meanderstravels

Set off to visit the Ho Chi Minh Museum and his Mausoleum and a few other museums. Research was crap as most museums are closed on Fridays and Mondays, neither of which are we going to be here. Therefore the Military Museum and the Old Citadel were a no no. At least the HCM Museum was open and worth a visit. The Mausoleum is closed for renovation .
The whole area was interesting as it is in complete contrast to the Old Quarter. Wide tree lined streets, embassies, government buildings etc.
We were not allowed to stop and look at some of the buildings in one particular street, police blew their whistles and waved their batons for us to move on. These buildings stretched for a kilometre and were all behind walls with police everywhere. Photos totally taboo.
Ended up at another lake for a beer stop before walking back.

Off early in the morning to Ha Long Bay. Will be out of wifi contact for a couple of days.

Our hotel is in the Old Quarter and near Hoan Kiem Lake. It is a noisy and hectic part of the City and the place to be to see Hanoi.
Spent the morning wandering around the Old Quarter taking in all the sites and sounds. Walked around the lake, went to the Ngoc Son Temple on an island in the lake which serves three religions. Bordering the Old Quarter is the Opera, Stock Exchange and the Museum of History. French architecture in this part of the city. Lots of little cafes and restaurants everywhere, some more desireable than others and of course street food and street markets.
Bought tickets for the Hanoi Water Puppet Theatre for the 2.15 performance. Found the ticket office for our bus trip to Nanning, China, on the 29th and reserved our seats plus taxi pick-up to the bus station.
Water Puppet performance lasted an hour and was worth the effort,very clever.
Water Puppet video

We took to our bicycles again to pop down the road to the UXO visitor centre. (Unexploaded Ordinance). This is a centre that should be in the centre of town not on the edge. The place is a little scruffy. Exhibits explain the reasons why there are so many UXO’s in Laos and where, funnily enough not just along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Also watched a short film. The economic life of rural Laos depends on the ordinance being cleared otherwise farming and agriculture, the life blood of the villagers, cannot develop. It is very dangerous to work the land, someone is killed every day of the year and many maimed especially children.

A monument to a former President Was also nearby so paid our respects

Back to hotel for final swim and to pack. Our flight to Hanoi not until 5pm so hotel let us keep the room until late. Not looking forward to our Laos Air flight. Everybody talking about the Laos Air crash a few days earlier of a similar turbo prop plane as ours that ended up in Mekong whilst trying to land in bad weather.

Arrived Hanoi safely and transferred to hotel by taxi ( no problems with driver). Had a spot of dinner at the roof top restaurant.

Will explore tomorrow

We decided to do the town today by bicycle, the hotel has complimentary ones. We went first of all to Ock Pop Tok an ethical weaving centre 2 k’s out of town. Delightful spot beside the river. They weave from silk and cotton at the centre and also supply the villages with the raw materials for them to it themselves. All proceeds pay the weavers and spread the work to even more villages.

More info on Ock Pop Tok

Cycled back into town and had liquid plus stir fried lunch. On to the royal Palace which used to be the residence of the Royal Family but is now a museum. Also in the grounds there is a beautiful temple like building that houses the LP Buddha’s carriage. Hot day cycling so back for the daily dunk. Went to a restaurant called the 3 Nagas in the evening.

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Walked the high street and down to the Khan River which flows into the Mekong and stopped for a beer. Visited the most important Wat the Wat Xiengthong, very old of brick and wood with lots of murals and mosaics.
Walked back along the banks of the Khan and found the steps up to the Pou Si hill with it’s Stupa at the top and a great view over the town.
Back to hotel for a swim and cuppa.
Found a great restaurant called the Tamarind, had a set menu for two which included first course, tasting dish with dips, mains, puddings and beer all for 120,000 Kip each which is about £9.00 per head. The best cooking we have had so far (apart from that we cooked at school of course).

The Tamarind Restaurant

Wat Xeingkhong information

Stupa information

Spent the day exploring the town to orientate ourselves. We have nearly four days here and Luang Prabang is not that big, all accessible on foot.
Soon realised than we were lucky to have hit the day/night of a special festival where boats are made of bamboo frame, covered with paper and decorated with dragons on top with lots of candles. These are then paraded throug the town after it gets dark, lots of banging of drums and general celebration.the whole town is alight with candles, oil lights and Chinese lanterns set into the night sky. A fantastic spectacle

Festival information

Booked a restaurant with a nice first floor balcony and watched the spectacle from there.

Up ar 6.30 for 7.0 breakfast and on board for 7.30 for the nine hour second day of the trip on the Mekong to Luang Prebang in Laos.
We had two stops today, another Hill Village and some caves that are Temples to the Laos people.
The slight difference between the two villages is that the second makes a little income by making and selling cotton weaved products and are a little more advanced with respect to their cultivation of food, they have small gardens to grow vegetables etc.

The two day trip was really enjoyable, a nice little bunch of fellow travellers, great scenery and the only way to see Laos countryside and river life and the days passed really quickly.

Off we go on our 2 day trip down the Mekong to Luang Prebang in Laos.
We were collected from our hotel at 8.00am and taken to the Thai immigration and passport control area on the Thai side of the river. Mainly backpackers but a few oldies. Our boat trip owner checked that all our documentation was OK, so although it was a bit manic on the Thai side and even more so across the river on the Laos side all was sorted without too much fuss. Paid up our $35 for our entry visa, loaded into a Tuk Tuk and ten minutes later we arrived at our boat for the journey. It turned out that there would only be nine of us on board so we had plenty of room. At about 10 am we set off.

