Visiting Due's Family

After a good night's rest, we were ready for more activities with Due's family. We started Tuesday with a trip to Due’s school to meet his Aunt Tear for lunch. Due also had to pick up his diploma since he decided to go to Singapore instead of attending graduation. Tear gave us a quick tour of the English department and told us a bit about their English Program in which the students had English speaking teachers for several subjects. After meeting the director of the English Department, we were introduced to a classroom of young students who were just beginning the English Program. There were a couple of brave students who asked us some questions and they all giggled when Karl spoke Thai. We had lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant and it was nice to have something a little different. Then we were off to a cave shrine that is the home to several large Buddha images and lots of bats. The lights in the cave were only turned on when there was a festival so we could only see the Buddhas at the entrance to the cave really well. We poked around a bit with the light created by our digital cameras but couldn’t venture back into the cave until a monk graciously lent us his flashlight. The cliff above the cave has many openings in the rocks and we climbed some stairs to one where we are told that the monk who built the temple would do his meditation. The space is really tiny so it is likely that the monk was not closter-phobic. Now there is a little replica of the monk keeping vigil. In the picture at the entrance to the cave is Due’s mom, Noy, Due and Karl.



That evening we had a dinner party at Due’s aunt’s house. Actually, there are two houses next to each other. One is Toy’s house and the other is Tear’s. Family gatherings are much easier when you are next door neighbors! When we arrived, I got to try on my new dress! Due’s Aunt Toy is really very talented. She made the dress with out a pattern just from a picture that I picked out in a book. Here I am in my new dress with Toy. The dinner was wonderful. Due’s mom had asked what some of our favorite foods were and then bought them for this dinner. For desert, there was a really wonderful coconut cake. It was light and fluffy, just a little sweet and had slices of fresh young coconut. I have clarify that fresh young coconut is not the grated coconut that is available in most US grocery stores. That coconut is old, dry and sweetened. Fresh young coconut is from coconuts that still have a green husk, the coconut meat is soft and milky white and it doesn’t need to be sweetened. There really is no comparison. After eating two slices each, Karl and I think we can duplicate the coconut cake at home! In the picture, I am standing behind Due and his mom, Noy. Next to Noy are Due’s aunts Tim and Toy followed by his cousin Mon. On the back row standing next to Karl is Due’s dad Dee. Then right to left are Due’s uncles Uan, Pom and Banjong.

On Wednesday, Due’s parents took us to see some of the tourists sites in the Loei province. We headed west out of Loei towards Dan Sai which is famous for the Phi Ta Khon Festival held in June. Phu Rua Peak is about halfway between Loei and Dan Sai and it is supposed to be the coolest spot in Thailand. Phu Rua means Boat Mountain and the peak was given that name because it is the shape of a Chinese boat. We were able to drive most of the way up the mountain and only had to walk one kilometer. Here is a picture of Due and his Mom resting before we begin our climb. From our starting point, we could see the white spire that marked the top of Phu Rua Peak.



We trekked through the tall grasses and the forest to reach our destination. Under the white spire sat a golden Buddha image and leading up to it was a wide walkway bordered with flower beds. In the flower beds were snapdragons, marigolds, baby’s breath and other cool weather flowers that we recognized from Utah. Karl spent some time taking some pictures of the things around the Buddha. I took a picture of the view which was intended to be one of the attractions of climbing this peak. The area had a bit of a smoke problem which wasn’t noticeable until we got up the mountain and looked down. We got a picture of us behind the monument that states Phu Rua Peak is the coolest spot in Thailand. It was hot enough on that mountain that I asked Karl a couple of times if he was sure that was what the monument had said!



Karl was more interested in taking artistic pictures than your standard tourist shots and here is his favorite from Phu Rua Peak.



After getting some lunch, we went to Wat Meramit Wiphatsana. The buildings of this temple look like they were built of brick from a distance but on closer inspection you can see it is actually a type of rock. Our guidebook says it is laterite. The grounds of the temple are really nice and quite peaceful. In this picture, the building on the right is the resting place of the monk for whom this temple was built. It is customary for the monk’s body to be displayed in a glass coffin. Due and I agreed that we were relieved when we found the coffin had been covered for the time being.

The main temple has a large Buddha image similar to the famous one we visited in Phitsanulok. The murals on the inside of the main temple are very colorful and some are not your typical temple murals. They do represent the same stories from Buddhism but the artist definitely added his own touch. Take a close look at the mural here and see if you can see something that just does not belong.



