Out of here

It poured rain last night and rained some on the way to the airport, but now it's just partly cloudy. The hotel we stayed in is right across the street from Wat Pho, where I took this photo of a Buddha image. Normally that would be a great location but that part of town is closed down today for ceremonies leading up to the cremation of the former king. Our taxi driver showed up really early so he would be able to get past the police barricades. All the sidewalks were recently pressure washed and the walls were all newly painted white.

Now we are about to board our flight to Taipei, so I'll close. Thanks to everyone who commented on the blog!

A tuktuk

Or, a tuk-tuk. They are like mini taxis and cost a negotiated price. The ones in Thailand are fairly quiet and have reasonably quiet motors. The ones in Cambodia are small motorcycles with the passenger section fastened to what should be the passenger seat on the motorcycle.

The back of a sangtheuw.

Sangtheuw

Or, a red truck. The bed of the truck has seats running down both sides of it. Passengers enter from the rear. They run on semi-fixed routes and cost from 60 cents to a dollar per person, depending on the distance traveled.

Men's

Just in case you aren't quite clear about what"Men's" means.

Spirit houses

Every piece of property in this part of Asia has a spirit house on it. Some of them have little figures in them, some are empty. Some have offerings placed on them and some seem to be pretty much ignored, but they are everywhere. Big hotels and government buildings have very elaborate spirit houses, small temples almost. If I remember correctly, the purpose of the houses is the placate the spirits of the land for having been disturbed.

Temples and chedis (stupas)

Tour

We are in Chiang Mai now, the last stop before Bangkok and our flight home. At the moment we are in a van with ten other tourists, heading to Doi Inthanon National Park, home of the highest peak in Thailand. We wanted to get out of town for a day and this was the path of least resistance.
The road quickly changed from tight, crowded streets to a big highway. Lots of traffic, people selling things from the side of the road and, of course, tropical foliage everywhere. The Thais drive on the left, just like in Singapore and Malaysia.
Yesterday we walked in the old part of Chiang Mai, visiting temples and a museum and an exhibit of textile art made by various hill tribes. As we walked, we passed schools and government compounds with walls around them and big areas of lawn and huge trees. Some buildings were built before the days of air conditioning, so they had big windows with shutters on them. It all made me feel nostalgic for the 60s in Singapore.

A word about the photos I post. They are all taken with my phone and some of them were stylized by Google. I am not able to get Blogger to consistently show photos and have been frustrated more than once by writing a post and then having it disappear. It seems to depend somewhat on how good my data signal is. At any rate, I will post this and then try to upload some photos.

Lao Lu Lodge

The breakfast area.

Nagas

These naga heads are at the end of one of the sides of the stairs approaching the royal wat. We have seen similar stairs going to temples in quite a few places in SE Asia.

Lunch

$1.75

Luang Prabang street

The wat at the palace

The view from Mt. Phu Si

We climbed the many steps up Mt. Phu Si yesterday evening to see this view. I didn't try it last year because of my sore leg I got at Borobudur, so it was a new experience for both of us. It's not really a mountain, just a hill, but there are a lot of steps on the way to the top.

This morning I walked by myself to Wat Xien Thian (sp?) to take some photos before the crowds arrived. I managed to be the first one in, so I could frame my shots as I saw fit.

Luang Prabang

We arrived in Luang Prabang last night and we are glad to be here. The old part of the city is a UNESCO World Heritage site, full of beautiful old temples and French colonial buildings. I chose the same hotel I stayed in last year and we were given the same room as I had last time!

It rained hard while we were sleeping but has cleared up now. After breakfast we strolled along the street that runs beside the Mekong River and visited a wat that was built in 1560. We then turned around and walked up the main road, visiting shops and more wats. Now we are resting so we can climb Mt. Phu Si this evening.

