Back in August we did a dive specifically with sharks among the many dives we did where we ran across sharks and other creatures. In the shark dive they gather you on the bottom and then a diver, clad in a chain mail suit, descends with a box of snacks for the sharks. Our job is still sit very still on the bottom and now wave your hands around. Hands it turns out can look a bit like fish to a hungry shark.
Five days in Bangkok Makes a Family Humble*
We went from the jungles of Laos and northern Thailand to the big city experience of Bangkok. From one lane dirt tracks to eight or ten lanes of traffic with hundreds, if not thousands, of scooters. We also went from small guest houses where we were often bunking in the same room to a two-bedroom apartment—with air conditioning—on the 25th floor of an apartment building. Yes, it was quite a shock.
However, that didn’t stop us from jumping straight into city life. Our exploration of Bangkok included riding on the water buses, a fun/fast/and exhilarating way of getting around via the canals and avoiding the oppressive traffic on Bangkok’s roads. As well as learning how to cross the street – not an easy feat in Bangkok – figuring out the subway and daring each other to try the scooter taxies. (No, none of us rode a scooter taxi, but we did spend a lot of time with our jaws open watching other people hop on, often sideways, texting on their phones or holding their purchases while zooming off without a moment’s hesitation.)
We were in town for Loh Krathang festival during which nearly everyone launches little boats with candles onto the bays, rivers, and even swimming pools of the city. The tradition is that if the candle is still lit as your boat sails out of sight than your wish will be granted. We decided to join the mass of humanity headed down towards the Chao Phraya River following the adage “Sī fuerīs Rōmae, Rōmānō vīvitō mōre…(When in Rome, live as the Romans do.)”
As you can see in the photos, this meant joining a sea of humanity on the Bangkok subway. Although not as tightly packed as a Tokyo subway at rush hour, we were so tightly packed if you forgot to get your arms above your head, before the doors closed you were pretty much stuck that way until the next stop.
We spent the cooler mornings and evenings exploring, and the heat of the day in the apartment doing algebraic equations!
* There is a song entitled “One night in Bangkok” from the musical Chess from the mid 1980s with the line, “one night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble” which we sung throughout our time in Bangkok with some changes to the lyrics.
The Pak Ou Caves
The Pak Ou Caves are about 25 kilometers north of Luan Prabang on the Mekong. They have housed Buddhist icons for hundreds of years and continue to be an important place of pilgrimage. I was told that during the late 60s and 70s the royal family, whose capital was Luang Prabang, sought shelter in the caves from the ravages of the war.
Up the Mekong from Luang Prabang and into Thailand
In the early morning light, the long, dark wooden boat sat low in the Mekong River on the edge of Luang Prabang, Laos waiting for us as we worked our way down to board it. We had booked a two day passage going north up the Mekong to Huay Xai to cross Friendship Bridge Four and make our way into Thailand and down to Chaing Rai. There were about a dozen travelers in total on the boat. It was nothing but deck with tables and built in lounges, no walls, but with a roof overhead-necessary during the rainy season but now important for shade. The captain, and owner of the boat, drove from a small wheel house at the bow while the toilets, kitchen, and the owner’s residence were at the stern.
We settled into our seats and were pleasantly surprised to be served coffee and croissants as we pushed away from the shore and into the river.
The trip takes two full days with an overnight stop, as navigating the river at night is unwise. One can make the trip on a speedboat in six to eight hours, however we witnessed several of these boats and everyone, driver and passengers, were wearing motorcycle helmets and from what we could see holding on for dear life. The speed boats looked to hold six to eight passengers. While infrequent, death and injury are common place enough that only those in a real hurry opt for the speedboats.
Over the course of the first day we made a stop at the Pak Ou caves (a separate blog post) and were served an exceptional buffet style Lao lunch of fried fish, curry vegetables, rice, and chicken.
Often on this trip, and in life, it feels like we are moving through the world whether running to catch a train, figure out our next place to sleep, or what to see or do. Being on the Mekong was the opposite. It felt like we were sitting calmly watching the world go by. Aside from reading and talking, there was nothing else to do but sit and watch the herds of water buffalo, the passing boats, children playing on the river’s edge, a family carrying water up to their crops a few meters above the river’s edge, the occasional saffron colored robes of monks and the river itself. Long train rides have the same feeling. But on a train one is looking out the window while on the boat, with no walls, we could feel the breeze, hear the sounds and smell the jungle.