On our way back to Loei, we stopped at Chateau de Loei Winery. It is Thailand’s finest winery. According to our guidebook they do give wine tasting but we came for the rose flavored ice cream. I wasn’t sure what to expect of rose ice cream, but I really liked it. I’m not really sure how to describe the taste because I can’t really compare it to anything I’ve eaten before. The winery had a little gift shop with souvenirs for the upcoming Phi Ta Khon Festival. During this festival, the locals wear very decorative masks which have become the trademark of the whole area. The masks are representative of ghosts or spirits and the purpose of the festival is to worship the spirit protectors of the village and ask for rain. Here is a picture Karl took of the mask that was displayed in the winery shop.

We spent the early evening enjoying Loei’s Chaloem Phra Kiat Public Park. It seemed to be a favorite spot for the locals to get their daily workout. People were jogging or walking around the park and in the middle there was an aerobics class underway. The park is surrounded by the Loei River. We got some fish food to feed the fish as we crossed the bridge to the park. There are some really big fish in there! We walked around the park and when we got to the aerobics class we got to meet a couple friends of Due’s mom. They are the two ladies in the front of the picture. Back at the bridge, we spent more time just watching the people and the fish. The dogs were also fun to watch. Some didn’t want to go in the water but the one in the picture jumped right in. The kids were throwing leaves or small sticks in the water and he would swim over and snap at them and then wait for the next one to be thrown in. He made me think of our friend Marilyn and her dog Chloe who is another expert swimmer.

After the park, we got a light dinner at the nearby night market. While Noy and Karl were ordering some food, Due and I were at a table eating the food that we had ordered. First we had a mother and her two children ask if I would speak to her son in English. I did. He just giggled and hid behind his mother who thanked me and then continued on her way. Then a man stopped to ask me if I was Canadian. I told him I was from the US and he replied that he thought I was Canadian because there are a lot of Canadians in Loei. After he left, Due said he hadn’t met any Canadians in Loei and we decided that the guy just wanted an excuse to practice his English on me. Due commented that it was like we were celebrities!

Much too soon, it was time to leave Loei and go onto the next part of our trip. Due’s dad, Dee, had to drive to Bangkok for his work Thursday and we tagged along. We were going to Samut Songkhram to see the floating markets. Samut Songkhram is south west of Bangkok and Dee graciously took us the entire way. We really appreciated it because the drive from Loei was about nine hours. If we had taken a bus it would have been much longer. Here is a picture Karl captured of a suspension bridge in Bangkok as we passed through.

We are staying at Banthip Suanthong Resort which has a beautiful location on the Mae-Klong River. We stayed at this resort three years ago on our last trip to Thailand. The resort has grown a lot but we were happy to see many familiar faces from the last time we were here! They have a nice website at: Banthip Suanthong Resort, but only the Flash intro is in English.

Friday morning, we were up early to go to the small Tha Kha Floating Market. Because it is small, it doesn’t attract the foreign tourists which is one of the reasons Karl really likes it. Before we left for the market, Karl got some pictures of the monks who paddle along the river and connecting canals collecting morning alms.


We took a long tail boat to the floating market and it is quite an experience winding through the canals. Once we left the river the canals got progressively narrower until we reached the floating market. Houses along the canals were built right on the water and as we passed we saw many people outside taking care of their daily chores. They would be right out on their front step washing clothes or dishes in the river. Sometimes they were taking a bath (with a sarong on). The kids who were out swimming would wave as we went by. The little boy in the picture would sink every time he waved at us. He’d be waving and his head would sink below the water. Then he’d pop back up, get a breath and start waving again.


The canal where the floating market was held is wide but it was also packed with boats. We stayed around there for a few hours taking pictures and tasting some of the food for sale. The one food we did not taste but we occasional caught a whiff of was durian fruit. This is a really smelly fruit that some people say is very sweet despite the bad odor. I’m not sure I could get past the bad odor. It is so bad that it is banned from hotels, buses and airports. Here is a picture of a lady with her boat full of durian.


Some of our friends from the resort joined us on our outing. In the picture are Suleeporn, Mae, Thida and Ang who wanted to come along. Suleeporn helped us arrange the long tail boat to take us to the market and she is very helpful with suggestions on things to see in the area. Mae is Suleeporn's nephew and a college student. He put together the resort’s webpage and he’s practicing photography.

