One of the advantages of traveling with the netbook is that we were able to make Skype calls on a fairly regular basis. While we were in Dalat, my 90-year-old dad became ill and went into the hospital. After some conversations with Mom, and with my brother Dave (who was in Africa after just finishing his Kilimanjaro climb), we decided to head back to the US. We spent the evening and a good deal of the night arranging flights, and caught an early morning bus to Nha Trang on the coast. From there, we took an evening flight to Hanoi, spent the night, and flew next morning to LA. Picked up a a rental car at the airport, and we were (somewhat bleary-eyed) in Dad's room at the hospital by mid-afternoon.
The good news is that all my siblings were able to travel back to San Diego, and we were able to be with Dad and Mom while his eyes were still open and he was aware and able to feel the love and support. There were several periods when he was alert and we all could talk with him. The bad news is that his condition gradually deteriorated, and he passed on February 24th. We will hold a celebration of his life on March 6, and be heading back to Ashland after.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
on to Dalat
Photo note: A new picasa album is up, at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/econodan/SoutheastAsiaWinter2011Part3
It includes pics from the 4000 Islands area in Laos and onward from there.
The bus ride from Saigon up to Dalat provided more indications of the significant differences between Laos and Vietnam. Roads in Vietnam are much better, and the houses in rural areas much nicer (concrete or brick v. wood, hard roofs v. thatched, indications of indoor plumbing). When the bus stopped for a break, rather than the crowd of people selling grilled meats on skewers and other home-made items, there was an orderly US-style convenience store or restaurant.
After a pleasant trip, the bus dropped us in the center of Dalat, a small city and popular destination for Vietnamese tourists located in the south-central mountains. Dalat is like a Vietnamese Guanajuato. Both are popular tourist destinations, both are hilly and filled with small twisting streets and alleyways, even the pastel colors of buildings on the hillside are similar. There are also differences: French v. Spanish colonial architecture (there's even a replica of the Eiffel tower), swarms of motorbikes in Dalat, and, of course, it's Vietnam not Mexico.
After some wandering around we found a great place to stay convenient to the center of town, and with strong wifi in the room (which was to prove important--read on). We did a little exploring in the evening and had a great dinner at a market-side restaurant.
The next morning we set out to explore some of the nearby sights on foot. First stop was the Crazy House, an amazing Gaudi-esque construction in an otherwise conventional residential neighborhood. The rambling, multi-level structure incorporates many organic shapes, including large trees and animals. There are narrow and twisting staircases, narrow elevated ramps modeled on vines (and just as challenging to cross for the vertigo-challenged as if they were the real thing), rooms with built-in sculptures of bears, eagles, and other animals. After spending some time exploring the House, we continued on foot to the nearby Summer Palace of Vietnam's last king, Bao Dai. The palace was constructed in the 1930s and designed in art deco style. One of its attractions is a room where one can be dressed up in royal gowns and pose for pictures. How could we resist? After the palace, we walked back into town, had a late lunch, and set out to explore the narrow streets and alleyways. While Ellen was photographing an interesting gate along one street, the elderly resident came out and gestured us into her home for tea. It didn't take long to exhaust our few words of Vietnamese, so she brought in a young neighbor to translate and we spent some time chatting.
