A KHMER RUIN
(KHMER TALES PART 5)
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1/17 We are in Aranya Prathet, Thailand on the border with Cambodia. How and why we are here is a bit of a story. First, I'll start off where I ended my last update and hopefully, will be able to type fast enough to get it all in!
A few people e-mailed and asked what happened with the monks we met in Vang Vieng that we promised to visit in Vientiane? January 4th, we rented bikes and found our way to their Wat. The monks all seemed happy that we came to visit. We spent some time talking and they gave us a tour of some of the Wat. This was probably restricted by Lois's presence. A woman is not allowed to enter some areas in the complex (they didn't mention this but we were both aware of it before going). They all promised to come visit us if they ever come to the United States and we left them with an English-Lao/Lao-English dictionary to help their language skillls. If we ever return to Laos, we will certainly check in with them. January 5 was a visit to the Revolutionary Museum in Vientiane. It has the history of Laos from ancient times, to the present, according to the current government. For me, the most interesting and striking part is Lao history from 1950 - 1980. A quick summary - the french colonized Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. A number of groups in Laos fought for independence. Ho Chi Minh and other french educated asians joined the communist party in France which supported their drive for independence (assuming the new governments would be communist). One could argue that France's colonization pushed these countries to communism as a way of fighting for independence. After independence from the french in 1954, there was over 20 years of civil war between the communists, supported by Northern Vietnam and the Chinese, and the US supported royalists. I didn't live or wasn't politically aware during those times, but I wonder what the US was doing involved in other countries' struggles. Yes, I know there was a cold war going on. The number of casualties and injuries caused by the war is very large. We literally bombed the hell out of parts of Laos and Unexploded Ordinance (UXO) are to this day killing and maiming people. I wonder about all the bombs we are dropping in Afghanistan and who's going to clean up the UXO there? Or all the other places we get involved in political battles... I also look at the current situation in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam and have to wonder what did we accomplish? I don't have a good answer or solution but thinking about this, especially in light of current world events, seems appropriate. We head down to the Mekong to watch the sunset. Many people are there, falang and Lao alike. We've tried to see sunsets a number of times, but have mostly had cloudy/hazy ones that weren't too impressive. This one made up for it. Big bright orange sun, clouds scattered through the sky taking on a red tinge as the sun sets. We see a number of stands along the river and decide to look for a good dinner spot. There is a row of about 30 restaurants with decks overlooking the river. It takes us 20 minutes to walk past them all looking for the perfect one for dinner. We find Mitaphan and walk onto the deck and sit at a table overlooking the river. On the other bank, we see the lights of Thailand. The tables have holes in the center with a sort of metal basket below the level of the table. We order our meals and then see the waitress bring out a bucket of red hot coals to a table and put it in the basket. Then I realize, this is like a Korean barbeque joint. Ever been to Ou Lae Oak or, my favorite Korean place in Virginia, Beewon? Same idea. They place a cone shaped cover over the coals and pour some water in. You cook greens in the water as it simmers and you put the meat/fish higher up on the cone to grill. Their translation for this is a "Grilled Silverside". Unfortunately, we discovered it after ordering our meal. Since it was our last night in Vientiane, I guess we'll have to return sometime to try it ourselves. 1/6 and we fly Lao Aviation to Pakse. They actually X-ray all checked luggage on domestic flights. We flew on an ATR-72 propeller plane that seats 80 people. One of you must be able to tell me how old they are and who made them...(turns out they are less than 10 years old and built by Aerospatiale) We survived the flight and from Pakse headed to Tad Lo "resort". Not sure what made it a resort, but we stayed in a room about 80 feet from the Tad Lo waterfall. They are about 150 feet wide and only 30 feet high, but have a pretty good roar. All I heard all night long was the falls. No roosters, no cars, no music, just waterfalls. While walking around the falls, I look to my right and see two elephants with someone riding them walking in our direction. I don't remember the last time I saw an elephant so up close and personal. I could have touched them, Lois did. But, we didn't go for a ride on them because someone (no names) thought it might be contributing to the "animal trade". We are on the "Bolivean Plateau" where Lao coffee is grown. There are bushes all over the place and everybody has some beans drying in their yard. We met an American woman (from Waverly, NY!) who is in Lao buying all natuaral coffee for an American company. She is essentially buying it a kilo at a time from many different families. Next is Champasak, the closest town to Wat Phou (pronounced poo), which is the first Khmer ruin we are seeing - and not until part 5 of Khmer tales! Champasak is right on the Mekong river, so it seems appropriate that we find a riverside guesthouse. (Well, actually, I had to walk 20 feet from my room to be at the riverbank.) The downside of this is that, of course, we had to get up to watch the sunrise over the Mekong. Not once, but twice! At 6:00AM. I thought I was supposed to be on vacation. At first, we thought it would be a bust. It looked like it was all cloudy on the horizon but at 6:27 am (precisely, according to a german friend), we saw the first sign of the sun. Just a little crescent sliver of bright orange appearing over the trees on the opposite shore. As the crescent got larger and created a bright beam of light, it was reflected by the seemingly still river. The only sounds we could hear were the crows of some roosters and the put-put from engines of a few early morning fishermen's boats. A half hour later, it had turned from a cool early morning into a bright, hot day. We rented bikes and headed out for Wat Phou. Originally a Hindu place of worship in the 