Upon returning from the floating market, we sent the rest of the day relaxing and Karl organized his pictures. He’d filled two memory cards full. In my next post there will be a link to a photo album just for Samut Songkhram! This final picture is a close-up of the mural at Wat Meramit Wiphatsana showing the amusing touch to this traditional Buddhist painting.

Take a ride on the Orange Popsicle Bus

When the episode regarding the Orange Popsicle Bus is retold over family dinners in future years, Karl will want it to be clear that it all started because I took my time getting ready. Our plan was to catch a bus from Nong Khai to Udon Thani and then another bus to Loei. When we finally reached the bus station, we learned that we had just missed the bus to Udon Thani but another one would come in 45 minutes. However, there was a bus that was going to Loei by a different route; west along the Mekong and then south through the mountains to Loei. It was leaving right away and should only take 6 hours to get to Loei. When we took into account the time we would have to wait for the Udon Thani bus and our connecting bus to Loei it was more than 6 hours. It was already 10:00 am and we had told Due’s parents we would be to Loei about 4:00 pm. So, we paid our fare and boarded the orange bus that looked like it had been on this route for quite a long time. The seats with minimal cushions and lack of AC caused us some concern but we decided that the scenery along this route would be more enjoyable anyway. In the picture, Karl is with our Tuk-Tuk driver and they are in front of an orange bus very much like the one we took.

The scenery was very nice. Along the first stretch of road that we traveled there were huge plant sculptures. Great care was being taken to grow and mold bushes into a variety of animals. We saw dolphins, turtles, giraffes and even a dinosaur. The best one was a group of plants made into two life-size elephants back-to-back and one with a rider. Sorry I don’t have any pictures to share; it was hard to get them from the bus. Soon we came to the Mekong River and we followed it for quite some time. When we crossed the Friendship Bridge the river looked low but here there were times when we couldn’t even see any water. I’m sure the river was somewhere between the huge boulders and sandbars. It reminded me that Due had once told me that during the dry season he could walk across the Mekong to Laos. We also went through many small towns and saw the traditional Thai style houses made of wood.

About 3:00 pm just before we were to turn south towards Loei, the bus driver stopped at a small bus stop along the Mekong. When we inquired how long we’d be there, we learned this was not just a bathroom break. There weren’t enough passengers (there were only 5 of us) and the bus driver was going to wait until 4:00 pm to see if more people came. Karl didn’t seem to mind he went to take pictures of the Mekong. I’ll admit I wasn’t too happy since I really don’t like these days of traveling and didn’t like the idea of this bus trip taking longer. I tried to make the best of it as you can see from the picture.

We finally got back on the road with only 4 passengers because one guy found another ride. As we wound through the mountains we did pick up more passengers. Based on the road signs it should have only taken us 1 hour to get to Loei but the bus had to go into low gear to get up the mountains and Karl thinks we were only going about 10 kilometers per hour. We made up some time on the way back down the mountains. The whole rollercoaster ride took us two hours and we rolled into the Loei bus station about 6:00 pm. We called Due’s parents and they came to get us. When we told them why we were so late, Due’s mom said they called a very slow bus a Popsicle bus. It is similar to our expression "slow as cold molasses". Karl calculated that we averaged 30 kilometers/hour on that trip! The picture is of the driver of our Orange Popsicle Bus.

Saturday evening we had dinner with Due’s parents and his sister. Due was still in Bangkok and would be taking an overnight bus to Loei. He had flown to Singapore for a short vacation. On Sunday, we went with Due and his parents to his aunt’s house for lunch followed by a trip to a local cotton weaving factory. The cotton is woven by hand with wooden looms and the fabric they make is really beautiful. Some of it is hard to distinguish from Thai silk. I got to pick out my favorite material for a dress. Due’s aunt, Toy, is a dressmaker and she wanted to make one for me! That evening we were back at Toy’s house for dinner and met more of the family. We also made plans for the next day.

Our plans began with a one-hour drive north following the reverse route that the Orange Popsicle Bus had taken. Due’s uncle Bunjong is a director at a small village school and we were going to a temple to see some of his students ordained as novice monks. Because Bunjong was a guest of honor we also got some special treatment and got to sit right in front of the soon-to-be novice monks. Boys between the ages of 12 and 20 can become novice monks and men 20 or older become monks. In Buddhism, you can decide to become a monk for a certain period of time or for the rest of your life. Almost all Thai men spend a little time as a monk at some time in their life.