Impressions of Hanoi

As I mentioned earlier, we really enjoyed our stay in Hanoi. Our hotel was near Hoan Kiem Lake and a short walk from the old quarter. Those two areas have a lot of tourist infrastructure but also lots of ordinary Vietnamese shops and restaurants. Traffic is heavy and people pretty much drive where they please. Pedestrians are, as usual, at the bottom of the pecking order. Drivers will try to avoid you when you are crossing the street if you walk slowly and steadily. I honestly think the best way to cross a street would be to close your eyes and just walk, but I didn't try it. A motorcycle grazed my leg when we were walking in the rain, but the rider apologized and I wasn't hurt. Sidewalks are usually blocked with parked motorcycles, food stalls and who knows what else, so people walk on the edge of the street.

We went to a market (of course) but didn't buy anything. We visited old temples (of course) and I realized how ignorant I am about Vietnamese religion. The temples were really pretty, though. Some of the main offerings were Coca Cola, beer and chocolate snack cakes. I am taking a lot of photos and having a little of fun doing that.

In our cabin

Barely room to turn around. The scenery and food were incredible.

Old house in Hanoi

Old House in Hanoi

Leaving Hanoi

We will leave Hanoi this evening but we have enjoyed our time here and on the one night cruise we took on Bai Tu Long Bay. I will write more later.

Hanoi rain

We arrived in Hanoi last night. We flew from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City, where we got our visas for Vietnam and changed planes and airlines to fly to Hanoi. It was raining when we arrived and has been raining since then.

We are staying in a pleasant hotel near the Old Quarter, with lots of other travelers nearby. After breakfast this morning we arranged for a trip to Halong Bay for this coming Friday. Laurie was smart enough to pack a poncho and I borrowed an umbrella from the hotel so we could go out and see some of the city.

We walked for a while and then stopped by a spa that was recommended by the hotel, where we both got a massage. We then had lunch and set out to complete the walking tour we started in the morning. We had just seen an old gate to the city when the skies decided to show us what a  real tropical rain could be like. It absolutely poured for over half an hour, while we stood under the awning in front of a shop. It finally let up enough for us to walk back to the hotel.

Tomorrow we hope to sample some more of the great food and walk around again.

Mekong sunset

Taken from a boat on the Mekong river, with Phnom Penh under the sunset. Mei and Dan booked a boat and we cruised slowly down the Tonle Sap to its confluence with the Mekong. We were lucky and had a beautiful sunset.

The view from our hotel

We are enjoying our stay in Phnom Penh. Our hotel is called Villa Langka after the wat across the lane, Wat Langka. Wat means temple.

Yesterday we visited Wat Phnom, which gives the city its name. Penh means hill and Lady Phnom founded the wat on the hill. Then we went to a market that is nicknamed the Russian market because Russians did a lot of shopping there. It was hot and crowded but we (Laurie) did some shopping and we ate lunch there. In the evening we had supper with Mei Castor and her husband Dan, which was a real treat. Mei lived in the hostel my mother ran in Singapore and it was fun to visit with her and Dan.

This morning we took a tuktuk to the palace to see the sights. A highlight was a temple that is floored with silver tiles. That was followed by a visit to the national museum, where we saw statues from the Angkor era.

The view from our tuk tuk

We are in Phnom Penh. This was taken from the tuk tuk on the way to our hotel. Lots of motorcycles and cars on the road here.

I wrote a longer post yesterday about our morning in Bangkok, but couldn't get it to upload. We went to Chatuchuk weekend market and then had lunch at a stall across from our hotel. I tried to get a good picture of the very forward rat there but the cook shooed it away.

Our hotel here is across from a large temple. We are finishing breakfast and then will decide how to spend our day.

Ronald McDonald

He is greeting customers with a wai, the Thai form of greeting.

Ayutthaya temple

Lunch

Taking photos at Ayutthaya

We got to sleep at 2:30 this morning.

