George’s Adventure

Thursday 30th November 2006

Tuesday night’s dinner consisted of us sitting by the riverside at plastic chairs and tables with little mock candles (these were candles in a cut out plastic bottle), and eating chicken laap. This is lettuce, mint, steamed mango leaves and other fresh herbs with minced chicken. I ate this with sticky rice. The traditional way to eat this is by picking up the sticky rice with your hand, rolling the dollop into a ball and pressing down on it, then scooping up the mince with your sticky rice and eating with your hand. No cutlery involved. The lady cooks the dish on a mobile cart and you can watch her do this if you want.

Yesturday we went on a Monument to Mekong walking tour. We caught a tuk tuk to the Pataxai. We climbed up this concrete building to get a good view of the city. This monument looks like the Arc de Triumphe from afar but it does have Lao style features and has 4 arches instead of just 2. The official Laos name for it is translated as ‘arch’ and ‘door or gate’ of Triumph. When you climb up you first reach a platform which allows you to see into the archway. The next two floors are filled with souvenirs and then the last two platforms enable you to see a great view of Vientiane.

Next, we walked to Talat Sao. This is Vientiane’s biggest market, selling textiles, TVs, fridges, watches, all sorts of goods. They also sell pirates Thai pop CDs and DVDs. I even spotted a DVD of Casino Royale -surely this is too early!! Towards the south eastern part of the market you can watch people cutting and blow torching jewellry in work stations in a long line. This is fascinating to watch.

After the market we headed to That Dam. One of Vientiane’s oldest Buddist stupas, known as the ‘Black Stupa’. Local legend says that it was once coated in a layer of gold – it is hardly even black now – you can see the red brick coming through. Next, it was off for some food. We headed down a side street for some ‘khao jii paa-te’. This is french bagette stuffed with Lao style pate and vegetables and salads and dressing. It was yummy. The lady makes the baguettes up in a glass cabinet in front of you. The baguette was still warm as i ate it.

Suitably rested, off to Wat Si Saket. On the way we saw the Presidential Palace. A big white chataux, which even though it is now only used for ceremonial occassions, you cannot enter. Wat Si Saket is special because it has many buddah’s in it. The interior walls of the cloister are filled with little holes in the walls containing buddahs. There are over 2000 silver and ceramic buddah images and over 300 seated and standing buddahs here. There are alos many Lao style buddahs here which do look different to the Thai buddahs. Many of the Lao buddahs have their eyes shut and they seem to look a bit friendlier. There is also a cupboard here which you can peer into containing lots of damaged buddahs. The man at the temple said that they were going to restore the murals which have eroded in many parts, next year.

The next temple we went to was Haw Pha Kaew. This temple was built for royalty in the 16th century but it is now a museum for religious objects. It is here that you can see different buddah poses:

‘Calling for Rain’ = Standing with hands at sides
‘Offering Protection’ = Palms stretched out in front
‘Contemplating the Tree of Enlightenment’ = Hands crossed at the wrists

We walked from here to the brick-paved promenade where we sat on a two seater swing and bought drinks from an outdoor drink vendour. I chose a pepsi, which come in glass bottles here (the ones we used to get back at home before they changed to plastic ones), which the lady poured into a small plastic bag. You can then choose to have ice or not and she pops in a straw. Pretty cool swinging with a bag of pepsi.

On the way back we walked through Wat Mixay, a yellow temple which has gates flanked by two friendly looking guardians. At Wat Ong Teu Mahawihan we saw the 16th century bronze buddah. This is one of the most important temples in Laos as the Deputy Patriarch of the Lao Monastic order has his offical residence here. There is also a Buddist Institute, a school for monks, here who come from all over the country to study the Buddah’s teachings. Accross the road is Wat Hai Sok, a temple which has a 9 tiered roof. While we were wandering around two novice monks approached us and we made friends with them and swapped email addresses – pretty funny. The last temple of the day was Wat In Paeng.

Today we fly back to Thailand.

Monday 6th November 2006

We arrived at the new international airport in Bangkok.  Last time I visited they only had one part which everyone flew into.  Now they have a part for domestic and a part for international.  We queued up in the metered taxi rank queue and a lady came to ask us where we are travelling to.  I had written the place we wanted to stay down so she looks at it and writes on a slip of paper where we want to go in Thai.  This lets the taxi driver know where we want to go – sometimes their English is not so good.  Travelling at night accross Bangkok is great.  You can see all the different roads, winding on top of each other and the traffic is tremendous, I had forgotton what a race track the roads are here.  Then there is the hooting – it’s great.  We eventually arrive at our destination – the good old, Th Khao San, the Khao San Road to you and me.  This place is pumping, filled with all sorts of people walking up and down, street vendors trying to see you all sorts of different noodles and rice dishes and the fruit and clothes and just things – too many things to take in.  I have a huge backpack on and my back is killing and we are trying to find somewhere to stay amongst the crowd.  Eventually we find a place – the smallest bedroom in the world, smaller than my room at home (it must be tiny I hear you cry!!!).  Still, its a bed and has a hot shower (not that you want a hot shower – only a cold one) and a toilet.

In Bangkok we have caught the skytrain, BTS, from the National Stadium near Siam Square to Mo Chit.  This is where the Chatuckak weekend markets take place.  This place is amazing – i loved it.  Ive decided that we have to return before we leave so I can buy loads of stuff (ok rubbish that you fall in love with here and never use or need when you get back home).  We wandered around Siam square, taking in the place and wandering through the huge MBK – a big shopping centre.  (Kristin you would be in heaven here).

Yesterday was temple day for us.  We decided to take a tuk tuk (motorised transport in Thailand that takes you quickly and smoggily to whereever you want to go – normally a hair raising experience which is overpriced.  Still, we got to see The Golden Buddah, The Grand Palace and the surrounding buildings and Wat Pho – this is my favourite buddah ever.  A huge and gigantic reclining buddah – everyone should see it in their lifetime – totally amazing.  Yesterday was also a special day because it was the day of a certain festival where you buy a ring of flowers, light the candle and incense sticks on it, make a wish, and throw it into the river.  The idea is that you will have good luck for the rest of the year and you are throwing away the bad things down the river.  Janine and I got one and watched it float off down the river.  There were also boats floating down the river with all sorts of different music coming from them and they were all ornately decorated and lit up.  Very impressive and fun.