 

Laos immigration

We had a short stop at a Hill Village on the way. They are generally self sustaining, fishing, farming( bananas, rice, teak,)

Back on board and a few hours later we arrived at our overnight stay in Pak Beng. All boats must stop overnight so this place can get quite crowded. Lots of hostels and guest houses and quite a lot of “restaurants”

We had two English, two German and three Italians on board plus our Laos host, Car.

Woke up this morning to rain, the first we have had. Irene’s tum still a little dodgy so decided to travel to Chiang Khong on the border of Laos by private car arranged by the hotel. More comfortable than the local bus and a good hour quicker. Nice cheery driver who appeared to be a devout Buddhist as he made a praying sign whenever we passed a temple along the road. Every town has one and they are also scattered along the road between towns.

The hotel pool in Chiang Rai

Beautiful gardens around the hotel, the rooms were all single storey bungalows

Arrived at our hotel in Chiang Khong at about 2.40. Nice hotel right beside the Mekong, again single storey bungalows, very nicely decorated, all facilities, nice little balcony overlooking the river, all for a mere £ 25.00

Had a of a rough night! I (Irene) was up on and off getting rid of any food from the last two day! The bed was like a rock. We’ve never slept ( or not) on such a hard bed, I think it was a board hidden in a sort of mattress! weird! We had no curtains at one of the bedroom windows. Breakfast came without knives or plates, all a bit odd, but the chap, Rico, was very friendly. We hung around until 11am to check the stomach out, then left on an in between quality of bus. Air conditioned, but pretty old. After another couple of hours we arrived saddle sore at Chiangrai. Now in a ‘proper hotel’ so enjoying the luxury of hair dryer, tea in room etc. Off tonight to see what Chiangrai has to offer. The night market first and then something to eat if the gut stands up to it!
Tomorrow is another bus, the old rickety one again for a mere three hours! Yippee. We did look at getting chauffeur driven car, but it was outside our budget. I can hear you all groaning from here!

Caught bus at 9am for our two and half hour bus ride to Phayao . VIP bus with wide comfy reclining seats and of course AC. £5.00 each for VIP bus. Crazy.
Arrived Phayao and asked how to get to our hotel ( we got the T – shirt now and have all our hotel addresses in local language)
They pointed to a charabang red bus not a tuk tuk or taxi . Strange we thought, perhaps it goes past our hotel. On we get and show address to where we want to go and get a bit of a nod. Bus fills up and off we go. Electric fans in the roof and all doors left open, old school AC. Nice lady money collector for ticket asked for 50 baht which seemed a lot for a short trip !! Well we soon found out that we had truly f—-d up this nights stay. Our hotel was in a place called Chiang Kham in the Province of Phayao and another two hours from Phayao town. Too late now. Arrived Chiang Kham still with smiles on our faces looking forward to a nice relax at the hotel. Crap hotel, called the Rico Resort. Not what we expected and not what the web photos showed. A lot of the fots were of the owners own house and swimming pool and those of another complex which he owns nearby. Rico the owner was a nice chap from the states but had no idea how to run a hotel. The experience to complicated to describe in full here. Not awful but dissapointing. Had to work out how to get to our next nights stop in Chiang Rai without going all the way back to Phayao. Luckily there is a bus direct. Had a nice meal with the owner, Rico at his house and two other Dutch guests.
The following photos look better than the actual place. It was very peaceful and great views over the paddy fields. It is nice getting out into the country and see Thai life for real which is what this sort of holiday is all about. So looking back we will not really regret our stupidity and put it down as all part of the adventure.

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Today was Chiangmai cookery class, called ‘A lot of Thai’. We were picked up by Yui, and she was to be our chef/teacher for the day. We met our fellow students, two from Macau, two from Singapore, two from Florida and a chef from St Croix in the Carribean. Our first part of the day was spent at the local market, looking at and asking questions about food and local produce. It was Yui’s local market and many of the stall holders were her close friends. It was really informative and we were there until nearly 12noon. When we got to the ‘school’, actually Yui and Ywan’s home, we were straight into cooking. Yui was very infectious, excited and informative about her work. She’s a really great character to teach anything.
We started with a demo and then off to do it ourselves. Then the great bit, we ate our food. We cooked six dishes, so we ate six dishes. We were all stuffed when we’d finished. There was a lot of laughing and oh damming going on when we left something out, but on the whole we all made a good fist of it. We made stir fried noodles with tofu and chicken, green thai curry, chicken and cashew nut stir fry, spring rolls, Tom yum soup, and sticky rice with mango and coconut cream. All were delicious. A great day, back to the hotel at 6pm for a shower. A walk for an hour and then back to the hotel for a beer and to pack. Off to Phayao tomorrow on the local bus. Very organised, our hotel receptionist got our bus tickets today and has organised a taxi for 8am

7.00am pick up by minibus this morning for the long return trip up north to what is known as the Golden Triangle, the small area where the three countries of Thailand, Mirima(Burma) and Laos meet. Laos is actually the other side of the Mekong river. This is the area where opium was sold for gold, hence the name.
On the way stopped at some Hot Springs which was a waste of time, just a shopping area with a fountain in the middle and a hot pool that you could boil eggs in.

Next stop and the main reason for the trip was at the “White Temple” It is nothing grand on the inside but the outside is quite special. It is not old and was actually built in the last 20 years.

Before one goes over the bridge you are in Hell and then in Heaven so must not return the same way.

The site prides itself on the “Golden Toilets”

Onward to the Golden Triangle itself which again a bit of a disappointment. Not a lot to see apart from the Mekong and the shores of the three countries. We did have boat trip across the river to Laos but it was just another shopping event. Bloody tours are all the same but sometimes you have to do them.

Buffet lunch followed and then returning back via an ethnic Burmese “tribe” that have settled in Thailand. Long day with some good points.
Cooking tomorrow.