Bangkok has two international airports, one for major airlines and one for discount airlines. We arrived at 12:30 this morning at the major one and took a cab to our hotel, which is beside the minor one. Laurie woke up early this morning but was able to get back to sleep and we both got up at 11:00.
There is an instrument of torture my side of the bed, a small electronic box. It has multiple buttons, some of which control the lights, some signal to have the room made up or "do not disturb", and one controls a very shrill alarm. A previous occupant left the alarm set for 7:00 this morning. I thought the world was coming to an end. I punched random buttons but couldn't get the thing to stop shrieking until I woke up enough to put on my glasses so I could read the functions of the various buttons.
We took a leisurely hour to make tea and coffee, showered and walked across the street for lunch at a noodle stand. The proprietor spoke enough English to take our order (there was no menu) and we both had a very tasty bowl of soup. Two soups and a bottle of water came to 70 baht, about $2.20.
After lunch we walked across another road to the train station and paid 30 cents apiece to ride 45 minutes north to Ayuttha. Ayuttha used to be the capital of the Thai kingdom and the ruins are mostly ancient temples. We hired a tuktuk to take us around the sites, finishing up at the spot where I took this photo. We are now on the train heading back to our hotel.

Taipei airport

Laurie is posing with Hello Kitty here in the airport. We had an uneventful flight from LA, nearly 15 hours on the plane with 14 of them in the air. Our layover here is around five hours, then roughly four hours on to Bangkok, where we'll arrive at 12:30 a.m. Things get better after that.

Off to Asia

We're sitting on the EVA Airlines plane, waiting to take off for Taipei. Then a three hour layover and on to Bangkok. We spent last night at a hotel near LAX and had supper at a Mexican restaurant across the street from the hotel. Worst Mexican food I ever had - mine was dry and tasteless and Laurie's was cold.

Not an exciting post, I know, but I wanted to write something before we left the States.

I see in the Los Angeles Times that Kip Thorne was one of this year's winners of the Nobel prize for physics this year. What a guy he is - very deserving of the prize.

Photos from 2015

Miscellaneous photos from our trip to Tibet and Thailand in 2015
The first photos are from the flagpole raising ceremony at Tarboche.

There's something happening here

Two moms with two kids

The top of the flagpole

The man sitting on the pole is adding prayer flags to it

Mt. Kailash in the background

A difference in rooms. We prefer hot water, a flush toilet and clean sheets, but sometimes...

A "guesthouse" room on the kora around Mt. Kailash. Laurie and I had the room to ourselves, but, if it had been busy, we would have shared with strangers.

A room at the Vieng Mantra hotel in Chiang Mai, Thailand, a few days later.

Waiting for dark to take photos of the Potala Palace in Lhasa. One or two other people had the same idea.

That's it for this post. I wanted to share a few pictures from our trip to Tibet because I couldn't post from China.

Off again

Laur and I are heading out again, this time for what seems like it will be a frenzied three weeks in SE Asia. I have been reading quite a few travel blogs as we plan for the trip, most of which purport to give vital information about cities or what to pack or how to get from point a to point b. I still prefer reading travel guide books, particularly Lonely Planet and Rough Guides. I used to always read nothing but LP, but lately I have been including Rough Guides in my planning and feel they are the way LP used to be. They are practical, have a mild sense of humor, have good advice and one can get a sense of the writer's personality. That used to be true at Lonely Planet, but the Wheelers are no longer involved with the business and things change.

Packing for a trip. There are a lot of guides online telling how to pack for international travel. I think that, for the most part, if you need to read a guide on what to take then you should just stay home. I once gave a presentation on how to travel independently for several weeks and showed the audience my backpack/suitcase. I use a twenty year old Eagle Creek Continental Journey pack, minus the day pack that came with it. The people in the audience laughed when I held it up - they couldn't imagine traveling so lightly. I start packing long before my trip and repack my bag several times before I go to make sure I can easily get everything in the pack and still have a little room for the trinkets I know I will buy along the way. I try to have enough clean clothes to last a week or more and figure I can wash things in the hotel room sink or have laundry done if I am staying in a place more than a couple of days. I don't need much other than that. Of course, I also carry a camera bag that is big enough to carry my DSLR, a couple of lenses, filters, charger and spare batteries, and a few other odds and ends.

Eagle Creek Continental Journey

The goal is to be able to walk down the street with everything I am traveling with on my shoulders.