The next morning we'd arranged to hire a taxi and driver to take us around to see some of the more distant sights for the day. We started with a gondola ride to Tuyen Lam Lake, a beautiful reservoir with the even-more beautiful Truc Lam Pagoda on a hillside overlooking it. The gardens around the Pagoda are wonderfully designed and very peaceful. From there, we went on to Datanla Falls. While the waterfall itself is quite pretty, this is a very commercialized site. There's a bobsled ride (we passed); there are people with ponies and western attire: for a fee you can pose on the pony for a picture, wearing a cowboy hat and raising a six-shooter to the sky (we passed). We did ride a short gondola down the gorge below the waterfall, which took us to another waterfall where people were rappelling down into the water. We continue onward through the many flower farms outside of Dalat, over a ridge to another nearby valley, to visit Elephant Falls. This is a wide, Niagara-style waterfall, and there's a fun sort of trail (steps carved into rock, lots of scrambling) to the bottom. Next stop was a silk factory, which was fascinating. We saw the cocoons and how they are cultivated, the machines used to spin the silk thread from them, and a variety of processes and machines for weaving and dying the fabric. We continued on to a small distillery producing rice wine. We were able to taste the fermented rice mash, the un-aged wine (the proprietor touched a match to some poured in a saucer to demonstrate just how potent it is), and finally the finished product. It is quite smooth, with a tasted between sake and tequila. Back over the hill to Dalat, we stopped for lunch and then visited an art center with very fine work in production and for sale. A number of artists were producing silk embroidery which is truly amazing. The level of detail, and the three-dimensional aspects, are like nothing we'd ever seen before. Our final stop was at Dalat University, which is at the edge of the city. Ellen and I walked around the campus a bit, and chatted with a student and faculty member we met. The campus felt small and quiet, but there are over 12,000 students.
http://picasaweb.google.com/econodan/SoutheastAsiaWinter2011Part3
It includes pics from the 4000 Islands area in Laos and onward from there.
The bus ride from Saigon up to Dalat provided more indications of the significant differences between Laos and Vietnam. Roads in Vietnam are much better, and the houses in rural areas much nicer (concrete or brick v. wood, hard roofs v. thatched, indications of indoor plumbing). When the bus stopped for a break, rather than the crowd of people selling grilled meats on skewers and other home-made items, there was an orderly US-style convenience store or restaurant.
After a pleasant trip, the bus dropped us in the center of Dalat, a small city and popular destination for Vietnamese tourists located in the south-central mountains. Dalat is like a Vietnamese Guanajuato. Both are popular tourist destinations, both are hilly and filled with small twisting streets and alleyways, even the pastel colors of buildings on the hillside are similar. There are also differences: French v. Spanish colonial architecture (there's even a replica of the Eiffel tower), swarms of motorbikes in Dalat, and, of course, it's Vietnam not Mexico.
After some wandering around we found a great place to stay convenient to the center of town, and with strong wifi in the room (which was to prove important--read on). We did a little exploring in the evening and had a great dinner at a market-side restaurant.
The next morning we set out to explore some of the nearby sights on foot. First stop was the Crazy House, an amazing Gaudi-esque construction in an otherwise conventional residential neighborhood. The rambling, multi-level structure incorporates many organic shapes, including large trees and animals. There are narrow and twisting staircases, narrow elevated ramps modeled on vines (and just as challenging to cross for the vertigo-challenged as if they were the real thing), rooms with built-in sculptures of bears, eagles, and other animals. After spending some time exploring the House, we continued on foot to the nearby Summer Palace of Vietnam's last king, Bao Dai. The palace was constructed in the 1930s and designed in art deco style. One of its attractions is a room where one can be dressed up in royal gowns and pose for pictures. How could we resist? After the palace, we walked back into town, had a late lunch, and set out to explore the narrow streets and alleyways. While Ellen was photographing an interesting gate along one street, the elderly resident came out and gestured us into her home for tea. It didn't take long to exhaust our few words of Vietnamese, so she brought in a young neighbor to translate and we spent some time chatting.
