I like this image

This is the view from a big bridge in Nong Kiew, Laos pretty early in the morning, click on it for an enlargement

Vite Nam and Laos, the summary

Fantastic trip.



Best foods - banana pancakes in the village with no power in Laos. Tasted like french toast - I'd eat these every day! No one will believe this one! When we asked Lee the guide what a sauce was he said "You don't have this one". Fermented water buffalo hide paste was delicious. Spicy, chipotle taste, excellent for dipping sticky rice. Lao people don't use utensils much. Roll up a ball of sticky rice in the left hand and pick off a small amount and grab whatever it is you're eating with the right hand. Into the mouth - yum!

Vietnamese food was all delicious and we know the Thai dishes quite well from back home. We REALLY liked the Laotian dishes.

We tried several versions of bamboo, peeled fresh shoots and 2 different salads. Rattan was very good cooked - a lot like the bamboo. Beef was a little tough to westerners. Chicken and pork in abundance although most Lao eat mostly vegetables (meat too expensive). All of the vegetable dishes were fresh and a visual delight.

Lao coffee is served with a creamy, sugary glop of condensed milk at the bottom of a glass. The coffee sits on top of the milk until you mix it in. VERY good - I had it every chance I could even though I'm not supposed to have coffee. Tasted too good to pass up.

Viet Nam was very modern compared to Laos. Standard of living way better there. And, when we crossed over the border into Thailand from Laos it was like the world had changed for the way better. Houses were all very nice and made with better materials than in Laos. The Lao people are very friendly but are suffering compared to the rest of the places we visited. Very primitive dwelling, mostly all made with materials from the jungle. The big cities have better buildings but still pretty dismal. If there is electricity almost everyone has a satellite dish. The big giant dishes we used to have here. So, thatched roof, bare dirt floor, one light bulb and satellite.

One last summary of trip home "yesterday". We flew from Chiang Rai, Thailand to Bangkok, Thailand - 1 hour 15 minutes. 4 hour layover in Bangkok. Flight to Singapore was just under 4 hours. Then, a 5 lour layover in Changi Airport (Singapore) where we slept a few hours. There were rest areas with leather "recliner" chairs to sleep on. A little too light and noisy - airport announcements, etc but a nice place to stay over. Off to Hong Kong (2 1/2 hour flight) and within the hour we were back on the plane for the 14 1/2 hour flight to O'Hare. If I add it up total travel time seems to be around 31 hours. I didn't think it was too bad - the last 5 hours or so got pretty old! Got to see The King's Speech - very good movie on the way from Hong Kong.

So, trip was great and we're glad to be back.

3/1 "Morning" in Singapore, then Hong Kong - We're home

Earlier this morning in Hong Kong Airport

This was first stop after Thailand. Changi Airport in Singapore. Slept a little bit on the "recliner sofas", about 3 hours....... Heading for the showers in a few.

We're on United from here on out. Flight 0896 departs Singapore at 6:40 a.m. (1 hour and 25 minutes from now) and arrives in Hong Kong at 10:30. AFter a 1 hour layover (we don't change planes) we head for Chicago and arrive 12 hours later. We are scheduled to arrive at 11:40 a.m. Chicago time on 3/1. Ah, the wonders of the date line!

No time to post in Hong Kong - Had to clear customs and get right on the plane.

Just walked in the door an hour ago. L O N G flight(s) home but we're here. I think we've basically been traveling for about 30 hours with a few hours sleep in between.

Starting to wash some clothes and then off to bed.

Safe and sound after a wonderful vacation!!!!!

Just thinking, never thought I'd eat fermented water buffalo hide paste (and it was delicious). Used as a dip for sticky rice. Yum!

2/28, 3/1 Heading home

Emerald Buddha in Chiang Rai - Solid jade with gold adornments

Bright and fresh in the Chiang Rai Airport

Bangkok Airport, just before customs

Waiting for flight to Singapore from Bangkok

We're here!

Just arrived at Changi Airport in Singapore - it's 2:00 in the morning here on the 1st. Connie already "resting" on a leather recliner in a travel lounge. No beds available at the Travel Hotel. I wanted to send emails as this was our first chance at wi-fi. Didn't work in Thai airports. Flight to Hong Kong in 5 hours - we can have a shower in the travel hotel area just before we fly out for $8. Seems like any $ would have been fair to me!

Changi Airport seems to be a pretty good place to have a layover - lots of shopping.....

So far, so good. Only too may hours to think about "today" Hopefully more from Hong Kong!

2/27 transfer to Thailand

On the patio at The Legends Hotel - Open air shower on the right

Longboat across the Mekong to Thailand

2 guys along the road in Laos, click in the body of the image to enlarge

We arrived safely in Chiang Rai, Thailand after a short hiccup at the Thai border. The Green Adventures driver was at the hotel just before 8:00 and smoothly transported us to the Lao border. We cleared customs and took a long boat across the Mekong to Thailand. After clearing customs we looked for the driver to take us the rest of the way. After 30 minutes I asked another tour person who was waiting at the pier to try and call The Legend Hotel directly for us. The hotel than arranged for a local guy to take us there rest of the way. I've contated Mr Mee at Green Adventures to let him know his guy wasn't there for us. The good thing is we're here and the hotel is great. We just had some Thai food for a late lunch and will go the the local night market later tonight. Tomorrow is the long and winding road home. Stay tuned.......

