Beautiful Luang Prabang, Laos

Greetings all--

Sarah and I are playing catch-up with our email... It has been a few days since we've been online. So to continue the story from the last posting, we headed down to Luang Prabang from Luang Nam Tha on a bumpy, slow mountain road. We arrived late at night, but even then it was easy to see why the Lonely Planet guidebook describes Luang Prabang as a "tonic for the soul." The city is the old royal capitol of Laos, and has a lot of old, historical French colonial buildings and Buddhist wats stretched out on a peninsula between the Mekong River and a tributary river. The city is certainly geared up for tourism, but that doesn't dampen the feel of the place. We found a little guesthouse with a nice little room with private bath for 50,000 kip ($5.50) a night, and spent the next few days walking the streets and markets. At night, the main street came alive with a crafts market, where locals sell their beautiful work for amazingly cheap prices. We also found an awesome street vendor who had a vegetarian buffet (all you can pile onto one plate) for 5000 kip (about $.60). We ate there a couple times. The food has been great -- in Latin America street food always seems very questionable and is a good way to get sick, but here the food is fresh, tasty and clean. It's a nice change. Our other favorite food in Laos has been noodle soup. You are given a huge bowl of hot, steaming broth with noodles. spices, and a little meat in it along with a huge pile of fresh greens to dunk in the broth. Mmmm.....


Royal Palace, Luang Prabang

We did go on one outing to Tat Kuang Si, an amazing series of waterfalls with terraced edges and beautiful, milky blue water. The stream comes out of some limestone caves somewhere up higher and brings a lot of calcium carbonate down with it, which creates the draperies and terraces you expect inside caves. It was a great place to swim, and quite refreshing in the humid tropical heat. There were even a few birds around! I saw a Crimson Sunbird (awesome), Puff-throated Babbler, Grey-headed Canary-flycatcher, Long-tailed Sibia, and a Common Tailorbird, to name a few.


Tat Kuang Si waterfall, Laos


The best thing about French colonialism - baguette sandwiches!




The swimming hole, Tat Kuang Si waterfall

Back in Luang Prabang, we whiled away the hours by going on long walks to look at the royal palaces (the royal family was "exiled" in the 1970's) and the amazing temples. There were young, saffron-orange robed monks everywhere. I even sat in the internet cafe next to one! Many young Lao boys choose to be ordained as Thevavada Buddist monks for a few months (or up to three years) before continuing on with whatever else they choose to do. They sure make for an interesting sight as they walk the streets, work at the wats (temples), or (early in the morning) collect alms from the faithful.

Luang Prabang has a large, forested hill in the middle of town topped by a wat. On our last night in town we climbed up there for an awesome sunset view of the surrounding countryside, with green limestone mountains rising in all directions and the Big Muddy (Mekong River) shimmering below us.

-Matt!

Seein' the Laos countryside from the back of a Hog (or Japanese moped thing, anyway)

Hi all--

The day after our adventure on the river, we found a place to rent a small motorbike in Luang Nam Tha. It was ridiculously cheap at 40,000 kip (~$4.50) a day, so we headed out of town in several directions to see the countryside. Alright, I admit it.... it didn't start out as smoothly as I want to make it sound. You see, I'd never driven a motorcycle before. The very poor directions I received from the guy renting the bikes (language barrier, you see) helped a little, but it took some practice to make it work somewhat well. Everyone around here zips around on these things like they've been driving them since they were 3 (and some have been), but for a big clumsy foreigner it was a little different. Anyway, I eventually got the hang of it, and off we went. Sarah is very trusting.... =)


Matt! at Wat Ban Vieng Tai, Luang Nam Tha

We checked out several of the nearby Wats (Buddhist temples). They are usually placed in a prominent location on a hill, so they have great views of the surrounding area. The second Wat we visited, That Phum Phuk, had an awesome long staircase with dragons for each hand rail -- head at the bottom and tail at the top. We spent a long time up there looking out over the rice paddies and fields. The clouds building behind us finally started some pretty ominous rumbling, so we booked it back the 10 kilometers to town anticipating some rain. We were disappointed in that respect, but it turned out to be a beautiful evening.

One of the best things about Laos so far has been the lack of traffic. I walked along the main highway yesterday for 30 minutes and wasn't passed by a single car or truck -- only a couple bikes. It really is amazing, especially after countries like China and most Latin American countries where the traffic is non-stop, scary, and doesn't pay attention to pedestrians. So Laos seemed like a good place to rent the bike for that reason, too.


