, if not the best, selections of used books in English I have ever seen, in Asia or really anywhere.  I can’t imagine how they collected all of those titles. 

At that point, we needed to recover from our food coma and headed back to the guest house.  Jim had some down time while the girls went to a tea shop across the street to read and I went to the laundromat, made even more necessary by the rain and mud we’d been in over the past two days. For some reason I love a laundromat but am not a fan of doing laundry at home.

In the late afternoon we finally set out on a walking tour of the city to get a better sense of our surroundings before we leave tomorrow.  The first stop was the Wat Phra Sing, the first temple we have been in so far that was actively in use. We could hear the chanting from outside and when we entered saw about 100 monks seated in front of the Buddha and three dogs milling about.  The monks ranged in age, some as young as 10 or 11 it looked to me. After the chanting, an older monk sat facing the crowd and during his reading it was interesting to watch the young boys.  They weren’t quite as poorly behaved as a group of American school children would be, but weren’t as well behaved as I would expect young monks to be – they were fidgeting and casting glances at each other.    Sitting in our area were a few other tourists and also some locals worshiping.  It felt like our first glance at the role the temples actually play in the community.  And I thought the whole complex was one of the most beautiful to me – I loved the murals, painted doors and windows, and wood carvings. 

We continued our walking tour down the street of the Sunday Night Market which looked very different on a non-market day.  We had previously been unaware of the number of temples we were passing.  Stop number two on the tour was Wat Chedi Luang temple that was already closed for the night but we could enter the grounds.  There was a small building housing the city pillar that was open, but only to men.  Women are not allowed to enter because we menstruate and are thus unclean. Jim didn’t go in out of solidarity (and he doesn’t like taking off his shoes).  The old stupa there used to be tallest building in Chiang Mai.  The next stop on the tour was next door but it too was closed, so we abandoned the guide book tour and just kept walking down the street taking it all in.

carved out of a single piece of wood he found on the mountain

I have been wanting to pick up a piece of art from Thailand, and have been particularly drawn to the wood carvings we’ve seen. I came across a guy whose work I really liked at the Sunday Night Market but since then hadn’t seen anything that compared.   As we were walking down the street, Rachel noticed a man setting up shop and before he had anything out of his crates Rachel knew it was him!  I couldn’t believe my luck.  He said he hadn’t been back out selling since Sunday night and we just happened upon him. It seemed too fateful to pass up the opportunity. We selected a piece and asked him to hold it for us while we went to dinner.  Jim had done more research into where the noodle house Dean recommended was located and we took a tuk-tuk to where Google said it should be, but once again we were unable to find it. We gave the area a good search and ended up at a lovely restaurant right on the river, though the food was not as good as what we had prepared ourselves earlier in the day.  By the time we had finished dinner it had started to rain quite strongly and I was worried that my wood carver would pack up and leave but Jim was sure (and was right) that he would wait for us.