Diving in the Bahamas
One of our goals on this trip was getting the boys PADI open water certified, which we accomplished in the Bahamas. Since then, we have gone diving in Thailand and on the Great Barrier Reef. This is a video compilation of our first few dives in the Bahamas.
Riding Elephants in Laos.
It was a forty minute drive to the Elephant village outside Luang Prabang, Laos, where we were to ride elephants. When we arrived at the entrance we all got out of the van and unloaded our respective luggage. Deciding not to roll the suitcases on the gravel, we lugged our luggage (hehe) to the centre of the village and set our bags down in the centre of the circular centre hut. Next to a muted television, which was to the right of where we entered the area, was a small table with coffee and tea upon it. There were no walls.
Dad decided that I should try a cup of coffee, and I was instantly hooked. (Although I still need a considerable amount of sugar.) We were told that we should look around the centre area but to stay near the circle-with-a-roof, clear of the elephants wandering by. I complied, sipping my coffee and exploring down a linear path with smaller, rectangular shelves-with-roofs that had interesting elephant related and local made items like scarves, all, of course, for sale. There were only twenty-five or so guests in the area, divided into groups of six to eight people, including our own group. About a dozen elephant guides were talking and getting ready for the day. I would soon learn they are called mahouts.
I walked past these tables and looped up a different, less linear path, back to the roofed circle. After waiting for a few minutes, we moved to a recently vacated stone table on the lawn. There our guide explained the itinerary for the two day excursion in more detail than ever given to me for a school event! After a short introduction of names we moved BACK to the circular shack and stood just outside the inner circle in front of an information board.
This board was one of many, however, it was apparent this board was very important, as it was yellow and was prominently displayed for all to see. The board had a matrix in which words were placed. The guide explained to us that the words were instructions that all their elephants were trained to understand. For example, one very important word in the table was ‘How How,’ which told the elephant to cease all motion. (STOP.) The guide explained to us that the elephant behind him, (which prompted lots of gawking, by me and the group), was our practice elephant. We were to mount it, and then ride/drive her in a circle around another lawn on the other “side” of the circular structure erected in the middle.
I, not wanting to be first, snuck to the back of the group. The first person mounted the elephant almost flawlessly, setting the standard for the rest of us. She rode the elephant in the prescribed circle, then dismounted. After several more people rode the majestic elephant it was my turn to go. I walked tentatively up to the elephant and the mahout (driver) gave the command for the elephant to slightly bend and raise its front leg. I placed my foot onto the knee and hoisted myself up, luckily I had the help of the mahout, and our guide. I steadied myself on the elephant and the mahout said, “Pie Pie,” which means walk forward. The elephant lumbered forward slowly. We slowly completed the circle around the lawn.
After the circle we all went into the boarding tower to board our elephants for the first ride. Mom and I boarded the same elephant and got settled in the chair. The mahout was already seated behind the ears. As soon as we were seated the elephant lurched forward and I was very thankful for the small cross bar fitted over the chair. The elephant led us down to the river and across it. The elephant trumpeted, obviously happy to be in the water. After we exited the first bit of river and onto an island, the mahout up front let me sit on the neck of the elephant whilst he and mom sat in the chair. It was fun, and I ended up doing it the entire rest of the trip. After walking on the island for a stretch of several meters we entered the river again. Then, after the river we walked back up another path onto the road, and walked the elephant back to the village on the road.
After getting back to the circle, we hauled our luggage past the little lawn to a slope that ran down to the river. We got into a long boat, and placed our bags in it. The boat took us to a long, steep stair case to the house in which we would be staying. We all grabbed our respective bags and dragged them up the hill. After settling in the room we walked back to the centre of the village on a path by the river. We had a lovely dinner at the restaurant area and then walked back to the house to sleep.