After the ordination ceremony, we went to Banjong’s school where he had some work to do. The rest of us went onto Chiang Khan which is a small town on the Mekong River. This town has a border crossing into Laos, but only for Thai and Laotian and the transportation is a ferry boat across the river. At this spot in the river, there is enough water for boats. There is a nice little park with a shaded pavilion for looking out over the scenic Mekong. We all got a chuckle out of the self-service foot massage; a walkway made from river rocks. After eating a filling lunch and buying some tasty snacks for later, we headed back to the school. In the picture sitting next to Karl is Due’s cousin, Mon, and Due’s Aunt Tear who is an English teacher at Due’s high school and Mon’s mom is sitting next to Due.



We got a tour of the school with an invitation to come and teach English there on our next trip to Thailand. Bunjong has really done a lot for this school as he has arranged many programs to help the students. At the school there is a mini-market, barber shop, karaoke bar, car wash and more. All operated by the students to help them learn about different professions. Bunjong and Tear also arranged to get laptop computers donated for their library. Getting donations is one way they supplement the small school budget. The school has been recognized as a "Model Lab School". There is more about the school at the following websites: Principal Bunjong and Bunjong's Blog. They are both in Thai.

We ended the day with an "End of School" party at the school and all good parties include some karaoke singing. Due was asked to sing and he did very nicely. When it was our turn, Karl and I made all the teachers grateful that they don’t get very many foreign visitors. Our version of "Good Day Sunshine" was pretty poor! Before we went back to Loei we were presented with some very nice pictures made by the art students at the school.

The trip back to Loei went much faster than the ride in the Orange Popsicle Bus. We were glad for that because all the fun of the day had worn us out!

The Friendly Laotians

Friday morning, we were up at the crack of dawn (if you can believe it) to go see the alms giving ceremony that takes places every morning around the city. The monks walk around the city in single file and the local people wait on the sidewalks with baskets of sticky rice or fruit. As the monks walk past, a handful of stick rice or piece of fruit is dropped into the offering bowl they carry. Some groups of monks were rather small, but others seemed like they stretched on for a mile. Someone had told us that there were over 300 monks in the city and they all came out for alms each morning.

After the monks had returned to their temples, we decided to climb Phu Si while it was still cool. We didn’t visit the Phu Si temple earlier in the week because there are so many stairs to climb. We braved the stairs and walked around the temple grounds catching our breath. The area is still filled with smoke so the views from the mountain top weren’t so spectacular. As you can see in the picture of Karl, the Mekong River behind him is barely visible and yet it isn’t even a mile away. Besides finding the temple on the top of the hill, we found the remnants of an anti-aircraft gun. As we walked down the other side of the hill, we passed through another temple built around a cave shrine that houses a chubby Buddha image. At this temple we also saw a peaceful use for some remnants of war. Seeing the bombs turned planters is poignant considering that Laos was the most bombed country ever; having 1.9 metric tons of bombs dropped on it during the course of the Vietnam War. The US did this in spite of a Geneva agreement that Laos remain neutral; a disturbing bit of history that has had tragic effects on Laos.



For the remainder of the day Friday and Saturday, we lazily wandered around the market taking pictures and talking to friends that we had made. Luang Prabang actually has a good selection of western food which I welcomed. After two and a half months, I miss some of my favorite foods (like cake!). There are several sandwich vendors on the main street and we happened to meet one lady, Manikhone, who likes to laugh. We buy a sandwich from her nearly every day! The sandwiches are made with a French baguette, cheese, chicken or tuna and various vegetables. The sandwiches have a Lao flare as the vegetables include cucumbers and carrots; normally not put on western sandwiches. Laotians also like their sandwiches with sweet and hot chili sauce, but you can ask for mayonnaise instead. So, we order our sandwich and sit and talk to Manikhone while we eat. She spends every day selling sandwiches from 7:00 am to 10:00 pm and so she often has free time. Manikhone must spend some of that time watching people. She always has some funny comments about the foreigners that she’s seen since she last talked to us. There is a lot for her to laugh about. Some people look like they should join a circus with their odd hairstyles and dyed hair. Others look like they have been in the mountains for several weeks without any soap. And then there are those who have so many piercings that they look a bit like a Frankenstein monster. Something that we are used to seeing but is offensive to Laotians (and other people in Asia) are the short skirts, exposed bellies and low-cut necklines. All Manikhone can say is that she feels embarrassed for them because they think they are attractive and they are not. So, if you are ever in Laos and you notice the vendors giggling and chattering to each other as you walk past; maybe you should reconsider how you dress. The first picture shows me with a couple of the market vendors, the second is one of the market vendors with her handmade items and the last one is us with our friend Manikhone.