The next morning we'd arranged to hire a taxi and driver to take us around to see some of the more distant sights for the day. We started with a gondola ride to Tuyen Lam Lake, a beautiful reservoir with the even-more beautiful Truc Lam Pagoda on a hillside overlooking it. The gardens around the Pagoda are wonderfully designed and very peaceful. From there, we went on to Datanla Falls. While the waterfall itself is quite pretty, this is a very commercialized site. There's a bobsled ride (we passed); there are people with ponies and western attire: for a fee you can pose on the pony for a picture, wearing a cowboy hat and raising a six-shooter to the sky (we passed). We did ride a short gondola down the gorge below the waterfall, which took us to another waterfall where people were rappelling down into the water. We continue onward through the many flower farms outside of Dalat, over a ridge to another nearby valley, to visit Elephant Falls. This is a wide, Niagara-style waterfall, and there's a fun sort of trail (steps carved into rock, lots of scrambling) to the bottom. Next stop was a silk factory, which was fascinating. We saw the cocoons and how they are cultivated, the machines used to spin the silk thread from them, and a variety of processes and machines for weaving and dying the fabric. We continued on to a small distillery producing rice wine. We were able to taste the fermented rice mash, the un-aged wine (the proprietor touched a match to some poured in a saucer to demonstrate just how potent it is), and finally the finished product. It is quite smooth, with a tasted between sake and tequila. Back over the hill to Dalat, we stopped for lunch and then visited an art center with very fine work in production and for sale. A number of artists were producing silk embroidery which is truly amazing. The level of detail, and the three-dimensional aspects, are like nothing we'd ever seen before. Our final stop was at Dalat University, which is at the edge of the city. Ellen and I walked around the campus a bit, and chatted with a student and faculty member we met. The campus felt small and quiet, but there are over 12,000 students.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Laos to Vietnam - time to catch up
I've fallen way behind in posting, time to catch up a bit....
Biking around Muang Khong was delightful. The bikes we rented were too small of course, and we didn't get going until mid-morning when it was already starting to heat up. We began by taking a road across the island to the village of Muang Saen on the other (western) side. We were expecting another very small one, but it turns out this is the main commercial center of the island. The commercial district was about three blocks of stores. There was a very active ferry landing with a steady stream of cargo boats (mostly overgrown canoes, but a couple larger) crossing to Cambodia on the other side of the Mekong. While walking around the ferry landing area taking pics, we were stopped by a man pushing cargo on a hand cart; he was anxious to share his few words of English with us and we were happy to oblige. After a brief chat, we went on our way; when we ran into him again about ten minutes later he was pushing a cargo that included two 5-gallon plastic gas cans filled with lao-lao, which he insisted we join him in sampling. Not even noon, and the first drink of the day. After some more exploring of the town, and a stop for a cool drink, we took the road south to explore more of the island. While exploring a small wat between the road and the river, we discovered a dirt path right along the shoreline. This made for much more pleasant riding than the roadway (cooler by the water and more shaded). We followed paths and roadway to the southern tip of the island, then headed back north along the eastern riverbank until we made it home in mid-afternoon.
While walking around the village taking pics before dinner we ran into Jerry and Sharon, the Australian couple with whom we'd been exploring a few days earlier. They'd just come over to the island that day, and we spent a long time chatting over beers and dinner. We also had a nice chat with an Israeli man, who is traveling with his family in a camper-converted small truck (which he'd brought to the island by ferry) from Thailand to Turkey.
Next morning we took the ferry and minibus back to Pakse. After much discussion, studying our travel books and maps, and worrying over the calendar, we decided to skip Cambodia (primary destination there: Angkor wat) and fly straight to Vietnam. We had a long list of places to visit and things to do there, and the days in Cambodia would have left it too tight. We bought air tickets to Saigon (officially Ho Chi Minh city, but everyone calls it Saigon), visited the consulate in Pakse to get our visas, and that was that. The flights from Pakse are only four times a week, so we had to wait a day to fly on Saturday. Spent the day walking around the city, and also (for Dan) doing a fair bit of work.
Saturday morning we caught the early plane to Saigon, and by late morning we were there (much easier than a 14-16 hour bus ride). We caught a bus into the center, and by lunchtime we had a great hotel in the backpacker district and were out to explore the city.
Saigon is a very busy and noisy place. The streets are filled with motorbikes, and crossing is an adventure. Because one can't simply wait for the light to change and then walk calmly across, the technique is to walk slowly out into the traffic, and then just continue across. The stream of bikes just moves around, like a school of fish moving around an obstacle in the river. It's a leap of faith the first couple of times to step off the curb into this mass of motorized traffic, but that's the way it's done here, and it works.