In the morning we had to wake up at 07:15 in order to dress and get down to the river to catch a river boat to an area where we met the elephants. We were to be giving them a bath. The river boat dropped us off at a small path that we followed until we saw the elephants. I hopped on my respective elephant, (with a mahout), and we followed the path back to the river. The elephant, at first, didn’t want to get into the river, which I was perfectly ok with. But after a few attempts the mahout finally coaxed the elephant into the water. The elephant then refused to kneel down so I could wet, again I was fine with that. I finally got a little wet, and the bath was indeed fun, but after a while we had to return the elephants to the mahouts so that the elephants could be given a real bath.
After the bath we were taken back to the house to change and pack. Then we were taken to breakfast. After a short breakfast we went into the van and were driven back to the hotel. This was a very fun experience for me and my family, that I will remember for quite sometime, if not forever.
Luang Prabang, Northern Laos
After a few days of recovery at “Mike’s house” in Vientiane our family of four was off to our next stop on our around the world adventure. North, to the city of Luang Prabang. We had planned for the city to become our base for four days, we ended up staying eight. So far, we tend to slow down rather than speed up.
The city and the surrounding area is home to about 50,000 people and until the communist takeover of the country in 1975 it was the seat of government and royal capital of the Kingdom of Laos.
The city is also home to a number of temples and monasteries so encountering groups of monks is a common occurrence. The old city sits on a peninsula between the Nam Khan and Mekong Rivers. Over the last eight to ten years it has become a more frequent stop for travelers who previously would skip northern Laos in their travels through Vietnam and northern Thailand. It seems as if nearly every resident has either opened a guest house, small shop, or restaurant. The ambiance is relaxed and the people are as friendly as anywhere we have been.
The city also has a few characters as well.
One of whom is Ruth Borthwick an Australian who runs a book exchange and one of the nicer restaurants in Luang Prabang along with a cooking school which we attended. Ruth’s uncle was the Australian Ambassador to Laos in the 1970s when Ruth’s parents were assassinated in a bus between Luang Prabang and Vientiane. One twist in the story is that her father was the twin brother of the ambassador. Of the 35 passengers on the ambushed bus only four were killed. It seems quite likely that the real target was the ambassador.
Ruth is a woman of strong opinion, many of which we agreed with while others we did not. It was an excellent experience for the boys to encounter someone who was of strong opinion and willing to engage in a discussion on the state of the world.
The book exchange is set up as a one-to-one trade with a small fee that goes towards putting books in Lao schools. Or, if one doesn’t have a book to exchange the books can be purchased for a reasonable price with the proceeds going towards school books. We left Ruth with all of the hard copy books we had devoured in China and tried to minimize the number of new ones we added to our packs.
The cooking class was excellent, as you can see from the photos. We met some great folks including a fun couple from Vermont. Colin was gung-ho from the start while Bryce was a bit hesitant at first and then stepped it up on the second dish. By the end of the second round of meals both boys were clearly in charge of our respective teams with Colin directing me as his “sous chef” and Bryce giving Aleix directions on what to do next.
Before we got to the cooking, we of course had to source ingredients. This involved a short ride to the market and a detailed tour of the market. As many of you know, Aleix and I have been vegan for the last few years but have abandoned that constraint (please don’t tell my cardiologist) for this trip.
A walk through the meat section of the market did push Aleix back towards the vegetarian end of the spectrum for several days. The photos don’t sufficiently reflect the variety of ingredients to be had and the sheer number of individual vendors.
Also in the photos above is a bamboo bridge across the Nam Khan river bridge, lit with a long white ribbon of lights at night. There is also a shot of it from the shore during the day. The bridge is put up at the end of the rainy season and replaces the 5 people at a time ferry boat that crosses the river during the rainy season. In the neighborhood across the river down a dark residential road past a temple is a wood fired pizza restaurant. You know you have arrived when you see the “pizza” sign in the front yard. The restaurant is around back in the rear of the house that doubles as an English language school. The owner is Canadian. He teaches school during the day and five nights a week cooks pizza and serves beer to customers who eat at tables in his garden. And, such is the reality of Southeast Asia.
Vientiane Laos
We arrived in Vientiane after 16 days in China. A few days before our departure from Beijing we decided that our time in Vientiane needed to be more recovery and less exploring. That decision led us to Mike and Xoukiet and their lovely home on the outskirts of Vientiane. I emailed Mike with short (24 hour) notice and he fired off a quick email indicating that he was accepting our AirBnB request. We would figure it out, that I should send the flight info and he would meet us at the airport and not to worry all would be well.