5th-6th century AD, it was taken over by the Khmer empire and converted to a Buddhist holy site around the 12th century. We saw very little remains of the 6th century ruins except for a few brick walls. Ever hear a real estate agent say "location, location, location"? Well, I guess they've been saying it for a long time. The site starts at the base of a high mountain and follows the slope of the mountain up quite a ways. From the top of the ruins, at the "sanctuary" you can see the flat plain below with rice paddies and gardens all the way to the distant Mekong. The approach to the sanctuary is a 250 meter long terraced path, lined on both sides with stone lingas. There are two "palaces" one on each side of the path. All of the stairs, palaces, terraces, etc. from the 12th century site are of stone, quarried from the mountain itself. Walking around along the boulders that lay near the top of the site, you find many "works in progress". A boulder with the head of an elephant carved on it, another with a large crocodile. The best thing about the ruins themselves are the intricately carved stone lintels over the doorways. They depicts a number of scenes from religious history. However, all in all, while I like the lintels and the location, I didn't find this ruin particuarly impressive. It's obvious that not much has been spent on restoration. This will contrast greatly with what we see in Thailand... I think many Mayan and Incan ruins are much more impressive. Of course, this is not supposed to be one of the better Khmer ruins, just the best one in Laos. Can't wait for Ankor Wat... It's January 10th, we've been on the road for a little less than a month and it's been a while since my last haircut. Already tending toward shaggy, I am getting a little scary. Time for a haircut, Lao style. I tell the barber just to take off a little bit (noy noong). I was pretty sure he understood so I sat back and let him get to work. He took just a little bit off the top. When he started on my beard, before I could say anything, off it went. So, I am clean shaven and have a good haircut for 7,000 kip (70 cents). Well, that was 11 days ago, I'm not clean shaven anymore... 1/11 and we are in Si Phan Don (4,000 Islands). This is where the Mekong widens quite a bit and there are many, many islands (4,000, maybe?). Most of the larger islands seem to be inhabited. We stay on Don Khong in an excellent guesthouse that is, again, right on the Mekong. Meaning, of course, that we will be up for sunrise, again. The guesthouse has a restaurant in front of it, so we sit down, watch the river (which is a little more interesting, here, with all the islands) and hang out. Great way to kill an afternoon. We end up meeting and talking with a number of people who are staying in the guesthouse. I made up a list of all the different nationalities we have met in the past month: Lao, Thai, Swedish, Norwegian, Canadian, Danish, Greek, German, Swiss, French, Flemish/Belgian, Spanish, Polish, Dutch, English, Irish, Australian, New Zealander, Korean, Japanese, Israeli, Kenyan, Italian and American. Quite a schmorgasboard. We rent bikes and ride around the island (50 Km, my butt hurts!) on one-speeds. Luckily, it is reasonably flat. The most interesting part of the ride is when we get off the road and bike on the little dirt paths along the river that basically go through people's backyards. However, I get a flat. Uh-oh. Stop at a house and ask if the owner can fix the flat. He indicates yes and has his son go get his "tool box" - a plastic grocery bag with an assortment of broken down tools. A long steel rod, hammered flat at one end serves as a tire jack. A piece of hacksaw blade is used to roughen the inner tube and the patch so that the rubber cement will make it all adhere properly. The patch itself is a piece of an old inner tube. Quite a contrast to my flat repair kit I bought from Performance, but just as effective. 1/13 We head by river to the twin islands of Don Det/Don Khone. In a way, I think that Don Det has very little relation to Laos. It is an island where a huge number of foreigners go to relax and lay in hammocks by bamboo shacks on the river. Living here is extremely cheap. A room is $1, a meal $0.50. Some people spends weeks here and get by on less than $4/day. I am eating lunch in a restaurant and a Danish women there complains to me that Don Det has too many foreigners. Meanwhile, she is eating lunch with 4 other foreigners that she met within the past day or two... We are staying on Don Khone, which I think is similar to Don Det, but Lois points out that we actually stayed at a guesthouse in a village. She sat on the porch and watched people going about their business. Children biking to school, fishermen coming in with their catch etc. Don Khone is known for being one of the few places in the world where you can see the fresh water Irawaddy Dolphin. We get a boat and go out to see them. Unfortunately, it is a bit windy and the water is rough. We see... nothing. So, the boatman lands on a small island/large rock and we sit and wait. About 1 hour later, the wind dies off and we see them. Basically, just like a salt-water dolphin. We can say we saw a number of fins! For me, life here is more basic that I prefer. No electricity, murky Mekong river water for washing, etc. Time to head on. The plan had been to cross from this point into Cambodia by river. There is a border crossing that has been open for about a year. I know for a fact that people crossed it in November and December, from Laos into Cambodia. But... there is an election in Cambodia on Feb 3 and they have apparently closed the border crossing as of about January 1. We met people who had tried to cross and were turned back. The only other alternative is to head back to Pakse, cross into Thailand, go through Ubon Ratchatani, Buriram and Aranya Prathet and enter Cambodia at Poipet, near Siem Reap (Ankor Wat). 1/15 a long day of hard travelling. Boat from Don Khone to Nakasong, 9:00 bus which leaves at 10:00 and is packed to the gills to Pakse, tuk-tuk from bus station to market, share taxi to the border and minibus to Ubon Ratchatani, Thailand. About 10 hours in all and Lois, who has the flu, has held up like a trooper.Final Notes on Laos
Spent 27 days in Laos
| $441 | on food, accomodation & transport, excluding airfare | |
| $ 50 | on local crafts | |
| $ 63 | to replace broken Camera - should have bought that digital one... | |
| $193 | on tickets to Pakse | |
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| $747
| total expenditure in 27 days.
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