This trip started in Hong Kong, then Hanoi, on to Siem Reap, Cambodia, to Saigon, Luang Prabang to Bangkok, back to Hong Kong, go up to Shaghai to catch a flight home.
Laos is an interesting destination. Most of us go to Vientaine and to Luang Prabang and then off to some other country. But there are intrepid travellers who go by bus and boat to the edges of Laos and love it. It is not comfortable and they are risking malaria, dengue, Cholera, etc., but most get away without these hazards.
I really had time only for the capitol Vientiane, one day in Vang Vien and then almost a week in Luang Prabang. I really enjoy finding a comfortable enough hotel and then doing day trips out of the city to see different villages and monasteries and other activities. LP is a smaller city of two major rivers, orchids everywhere, beautiful palms of several varities, more Buddhist temples than you ever imagined, and a lot of good and inexpensive restaurants.
Most Asian cities have pretty dismal architecture, but Luang is by far the exception. It has a rather French style mixed with some deep south U.S. mansion styles from the 19th C. Colour is obviously important to people there and a lot of buildings have striking and really appropriate colours. The town is situated in the midst of hundreds of miles of mountains in every direction and seems to have developled its own style in many ways. There are about eight different tribes there altho the visitor cannot tell them apart in any way. All of them seem quite indifferent to tourists. They are pleasant, sometimes interested, never bothersome about buying goods or services - despite grinding poverty - but mostly conspiciously indifferent whether you consume there goods or like their city.
One day I went to an elephant camp, ostensibly to ride an elephant. But that was not my intention at all, I just wanted to be in the general environs that elephants inhabit, mostly so I would be free to hike a little in a lovely jungle area. The elephants are endangered because there is little forest work for them to do anymore and nobody can afford to keep an elephant due to their huge appetites, if they are not needed for work. Many are sent off to the camps where visitors pay to ride them and therefore support them.
There were eight of use in a van that morning going out there for the day. Immediately I discovered that three of the people were from my neighbourhood in Toronto. One was an M.D. from Forest Hills who was married to a woman who is a sister to another M.D. I see occasionally. The others included a pretty young blonde who was travelling for six months. I met so many people who intended to be on the road for 4-8 months and wondered how many can really accomplish that.
I did ride a 51 yr old female elephant (the males never carry passengers - only mahouts), and I did find a great jungle path which I hiked on for about an hour while the others rode a zip line or rested.
In L.P., I quickly found Wat Xieng Thong, a 450 yr old Buddhist temple - and the one you will see many photos of here. It is - like most temples - a complex of many buildings which includes living and teaching areas for students. The main temple is in such bad repair that you can see light streaming through holes in the roof after sunset, and you do not have to go inside to hear the chanting of the monks just fine. I was in love with this place. The 1st night I met a 17 y.o. monk who was v. kind and told me about the temple. The monks chant at sunrise and sunset, and while I was there, sunset was regarded as 5:30-6:00 p.m. So I went back each evening to hear them. One night I was four blocks away at 5:30 and was going to hurry to the temple. But I heard very enthusiastic chanting from a temple right in front of me and went in there instead. But after about 10 minutes there, I still wanted to be back at Xieng. I walked up the block still hearing the chanting behind me while I could also hear chanting in the next temple on the next block, and than as I went further, I also could hear it from my right - just across the street. There was a large temple complex in each block for four blocks plus at least two more on the opposite side of the street. The town is truly packed with temples.
What makes Xieng so different is that it has some astonishing external art as you have never seen. Some artist covered the outside walls of two small temples with what appears to be enamels in the form of folk art or almost cartoons. Everything about this work is perfect; the scale, the proportions, the perspective, use of colour and interesting subjects are all museum quality. I could not pull myself away from these works.
Interestingly, this area's Buddhists are not any part of the Dalai Lama's Buddhism - they are competitors. I believe his are the Reds and the Lao and Vietnamese were of the Yellow sect.A little behind them were five kittens at the perfect age of about 10-11 weeks. They were starved for attention and affection. So this was a heavenly place; a temple on a hill overlooking the Meekong River, with great music, architecture and art, beautiful flowers and palms, and five kittens. What else could a man want?
No comments:
Post a Comment