Sunday, I stayed in and rested. The smoke in the air is really irritating and had made my throat raw and sinuses congested. Karl explored the town and took lots of pictures. I’ve put them on our online photo album along with other pictures taken in Laos at: Laos

Given the heavy haze, we were considering leaving Luang Prabang and traveling to northern Thailand for a week or so before heading to Loei to see Due and his family. Monday, March 19, the air seemed a bit clearer and we decided to see about a tour to local hill tribe villages before we finalized our plans and bought the plane tickets. We were able to find a taxi driver to take us outside of Luang Prabang to a Hmong village that welcomes visitors. It was a dusty little village with bamboo and wooden houses built up the side of a hill. Outside of the houses were handmade textiles set up for sale and the women and children as young as 5 years old were anxious to show what they had for sale. For a small charge, a group of nine villagers would put on a show and let us take pictures. There was traditional singing, dancing and flute playing in the show but they also showed us other parts of their culture. There was shooting poisoned darts from a crossbow, spinning tops and grinding rice and corn. Karl got to try the crossbow and he actually hit the bull’s-eye! The spinning tops was a game where two people would start two wooden tops spinning and two other people would sling two more wooden tops at the first two trying to hit them. To get the tops spinning at high speeds, they used a stick and a string wrapped around the top. The stick would be flicked like a whip to release the top and send it spinning. The grinding rice and corn wasn’t a game but the kids that were working the stone mill to grind corn couldn’t stop giggling as Karl took their picture. After the show, Karl took more pictures of the group and of the individual members. Karl was so happy with the pictures that he made arrangements to come back the next day.

On our way back to Luang Prabang, we stopped at the SOS Children’s Village. This is a village that provides housing for orphaned children and it is administered by SOS Children’s Village Charity. We had learned about it searching the internet for possible places that we could teach English. During our first few days in Luang Prabang, we had sent emails and even called the office in Vientiane but hadn’t gotten any response about whether we could teach. When we paid a personal visit to the village we were able to talk to the school director and learned that the process to get volunteer teachers approved in Laos was lengthy. That being the case, we would not be able to teach. The visit to the village was not a loss as we got to see how well the children were taken care of. The buildings are quite new and our escort told us that each house can accommodate up to 10 children and one “mother”. Siblings live together to help keep the family ties close. SOS Children’s Villages have been set up in several countries. Their website is: SOS Children's Villages

Tuesday, we woke up to a cloudy day and as the day progressed Karl
began to wonder if he would have enough light when we returned to the Hmong village in the afternoon. Shortly before we were to leave, it started to rain. We made it to a restaurant before we got to wet and had some lunch. The rain outlasted us and we finally headed back to our hotel on our bicycles getting quite wet. Karl returned to the Hmong village Wednesday morning and got some more pictures. Our friendly taxi driver is also Hmong and he invited Karl and me to his home that evening. His daughters and a son wore their traditional costumes and we got some pictures of them. The first picture is of Karl, our taxi driver and his father-in-law; the second picture is of Karl and the taxi driver's kids.

Thursday we went to the Luang Prabang National Museum with Manikhone’s daughter. As we were about to leave the market to go to the museum, three more ladies decided to join us. One of them had never been to the museum before! So we walked down the street and toured the museum together. The museum used to be the royal palace so there were a lot of the effects of the King and Queen as well as artifacts from temples that had been destroyed. Pictures weren’t allowed inside the museum but we got this one of the group at a nearby temple.

We spent the rest of our day Thursday saying goodbye to the friends we had made. The local people are a bit cautious of foreigners due to rude tourists but are very friendly and welcoming to anyone who makes the effort to be polite and friendly as well. In the picture, Karl is standing with the Salikas; a couple that he met while out taking pictures one afternoon. That night we had quite a storm, the wind was blowing so hard that it pushed the rain through our window and we had a small flood in our room. Thanks to the wind and the rain, Friday morning the weather was beautiful. For the first time since we had arrived in Luang Prabang we saw blue skies! We got to enjoy it for a few hours before our flight back to Vientiane Friday afternoon. The crossing from Laos to Thailand is over the Friendship Bridge and when crossing into Laos we were on a crowded bus so we didn’t get to see much. This time we took a taxi back over the bridge and got to see the Mekong, which was very low. We stayed the night in Nong Khai and today we travel by bus to Loei. This last picture shows how beautiful the river is when there is no smoke!