We walked up to the War Remnants Museum, which has very complete exhibits documenting the history of Vietnam's long struggle for independence (starting with the French and continuing through the US), and lots of (mostly US) armaments, tanks, and aircraft. There's also an exhibit of the tiger cages where political prisoners were kept, and the guillotine the French used on them. There's a large exhibit documenting the tremendous toll caused by Agent Orange, not just on the ecosystem but also on people and the birth defects that continue to this day in the descendants of those exposed. Another large and powerful exhibit area shows the work of the many photojournalists who covered the war, and yet another covers anti-war movements in Europe, the US, and other Asian countries during the 1960s and into the 70s. The whole things is well put together, and extremely sobering. It's difficult to look at the destruction and recognize it was done by one's own nation.
Early the next day (which would be yesterday) we boarded a bus for Dalat, a popular tourist destination for Vietnamese in the mountains north and east of Saigon. Details to follow in the next post.
Photo note: I've started a new Picasa album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/econodan/SoutheastAsiaWinter2011Part3.
It contains pics starting with the 4000 Island area and moving forward from there.
Biking around Muang Khong was delightful. The bikes we rented were too small of course, and we didn't get going until mid-morning when it was already starting to heat up. We began by taking a road across the island to the village of Muang Saen on the other (western) side. We were expecting another very small one, but it turns out this is the main commercial center of the island. The commercial district was about three blocks of stores. There was a very active ferry landing with a steady stream of cargo boats (mostly overgrown canoes, but a couple larger) crossing to Cambodia on the other side of the Mekong. While walking around the ferry landing area taking pics, we were stopped by a man pushing cargo on a hand cart; he was anxious to share his few words of English with us and we were happy to oblige. After a brief chat, we went on our way; when we ran into him again about ten minutes later he was pushing a cargo that included two 5-gallon plastic gas cans filled with lao-lao, which he insisted we join him in sampling. Not even noon, and the first drink of the day. After some more exploring of the town, and a stop for a cool drink, we took the road south to explore more of the island. While exploring a small wat between the road and the river, we discovered a dirt path right along the shoreline. This made for much more pleasant riding than the roadway (cooler by the water and more shaded). We followed paths and roadway to the southern tip of the island, then headed back north along the eastern riverbank until we made it home in mid-afternoon.
While walking around the village taking pics before dinner we ran into Jerry and Sharon, the Australian couple with whom we'd been exploring a few days earlier. They'd just come over to the island that day, and we spent a long time chatting over beers and dinner. We also had a nice chat with an Israeli man, who is traveling with his family in a camper-converted small truck (which he'd brought to the island by ferry) from Thailand to Turkey.
Next morning we took the ferry and minibus back to Pakse. After much discussion, studying our travel books and maps, and worrying over the calendar, we decided to skip Cambodia (primary destination there: Angkor wat) and fly straight to Vietnam. We had a long list of places to visit and things to do there, and the days in Cambodia would have left it too tight. We bought air tickets to Saigon (officially Ho Chi Minh city, but everyone calls it Saigon), visited the consulate in Pakse to get our visas, and that was that. The flights from Pakse are only four times a week, so we had to wait a day to fly on Saturday. Spent the day walking around the city, and also (for Dan) doing a fair bit of work.
Saturday morning we caught the early plane to Saigon, and by late morning we were there (much easier than a 14-16 hour bus ride). We caught a bus into the center, and by lunchtime we had a great hotel in the backpacker district and were out to explore the city.
Saigon is a very busy and noisy place. The streets are filled with motorbikes, and crossing is an adventure. Because one can't simply wait for the light to change and then walk calmly across, the technique is to walk slowly out into the traffic, and then just continue across. The stream of bikes just moves around, like a school of fish moving around an obstacle in the river. It's a leap of faith the first couple of times to step off the curb into this mass of motorized traffic, but that's the way it's done here, and it works.