2/26 Biking Luang Nam Tha

Riding past the rice paddies

Local woman, Ep and Connie perusing textiles in village

Resting is a farmer's shelter at the hottest point of the bike ride

21 miles of this kind of road. Sweet! Were we ever dusty!

At the local market. That's rice in those sacks

Our cabin to the left at The Boat Landing Guesthouse

Monk in the tamarind tree

We spent our day with a wonderful guide named Ep. We learned that the white patches we’ve seen on village people are medicine for headaches. We also learned that there are two types of tamarind: one sour, one sweet. A monk had climbed a tree and was picking sour tamarind when we visited a temple; he gave us some to try. We spent seven hours biking on dusty, rocky roads for a distance of 21 miles.

Ws stopped for lunch in a nearly empty night market. We ate several new Lao foods: Bamboo shoots (which we peeled down to the good stuff), rattan, 2 types of bamboo salad, one plain and one fermented and steamed river algae. We next rode to where the big night market will be tonight. Saw quite a bit – it’s huge. Lots of meats we don’t see in many strange forms (with flies).
Next, on to Phoum Phuk Stupa that was twice destroyed by American airplanes during the war. The old stupa is still there and new one that was erected in 2003 is behind it. On the way to the stupa, we rested in a farmer’s shelter, surrounded by rice fields. The road was very hot and dusty, the shelter stop very serene. A friendly gecko was right above us on a piece of bamboo.

Finally a stop in a huge Black Tai community (1,000 people) where we bought fabric pieces, one piece in silk and the other in cotton. The owner had just returned from a wedding party along with many others in pickup trucks. All dressed in their nice skirts.

Tribes visited today: Lantaen, Black Tai, Akha and Khamu tribes. We saw bamboo paper being dried, indigo dying of fabric and Lao Lao (like moonshine rice wine) in many vats.

Ate another wonderful Lao dinner at the hotel and spent all of our remaining Lao Kip. Our scheduled pickup tomorrow is at 8:00 a.m. for a transfer by car to the border of Laos and Thailand. A short longboat transfer across the river to a Thai customs office follows. Hopefully, we will meet the driver to take us to Chiang Rai, Thailand. We have a sign already pre-printed from home with our names on it. The driver is supposed to meet up with us just outside customs. If all goes well, 4 hours to the border and another 2 to Chiang Rai gets us to our hotel around 2 in the afternoon. Stay tuned…….

2/25 Towards Nam Tha

Roosters greeting the day were pretty hard to ignore so I got up and took another walk around the village. There’s a lot of early activity as people are preparing for the day ahead. Fires are lit, food prepared and lots of sweeping up in the house and streets. Most of the homes have dirt floors but they really are kept clean if that makes any sense. I walked over to the local wat (temple) and heard a monk singing to himself. He was also sweeping all around the outside of the temple and then the sidewalk leading to the gate. I said hello to him and he said the same. I got back to the hotel in time to meet the others for breakfast. I heard the big drum from the wat and thought the monk(s) would be walking to collect offerings from the people. It seems that in this small village the people bring food to the temple instead.

After breakfast we loaded up again into a nicer boat for the return trip to Nong Kiew. The bags were collected from storage at the River Side Resort. The security guard recognized me as “Viet Nam” as I’ve been sporting a military pith helmet. I had to have a picture taken with him. This was after I saw a kid wearing and Illini shirt when we got off the boat. Small world – I’m sure he had no idea why I wanted a picture with him.

We had 2 vans – 2 couples in each and we headed towards Luang Namtha. It was supposed to be a 7 hour ride with 4 stops to visit different villages. The road was so bad that we only made 2 stops – with a forced stop of around ½ hour to wait for the road to be repaired. I struck up a conversation with 3 kids from Norway that were on a 5 month trip around most of the world after their high school graduation. Their English was perfect – makes you wonder why we don’t speak other languages better.

This road was pretty bad and we bounced around quite a bit. Eventually we arrived at the Boat Landing Guesthouse and it is spectacular. Nice cabins, hot water, lots of electricity and another fabulous meal. This Laotian food is simply amazing! I may never use utensils again – the whole grab some sticky rice and pick up the other stuff with the rice is really easy to get used to.

The rest of the group goes off on their trek to stay overnight in a local village tomorrow morning so Connie and I will be by ourselves for the rest of our trip. Our guide for the past 4 days is heading off with them as well so it will be good bye to them all at breakfast. We’ll be sad to see them go but we have a great day planned for ourselves. Another guide is meeting us at 9:00 for a 6 hour bike ride through and around Luang Namtha. As always, stay tuned……