Cruisin' in Laos



Wat That Phum Phuk



Yesterday was a big travel day, so not much to report there. We missed the direct bus to Luang Prabang (it left 45 minutes early -- go figure), so we had to wait around for 3 hours for another bus going to a stop a few hours down the road and then catch another from there. The ride was supposed to take 10 - 11 hours, but only covered a ridiculously short distance on the map. Once we got underway it was easy to see why. We were on the main highway, which was a paved road only in the vaguest of sense -- a little bit of pavement every once in a while, otherwise all huge potholes and rocks. Plus, the bus had no shocks and we were sitting in the back. We almost hit the roof a couple of times! Always an adventure in places like this.... Needless to say, we were glad to get out of that bus. The second bus was equally bad, but the road was a tad better and we were able to drive faster.

We didn't arrive in Luang Prabang until about 11pm, so we've spent most of today hanging out and walking around. I'll write more about this beautiful town tomorrow or the next day.

Oh! I added a few photos to the posts on Dali, China and River Runnin'. Check 'em out!

Later!
Matt!

River Runnin' on the Nam Ha River

Hi folks-

We got back last night from a great couple of days in Nam Ha National Protected Area. We managed to scrounge up a group (OK, more like we were scrounged ourselves) big enough to make the cost of this guided trip really reasonable. There were 8 of us; Sarah and I, a pair from Quebec, a guy from Poland, a girl from Sweden, and a pair from England (well, one of them was technically from the Isle of Man, but that's close enough to England). The hardest accent of the entire group to understand was the guy from Northeast England. =)




Northern Laos


We loaded up into a truck and drove about 20 kilometers out of town, where we were dropped off on the side of the road by a small village. The people living here are Lenten, an ethnic group that emigrated to the areas from Yunnan China a few hundred years ago. It was your typical third world village scene; chickens, naked children, thatched huts, dogs, and cattle. An old woman (at least I'm assuming she was old -- village life is pretty hard on a body) was making paper out of bamboo pulp, so that was neat. From there we hiked up the mountain side, passing through hillsides of slash and burn agriculture -- some fairly fresh, with charred trunks of trees still littering the fields. The main crops up in the hills seem to be corn, cotton, indigo, and various fruit or sap producing trees.


Bamboo paper making, Khmu village, Laos

We slowly left behind the farmed hillsides and entered into secondary forest filled with bamboo and tall but skinny trees. Bird life in here was vocal but very obviously hidden. The hike continued steadily upward for a few hours until we reached the ridge (and older forest). Here the guides set out a Lao lunch feast, all laid out on banana leaves cut from the jungle. Everyone got a packet of sticky rice wrapped in a banana leaf, and the meal was eaten with our hands from communal piles on the "table". There was an awesome salsa (the Lao know how to do spicy), a squash dish, steamed greens with ginger, and dried strips of water buffalo meat. It was an awesome meal! After doing the dishes (i.e. tossing the banana leaves back into the jungle), we continued down the other side of the ridge, eventually coming out of the jungle at a little village along the Nam Ha River and within the protected area. This was a Khmu village, whose ancestors hail from Cambodia. There weren't a lot of villagers living in the village, as they have been slowly been moving to a newer village established downstream where the Lao government built a school. All of the villages within the National Protected Area are in charge of managing their area, with the intention of somewhat sustainably living off the land without deforesting it and killing all the animals. They also benefit directly from visits like ours, since we spent the night in their "lodge" (bamboo hut). Part of our fees for the trek go directly to the village. We spent the afternoon swimming in the river and hanging out with the kids and pot-bellied pigs. I attempted some pathetically bad bird watching, but the real highlight of the evening was the dinner; a similar affair to the lunch but prepared by the villagers over the course of three hours. This great meal was followed by some lao lao (rice whiskey) shots handed out by the village chief. It actually tasted pretty good! Especially the fifth shot.... =)

A Lao lunch!





Sarah at our home for the night

We slept on the floor under mosquito nets and woke early. The villagers and livestock were awake and noisy by 5am, but the foreigners slept in; Sarah and I were the first up by 6am. Once again I attempted to birdwatch, but ended up very frustrated. I expected your typical difficult jungle birding, but wasn't prepared for seeing almost nothing at all (literally) for the whole first day and the next morning. Grrr.... I think part of the problem is the season. Birds are really hunkered down on nests or singing from deep in the brush.