We walked up to the War Remnants Museum, which has very complete exhibits documenting the history of Vietnam's long struggle for independence (starting with the French and continuing through the US), and lots of (mostly US) armaments, tanks, and aircraft. There's also an exhibit of the tiger cages where political prisoners were kept, and the guillotine the French used on them. There's a large exhibit documenting the tremendous toll caused by Agent Orange, not just on the ecosystem but also on people and the birth defects that continue to this day in the descendants of those exposed. Another large and powerful exhibit area shows the work of the many photojournalists who covered the war, and yet another covers anti-war movements in Europe, the US, and other Asian countries during the 1960s and into the 70s. The whole things is well put together, and extremely sobering. It's difficult to look at the destruction and recognize it was done by one's own nation.
Early the next day (which would be yesterday) we boarded a bus for Dalat, a popular tourist destination for Vietnamese in the mountains north and east of Saigon. Details to follow in the next post.
Photo note: I've started a new Picasa album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/econodan/SoutheastAsiaWinter2011Part3.
It contains pics starting with the 4000 Island area and moving forward from there.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
South to Ventiane, Tha Kaek, and the 4000 Islands
The bus ride from Luang Prabang to Ventiane was a full day: early morning until evening. First part of the ride passed through beautiful karst mountain scenery; it was a shame that we couldn’t stop to drink it in and take pics. We arrived in the capital city of Ventiane after dark, and after a little walking found a great hotel just a half block from the Mekong and in the center of town. We spent the next day walking around the city seeing sights, including the Haw Pha Kaeo museum of archaeological finds (almost all unlabeled so we didn’t need to waste time trying to understand what we were seeing) and the historic Wat Si Saket. The latter is notable for the thousands of small niches all around its perimeter, each containing small Buddha statues. At one wat, the Inpeng Temple, preparations were underway for a Buddhist holiday beginning that night. There were a couple of dozen women sitting outside and busily making decorative offerings out of sticky rice, banana leaves, and flowers.
Next morning I had a great long run along the Mekong. They are in the middle of sprucing up the waterfront area with walkways, but as it is mostly unfinished I was able to run several miles on very pleasant graded dirt. A little after noon we caught a tuk tuk to the bus, and headed south to Tha Kaek, another river town, again arriving after dark.
Tha Kaek is a small and sleepy river town, with a limited tourist infrastructure geared mostly toward outings and treks to the surrounding countryside. We joined up with some other travelers we’d met on the bus, an Australian couple and a French woman traveling solo, and made arrangements to charter a minibus the next morning to visit Tham Kong Lo, an amazing spot where a full-size river enters a large cavern, runs 7 km straight through under the mountain, and emerges on the other side. After a 2 ½ hour ride to the site, we boarded motorized dugout canoes run by the local cooperative for the ride through. Our canoes entered the cave, we switched on our headlamps, and we cruised upstream to a stopping point where we were able to walk a path among many illuminated stalactites and stalagmites. Back in the canoes, we continued for almost an hour before emerging from the other side of the mountain and into the sunlight. At several spots on our journey through the cave, we bottomed out in the shallow water and had to hop out and walk through the river until it became deep enough again. At the turnaround, there was a place to stop for a snack and beer before the return trip downstream through the cave. By the time we finished the return bus ride to Tha Kaek, it was once again after dark.
Next morning we boarded yet another bus for the full-day ride to Pakse. Although there a large number of wats to see there, and interesting treks into the surrounding countryside, for us this was only a stopping point before heading south again this morning. This time, it was only about 2 ½ hours on a crowded minibus to the Si Phan Don (4000 Islands) area of the Mekong. Here, the river splits into many channels, and in the dry season (now) thousands of little islands are exposed. We took a short ferry ride to the island of Don Khong, one of the larger islands and fully inhabited. Our plan: a couple of days not sitting on buses. The tiny village where we are staying on the island, Muang Khong, is delightfully sleepy. There are a few small guesthouses on the street facing the river (most of which have a small restaurant in front), and not much else. What a welcome break for weary travelers. Our plan for tomorrow is to rent bikes to explore the rest of the island.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Luang Prabang
We've just completed our couple of days exploring Luang Prabang, and today took a ten-hour bus ride south to Ventiane (capital city of Laos).
