Trip report laos by way of bangkok

The_Traveler · Feb 20, 2015

It was a portrai but I can't access it now with the iPad ( damn ipad ) .
I did get a couple of shots of the elephant as they went by; they left football size evidence of their passage that we skipped around.

After a Bone-jarring trip in a minibus with 14 passengers (170 km in 4.5 hours) we arrived in Luang Prabang which is as much like the rest of Laos as Manhattan, nyc is like Manhattan, Kansas.
A few days ago, much further north, we had had lunch with a truly great English couple. They were leaving that day and the man inadvertently left his jacket behind.
In anticipation of contacting him when we returned to US, we took the jacket. Two days and several hundred km later, first steps out of the hotel and we run into them having lunch before going to the plane. Great coincidence

snowbear · Feb 20, 2015

Sounds like a great time. We're having record cold temps in DC metro, so you are winning!

pgriz said:
Mass wins. Always.

Sometimes finesse will win, at least in ice hockey.

NancyMoranG · Feb 20, 2015

Glad you are feeling great. After these bumpy rides, I would be body sore!
Enjoying your posts, thanks.
Nancy

pgriz · Feb 20, 2015

snowbear said:
Sounds like a great time. We're having record cold temps in DC metro, so you are winning!

pgriz said:

Mass wins. Always.

Click to expand...

Sometimes finesse will win, at least in ice hockey.

Agreed, that would certainly be one exception to the rule. Another exception would be judo, where we were taught to use the opponent's mass against them. But when it comes to basic collision (whether car, truck, pedestrian, boat, animal, or planetary bodies), the rule holds.

Lew, really looking forward to your documentary.

The_Traveler · Feb 21, 2015

Second day in Luang Prabang, which has changed dramatically since I was here in 2007. Many more higher end shops, restaurants and hotels. Streets teem with tourists; chinese and Vietnamese here celebrating their respective new year. Vietnamese, and Chinese are both tonal language and the conversations seem to contrast with the more boring Lao and European languages. Most European tourists are French with a sprinkle of German, Dutch, Australians with the very occasional american - north or south.
Lodging goes from low end guesthouses ( although most of them are gone) to 3 or 400 dollar a night beauties. Food is much more expensive than n the north but one can still find $2 entrees
; in fact there is a 10,000 kip buffet in the night market ($1.25), up from 8,000 in 2007. We ate sturdy breakfast and lunch and so for supper I had a chocolate croissant and a diet coke ( pain au chocolate et Coke light, s'il voussoirs plait) at an expensive patisserie at the ritzy end of town.
I am staying in a lovely guesthouse in the midle range; the owner is an ex monk and his wife is a totally gorgeous, totally sweet Lao woman.
We didn't do much but walk around and enjoy the sights while ignoring the other tourists, managing to walk 8+ miles and drink a lot of water and some Beer Lao.
One more day here then a couple of days in bangkok and home to freezing weather and digging me car out.

The_Traveler · Feb 22, 2015

Last night in Luang Prabang and celebrated by going to dinner at, arguably, the second most exclusive restaurant there. (The most renown is the three nagas ) .
We got the only unreserved table and after pre-dinner drinks, had Aubergine Salad, Bufalo cheeks and papaya salaid and roast duck with different salad. Wonderful, elegant meal in lovely place with great service. The bill came to just over the equivalent of $40.
Off to bangkok tomorrow.
After 3 weeks of carrying a camera or two every waking second, I am happy to put them away for a while.

snowbear · Feb 22, 2015

It sounds wonderful, Lew.

The_Traveler · Feb 23, 2015

Now in Bangkok for a couple of days.
Picked a hotel on tripadvisor and checked in to find an exquisite room on the club floor.
Almost as nice as the Peninsula Hotel and a third of the price.
Large, furnished with everything I could want and, for some reason, all sorts of free goodies.
Went out to lunch and, within the space of a short block, bumped into two of the most beautiful women I've ever seen
Truly, lowland Thai women are the most beautiful women in the world to western eyes.
Have a day to rest and shop and get clean after 3 weeks of not-so-hot or plentiful showers.
Laos was great but tiring.

48 hours from now I will be leaving for airport and a plane for long trip back.
7 hours to Dubai, a 2 hour layover, then 14 hours to Washington and about 3000 pictures

Lew

mmaria · Feb 23, 2015

just a

for the great time you're having!

The_Traveler · Mar 19, 2015

I thought I might append this off-topic picture here.

In 2007, I met this man in a village called Nong Khiaw in Laos. We talked and he invited me to his home for a baci ceremony that I wrote about here (most of the way down the page)

Now, 8 years later I returned to the village with a print of this picture and was able to find him.
He invited me and my traveling partner to another ceremony.

Note the lack of utensils and plates for individuals (which were in evidence only for soup)
After the man at my immediate left said some prayers, everyone put pieces of food in my hand for me to eat, more prayers and then a great surge of tying strings around our wrists. Note that the man second from my left is my friend from 8 years before.
The lack of light is not an exposure issue.