Lenten children, Laos




After breakfast we bid farewell to the villagers and headed off downstream in the kayaks. The water was fantastic -- easy kayaking along a beautiful river. We stopped briefly at another Lenten village where we did a lot of standing around -- we're still not sure what that was about. My camera also decided to break, so I'll have to get a new one or get it fixed soon. Once back on the water, the forest quickly closed in, and for 15 kilometers we paddled through undisturbed jungle. The steep slopes of the surrounding mountains were covered in huge trees and amazing bamboo that climbed the tree trunks and then cascaded down in beautiful spills of greenery. Pretty fantastic. The water was pretty sedate -- there were quite a few small rapids, but nothing big. Sarah had a great time in her kayak. I could tell by the big grin on her face she was loving the ride. We swam a couple times in calm stretches. During the lunch break I finally ended up with a land leech on my foot! Sarah doesn't think these are nearly as big a deal as I do, but I was pleasantly surprised that there weren't many on our trek. Yuck!




Water Buffalo in the Nam Ha River


When we finally left the park, we landed at a village near a dirt road and took that back into town. It was great to get back and take a shower and wash some clothes in the sink. We drank a nice cold, big bottle of Beerlao with our dinner and celebrated our trip (and the fact that we don't live in villages like we visited....).




Our traveling companion, Gandalf the Pastel


I did end up seeing a few birds, such as a Besra (a hawk), Black-crested Bulbul, White-rumped Munia, Green-billed Malkoha, Blyth's Kingfisher, Marron Oriole, White-rumped Magpie, Little Spiderhunter, and Slaty-backed Forktail. That's literally about it. Beautiful, but not plentiful.


-Matt!

China, in hindsight

Hi all--

Well, after a marathon 24 hours of buses, tuk tuks (bicycle taxis), etc, we arrived in Luang Nam Tha, Laos. Our sleeper bus proved to be quite a sight better than our train experience, with beds that we could (almost) stretch completely out in. Sarah especially seemed to enjoy it. She'd been anticipating another very rough night, but it wasn't bad at all. We did make a couple inexplicable 30 minute stops where everyone just stood around smoking, but other than that, things went smoothly. Though the bus driver seemed to be avoiding the better and straighter highway in favor of very bumpy and curvy side roads at times.... maybe to avoid toll booths? I'm not sure.

We were on the sleeper bus from Dali for 13 hours, got off in Jinghong, bought some dumplings for breakfast, got on another bus for 4 hours to Mengla, rode in the back of a bicycle across town, got on another bus to Boten at the border, spent an hour doing Visa and immigration stuff, rode a motorbike across the official border, then caught a mini-van from Mohan, Laos, to Puang Nam Tha (2 hours). Whew! I was amazed at the large superhighway that is mainly completed heading down to (and through) the border. There were sections that were open and went through tunnel after tunnel through the mountains, while other sections were still being built (where we took curvy older roads). This massive infrastructure build-up by China is to increase trade and commerce with Thailand, and Laos is sort of gettng swept along since it lies between the two.

I was feeling like I wasn't quite ready to leave China, but once we got on the move, it made sense to get going. Now that I'm in Laos, I'm glad we made the change. China was quite an experience and I'm glad we went, but the feeling here in SE Asia is different and better. It's also cheaper!

Looking back at China, Sarah and I both agreed that the things we saw there (Great Wall, Lijiang, and Tiger Leaping Gorge in particular) we couldn't experience any other way, and for that reason alone were worth the trip. Things we won't miss about China are the incessant smoking in restaurants and on public transport, the nasty bathroom trenches (though these will continue in SE Asia), the heavy smog in the central areas of the country, and for the most part, the food. Things we will miss are the genuine smiles and hellos people give out so freely, the "Chinglish" translations (I'll give you an example later), the amazing mountains in the Yunnan Province, and our days in Lijiang, Xi'an, and on the gorge trek. Beijing was also a highlight for its alleyways (hutongs) and some of its sights.

It was interesting being an American in China. We think of China as a communist country, but in many ways it is one of the most capitalist countries in existence. I have never before experienced the massive build-up that a lot of China is currently undergoing -- with massive shopping malls, grocery stores, skyscrapers, etc etc etc etc going up around every corner. China really does seem to be pushing its 1.3 billion people steadily toward the "American Dream", with cell phones and expensive cars and designer clothes. This lifestyle is unsustainable enough with the 300 million Americans trying for it. The Chinese Dragon is rearing its head. The next few decades will be interesting, to say the least. Meanwhile, the government is able to restrict freedoms that Americans take for granted, like the freedom of speech (television and the Internet to name a couple examples). It's a pretty intriguing society that can restrict basic liberties such as freedom of speech while at the same time giving its people all the consumer goods they could possibly want. Hmmm..... just the musings of a wandering mind.

