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Articles Tagged ‘Asia’

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Slow boat down the Mekong

Tuesday, November 6th, 2007
The last time we took a multi-day boat trip, up the Niger River from Mopti to Timbuktu in Mali earlier this year, it didn’t turn out too well. It was supposed to take 3 days / 2 nights, but ended up taking 7 days / 6 nights, and we slept on top of bags of rice on the stationary boat for all six nights.Suffice to say, this one went a whole lot better. We crossed the border (by boat) from Thailand to Laos three days ago, then yesterday morning set out from Houay Xai for the two-day slow boat trip down the Mekong to the imperial capital Luang Prabang. Only a few years ago a trickle of travellers used to do this on cargo boats (Laos only opened its doors to the outside world in 1990), but it’s a fully-fledged tourist journey now, so we shared a boat with about 100 other foreigners. Thankfully, there were no sacks of rice to contend with (though the wooden seats were pretty uncomfortable after a while) and we didn’t even have to sleep on the boat, stopping instead at a town called Pak Beng, which by virtue of being on the Mekong and roughly halfway between Houay Xai and Luang Prabang and for no other reason, suddenly finds itself with a dozen guesthouses as well as some luxury bungalows and all sorts of crazy development compared with the other settlements we passed.

Yesterday was pretty overcast as it has been for most of the last week, but today was a glorious day, easily the best day weather-wise of this young trip, and I was able to get some great photos of the river and its surrounds. The Mekong is usually about 100-150m wide and for most of the 10-11 hours we spent traveling down it, thick and pristine jungle rose up steeply from the banks on both sides. It was quite breathtaking at times, certainly the most beautiful scenery we’ve seen in two weeks since leaving Paris. We passed a few villages along the way but the area is very remote and mostly it was just uninterrupted jungle scenery.

Now that we’ve done this trip and are in Luang Prabang, I feel like our journey is really beginning. Hopefully Laos will be as enjoyable as we thought it would be – early signs are good…

Meanwhile, my first attempt at using the web in Laos shows me that high-speed access is a thing of the (Thai) past. Hopefully by the time you read this, photos of the boat trip will have finished uploading and be posted here.

Posted in Asia, Laos, Southeast Asia, Travel | 1 Comment »

Monks and Chiang Mai

Friday, November 2nd, 2007

We had a nice moment two mornings ago when we were forced to wake up at 5:15am to catch a 6am bus (and no, that in itself wasn’t the nice moment…). We walked outside the guest house onto the street in Mae Sot, bleary-eyed, and looked down the road to find about 10 Buddhist monks – most of them ‘novice’ monks, some as young as seven or so – walking up and down the street seeking alms, as is their custom. Several people were up to greet them at this hour, giving them alms and praying to them. I counted three different women who were waiting outside their houses with a pot full of freshly boiled rice to give to the monks.

Buddhism is such a peaceful, gentle religion that often brings a smile to your face – this was one of those times.

We somehow ended up missing the 6am bus for what it’s worth, even though we were at the appointed stop before 6am, but got another at about 7:40am and were in Chiang Mai by the afternoon. Chiang Mai is hard to figure out – it’s obviously a tourist mecca, with over 200 travel agencies offering hill tribe trekking trips, and seemingly ever other building in the old city being either a café, an internet café, a massage parlour or a guesthouse. There are tons of foreigners about – if you walk by a café aimed at Western travellers there are always customers there, no matter what the time of day. Yet we visited five different temples complexes within the city and hardly saw any tourists at any of them. What do the gap-year-faux-hippy schlock (sorry Lucy, but I love this phrase) do with themselves all day?

So the city as a whole is not necessarily impressive, but the temple complexes are all quite interesting. Each of the five we visited (except perhaps the last one) offered something new and different, so all were quite worthwhile and enjoyable. At one temple yesterday afternoon, we arrived just as about 25-30 monks were praying inside, which was a nice experience and gave me a chance to get some great photos. Plus, we found the Chiang Mai branch of May Kaidee’s vegetarian restaurant so we had two really lovely lunches the past two days.

Well, after a bit of a whirlwind tour of Thailand, tomorrow we’re taking a bus for six hours or so to Chiang Khong and then crossing the Mekong into Laos. We have 30-day visas and will hopefully stay in Laos for most, if not all, of this time before heading down to Cambodia and the Angkor temples.

More photos are up here, but I haven’t had time to tag/label the latest ones properly…

Posted in Asia, Southeast Asia, Thailand, Travel | 1 Comment »

Something New

Monday, October 29th, 2007

After a third set of ruins yesterday - Si Satchanalai, possibly the best of the three and certainly the best situated, in jungle-like scenery that recalls Raiders of the Lost Ark - we decided it was time for something ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in Asia, Southeast Asia, Thailand, Travel | Comments Off on Something New

Walking around Sukothai

Saturday, October 27th, 2007

Another day, another set of Thai ruins. This time we're in Sukothai, a more popular - and more impressive - insight into Thai history and culture than Ayutthaya.

This morning we rode in the back of a pick-up truck ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in Asia, Southeast Asia, Thailand, Travel | Comments Off on Walking around Sukothai

The ruins of Ayutthaya

Thursday, October 25th, 2007

Double rooms for less than $5, meals for less than $1, Buddha images everywhere ... yeah, it must be Southeast Asia. We’re into day four of our little journey, and after a couple of days in Bangkok sleeping and ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in Asia, Southeast Asia, Thailand, Travel | Comments Off on The ruins of Ayutthaya

Southeast Asia

Sunday, October 21st, 2007

When Wendy and I first starting looking beyond Europe on a world map five years ago, Indochina (Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam) was high on our list of regions to visit. We went to Southeast Asia twice in 2003 but somehow ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in Asia, Southeast Asia, Travel | Comments Off on Southeast Asia

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