In fact, it was more than we could have expected. Mike met us at the airport, even though our flight was over two hours late. On the way back to his home he gave us a quick rundown on Lao history. Our original plan was to spend two nights, but if you elect to stay with Mike and Xoukiet, you will be sorely tempted to extend your stay. We stayed four days. We are a family of four (two boys age 16 and 13) traveling for a year and it was as if we had come to see an uncle that we hadn’t seen in a few years.
During those four days we went shopping for furniture and supplies with Mike, helped him set up an out building for an incoming intern from China, attended the “Wig Bizarre” (a fund raiser put on by the diplomatic community that included performances and food stalls,) and weathered an incredible monsoonal downpour while in their pool.
The boys spent part of each day catching up on homework, Mike’s house includes an upstairs area with a large table and white board. Colin has decided that math on a white board is definitely the way to go!
Mike engaged our sons in discussions about Lao history, our travels, and the challenges facing the world. Dinner each night was wonderful as new guests came and went. Mike’s famous gin and tonics (in my case I opted for vodka and tonic—a bad college experience is to blame) started the evening and Xuciet’s Lao meals were wonderful. She works for the United Nations and has her own powerful insights on a number of topics. Conversation flowed often late into the evening.
An incredible four days.
Mike and the boys continue to correspond about the state of the world, and how their generation might make a better go of it.
A Few Days out of the Cities in the Relative Quiet of Guilin and Yangshuo China
As we move around the world with our kids we have tried to intersperse times in big cities with time in the rural areas of the countries we visit. In the case of China we went from the intensity of Beijing, to the less frenetic city of X’ian and finally after a 19 hour train ride arrived in Guilin. From there we boarded a boat on the Li river to Yangshuo. This is a beautiful area of China. In fact, the back of one of the bills features an ink drawing of some of the karst mountains, formed when limestone and dolomite is eroded.
The Guilin area is known for its ‘better air quality’ but in our experience this was only in contrast to how bad it was elsewhere. The photos all benefited from the “dehaze” filter in the photo processing software (Adobe Lightroom.) It was certainly better than in Beijing and even Xian especially during a late afternoon hike in a light rain.
We spent several days at the Giggling Tree Guest House, an old farmhouse converted into a guest house by a Dutch couple. Last August I was standing in the dusty bar at Distrikt during Burning Man talking to a French TV producer who worked for National Geographic and had been a traveling producer for the TV show The Amazing Race. I mentioned that we were headed to China and she said one of her favorite places in Asia was the Giggling Tree Guest House, so we added it to our list. It was, indeed, a special place.
Amongst other unique things, they had put together a series of “flip” picture books for a number of hikes and bike rides in the area. We spent several hours wandering in the nearby hills armed only with our camera and a spiral bound collection of pictures indicating where to turn. Above is a picture of Bryce holding one of the pages indicating a left turn up a steep stone path marked by an angled tree!
We wandered through several small villages at a pace that was much slower than our experiences elsewhere in China.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving!
We headed out from our apartment in Bangkok in search of dinner earlier tonight. I had identified a nice vegetarian/vegan restaurant and based on the map it looked like a 20 minute walk. As is often the case with TripAdvisor, the maps are just plain wrong. We ended up at a cement transfer station with two friendly stray dogs and a night watchmen.
We turned around and headed the other direction and came upon a restaurant that seemed inviting. It is a restaurant based on Japanese barbecue called Shibuya Shabu. One orders plates of sliced meat (raw), raw seafood, etc. and then grills it over charcoal in a BBQ embedded in the center of the table. From time to time the staff changes out the charcoal and adjusts the height of the grill.
Instead of a vegetarian Thanksgiving we ended up with salmon, thin sliced pork, bacon, chicken, mushrooms and miso soup! Yet another lesson in being willing to adjust on the fly and enjoy where we are.
We had a long list of things to be thankful for. One that rang especially true was all of the great support and enthusiasm from all of you as we experience this adventure. No one has told us we are crazy (in our presence) and it feels great to have folks cheering us on. Thanks from all of us, we toasted you as we grilled our Thanksgiving feast.