It's currently raining like mad here in Luang Nam Tha. The clouds and humidity were building all day and finally decided to dump it all in the last 20 minutes. I think this is the sort of pattern we should expect for the next couple months, as we travel through Southeast Asia and into Nepal and India.

We're going to be on a trek in the mountains for the next couple of days. We start out tomorrow with a 6 hour hike into Nam Ha National Protected Area, and will spend the night in a village. The next day we're going to kayak down the Nam Ha river and will be back in town late in the afternoon. There's a rumor there might be good birds around, too. =) I did see two Cinnamon Bittern, some kind of snipe, and some Scaly-breasted Munias today, by the way.

In signing off, I promised a little "Chinglish". This is from a package of "birdy taste broad beans" that I bought (they were gross): "Storage Method: Defend heat, defend tide, defend to squeeze." Got it? Now you know how to store this product! Here's another example that my friend Gordon sent me: http://www.engrish.com/detail.php?imagename=toilet-beard-know.jpg&category=CHINGLISH&date=2007-11-14

Alrighty. Love to you all! Off to walk back to the guesthouse in the rain!

-Matt!

Dali, Yunnan Province

From Tiger Leaping Gorge, we headed back to Lijiang for another night, then hopped on a bus bound for Dali. Dali is another tourist city like Lijiang, but doesn't feel nearly as genuine or real. A lot of it has been rebuilt in the old style to attract tourists. It's pretty enough, but after Lijiang it falls a little flat. Perhaps we should have gone here first! People here are more aggressive with selling whatever it is they are trying to sell, which is irritating. This is also the first place in China that we have been constantly approached by locals (always older women) trying to sell us "smoka the ganja?". Pot grows as a weed all over around here, so it's no wonder why someone had the thought to sell it to foreigners. No thanks on that one. Chinese prison doesn't sound too fun to me.

Evening by the North pond


South Gate all lit up


All this being said, Dali is a nice enough place, and we spent much of the day wandering around the back streets and in the local vegetable market. There are a lot of yummy things for sale here, including live frogs, eels, lamprey, catfish, larvae, snakes and snails. Apparently all of these are pretty tasty, but Sarah hasn't convinced me to try any yet. Though the larvae kebobs do look pretty enticing....

We're going to spend tomorrow morning exploring the edges of Lake Erhai Hu and adjacent villages and rice paddies by bicycle. The valley the city is located in is gorgeous, green and surrounded by big mountains with temples and pagodas, so I'm sure we'll find something interesting to see. On the bus ride in yesterday, I was happy to see my first "waterbirds" of the trip, including Pheasant-tailed Jacana and several species of egrets. An exciting surprise was a Common Hoopoe flying across the road. For all you non-birders, you should do a Google Image Search for this bird. It's pretty awesome.




We have a 15-hour sleeper bus ride out of here tomorrow evening. We're booked for the "beds" on the seond deck. I don't even think we can stand up! Should be interesting. We've decided to skip Kunming and head straight down to Jinghong, a tropical town right on the border of Burma and Laos. We expect to cross into Laos a couple days from now. We've enjoyed the cool temperatures thus far, and I know we'll look back on them with longing after a few weeks in the steamy tropics. That being said though, we're really excited to get into Southeast Asia. Onward to adventure!

-Matt!

Yunnan Province -- Lijiang and Tiger Leaping Gorge

Greetings from beautiful Yunnan Province! We've finally left the smog and big cities behind and have found a beautiful, cool, green, mountainous place in China. We can (literally) breathe better here. As I mentioned in the last post, we flew into Lijiang at night and so didn't get a taste of the area until the morning. Lijiang is the "stronghold" of the Naxi culture, a small ethnic group in this area with distinct dress, culture, writing, and architecture. In fact, Naxi is the only written language still in use in the world that uses hieroglyphics! Naxi buildings are made of stone and wood, and have graceful, curved roofs made of slate tiles. Old town Lijiang is designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, and it was easy to see why. It's probably the most beautiful city we've ever seen -- trumping other amazing old cities like Antigua (Guatemala), Cuzco (Peru), and Santa Fe, NM. The small alleyways are completely paved with rock blocks, and wind around branches of a stream. Only foot traffic is allowed, and the alleys splay out in interesting directions, making it a delight to get lost in. There are hordes of Chinese tourists here, but that hardly detracts from the place. What a treat to spend a few days here.