Luang Prabang is historic, beautiful, and peaceful; it's easy to see why it's so popular with travelers. The old part of the city is a wonderful combination of French colonial and Laotian. Like the centers of some other popular tourist destinations (Guanajuato, Patzcuaro, Ashland) it's chock full of charming lanes, enticing restaurants, and boutiques. As a former national capital and religious center, there is plenty of history and culture as well. The historic old city center sits on a peninsula where the Nam Khan River flows into the Mekong.
The first day there we walked and explored. There are several beautiful and historic wats here, including Xieng Thong, Wisunarat, Ho Pha Bang, Suwannaphumaham, and Phu Si. Took a stroll across a seasonal (dry season only) bamboo footbridge over the Nam Khan river to the village of Ban Xang Khong, which is home to numerous paper-making and fabric artists. We finished up the afternoon by climbing the many steps to Phu Si, a temple site on top of a high hill in the center of town. Along the path there are several caves crammed with Buddha statues, there are many Buddhas along the paths, and there is even a small cave with what is reputed to be a footprint of the Buddha in the rock (if true, he was much larger than an elephant). At the top, in addition to the small temple, there is a small gun emplacement left over from the war.
In the evening the main street through town is closed off to traffic and filled with a huge night market selling a full range of crafts and artwork, antiques, and t-shirts. On a side street are many informal street restaurants, where for 10,000 kip (about $1.25) you can fill a plate from a buffet of noodle and vegetable dishes. Grilled meats and fish (and of course beer) are also available.
Second day we continued exploring the city on foot. We walked around the grounds of the former royal palace (used as the king's residence into the 1960s). In late afternoon we took a cruise up the Mekong to watch the sunset. While strolling around the center later in the evening, we ran into one of our backpacking buddies from San Diego, Judd Westover, and spent a couple of hours catching up over beers.
Luang Prabang is historic, beautiful, and peaceful; it's easy to see why it's so popular with travelers. The old part of the city is a wonderful combination of French colonial and Laotian. Like the centers of some other popular tourist destinations (Guanajuato, Patzcuaro, Ashland) it's chock full of charming lanes, enticing restaurants, and boutiques. As a former national capital and religious center, there is plenty of history and culture as well. The historic old city center sits on a peninsula where the Nam Khan River flows into the Mekong.
The first day there we walked and explored. There are several beautiful and historic wats here, including Xieng Thong, Wisunarat, Ho Pha Bang, Suwannaphumaham, and Phu Si. Took a stroll across a seasonal (dry season only) bamboo footbridge over the Nam Khan river to the village of Ban Xang Khong, which is home to numerous paper-making and fabric artists. We finished up the afternoon by climbing the many steps to Phu Si, a temple site on top of a high hill in the center of town. Along the path there are several caves crammed with Buddha statues, there are many Buddhas along the paths, and there is even a small cave with what is reputed to be a footprint of the Buddha in the rock (if true, he was much larger than an elephant). At the top, in addition to the small temple, there is a small gun emplacement left over from the war.
In the evening the main street through town is closed off to traffic and filled with a huge night market selling a full range of crafts and artwork, antiques, and t-shirts. On a side street are many informal street restaurants, where for 10,000 kip (about $1.25) you can fill a plate from a buffet of noodle and vegetable dishes. Grilled meats and fish (and of course beer) are also available.
Second day we continued exploring the city on foot. We walked around the grounds of the former royal palace (used as the king's residence into the 1960s). In late afternoon we took a cruise up the Mekong to watch the sunset. While strolling around the center later in the evening, we ran into one of our backpacking buddies from San Diego, Judd Westover, and spent a couple of hours catching up over beers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)