One of the other reasons to visit this part of China is to trek Tiger Leaping Gorge, one of the deepest gorges in the world. From the towering peaks on each side, steep cliffs drop a staggering 3900 meters (12,500 feet) to the raging river at the bottom. The Grand Canyon is only about 5000 feet deep.... It really has to be seen to be believed. A tiger supposedly leapt across the river in the gorge back in the day, and that's how it got its name. The trek starts in a little village called Qiaotou and gradually makes its way up to about 3000 feet above the river, passing through scrub, forest, small villages, and terraced crops all clinging to the steep slope. Occasionally, we could catch glimpses downstream and see the edge of the Tibetan Plateau rising toward Llasa and the Himalayas. There were parts of the trail that were quite challenging (we'll remember the "24 Bends" for a long time), but by the end of the day we'd reached a village called Bendiwan, almost 20 kilometers down the trail. A local has tuned his home into a small guesthouse called the Halfway Lodge, and our cheap, nice room had a million dollar view. The cliffs across the way were over 5000 feet high and had huge waterfalls cascading down them. As we ate dinner, the almost-full moon rose between the jagged peaks. We lucked out with weather, since it had been very rainy for the last few days. Most of our hike the first day was beautiful and cool -- with one 20-minute hard downpour (thankfully) right after we finished the 24 Bends. During the night the clouds moved in and it rained hard for several hours. This helped us make the decision to take the trail from the village down to the road at the bottom of the canyon and catch a ride out, since these kind of rains frequently wash out the road a little further up. We ran the risk of getting stuck or having to hike all the way back out...

Now for a few bird sightings, since up until now the birding has been so poor. Lijiang itself proved to be pretty birdy. A few birds here included White Wagtail, Black-throated Tit, Oriental Magpie-Robin, Black-winged Cuckoo-shrike, Japanese White-eye, Little Grebe, Black-headed Sibia, to name a few. Tiger Leaping Gorge proved to be great for birds as well. Some I saw here included Grandala, Daurian Jackdaw, Blue Rock Thrush, Scaly Thrush, Sooty-headed Bulbul, Black Bulbul (both the black headed and white headed forms), Godlewski's Sparrow, Robin Accentor, Grey Bushchat, and Wedge-tailed Green Pigeon. The green pigeon was especially awesome. Sarah has proved to have both a better spotting eye than me and good attention to field marks, so she's helped me find quite a few of the species.

All for now! Thanks!
-Matt!

Xi'an and the Terracota Warriors

Our next stop was Xi'an, the former capitol of the Chinese emperors and a damn fine city nowadays. It is certainly a big city (the size of Phoenix), but the central area (surrounded by an intact, huge ancient wall was really fun to spend time in. Most of the old buildings have disappeared and been replaced by huge shopping malls and hotels, but there were many side streets lined with huge trees, as well as parks and walking areas. We took a stroll along the park just outside of the wall one evening and were treated to many, many Chinese out using the park's exercise equipment (including stationary bikes!). Others (especially older women) were simply dancing around to the somewhat traditional music coming from across the creek. Many of the old temples are still in place, such as the Bell and Drum Towers (which announce dawn and dusk with -- you guessed it -- either bells or drums) and several pagodas. There is a mosque in the Muslim Quarter that looks very, very Chinese. The Muslim Quarter was one of the best places to wander around, with close streets, trees, food vendors, and lots of activity. We ate in a little mom and pop place and had yangrou paomo, a traditional Muslim dish from the area. It is a stew made with small bread dumplings, noodles, mutton, and broth. We both thought it was tasty, but I was especially effusive about it. Yum!


One of the primary reasons for coming to Xi'an was to visit the world-famous Terracota Warriors. It was pretty mind-boggling seeing the excavations and the thousands of life-size warriors and horses that were buried there. They were constructed for Emperor Qin Shi Huang over two thousand years ago, most likely so he would still have a standing army when he continued his reign in the next life. We'd been warned that the Warriors are a bit of a let down after so much hype over the years, so we were prepared and had a good time with it. We spent the day with Christina from Mexico, whose enthusiasm for attempting to speak Chinese was engaging and came at a good time for us, since we were still in the hesitant, culture shock mode. We now have a new perspective and are ready for the long-haul!


Yesterday we went to the airport in Xi'an to fly to Lijiang, Yunnan Province, the next stop on our itinerary. When we arrived, we discovered that the flight we had booked either didn't actually exist or was cancelled (depending on who you asked). It was a little stressful and chaotic, but we did eventually make it to Lijiang around midnight -- with our bags! Even though we have tiny packs, they still made us check them since they don't allow any liquids through and have a 5 kilo weight limit for carry-ons. Oh well.

We're in Lijiang now (wow! what a beautiful place!). I'll write more from here in a few days. We're going to hike Leaping Tiger Gorge for the next couple of days. I'm sure we'll have plenty more to tell after that!

-matt!