Rising With The Monks

Luang Prabang is famous for its wats which are still in active use. Each morning the monks arise before dawn and head out into the surrounding streets to receive alms from the local population. The locals line the street with rice and other offerings which they place in the monk's bowls and which constitute the monk's food for the day. As Luang Prabang is a tourist town, the monk's procession has also become a major tourist sight. Whilst we did not want to intrude we were keen to see this, so on our second morning in Luang Prabang we were up really early as we needed to walk a couple of kilometres into the old town. Little did we know we were about to stumble on something a little different. As we left the guesthouse where we were parked, we could hear the chanting from the nearby Wat. We had been able to hear this gently in the distance all night and were intrigued as to what was going on. Our route to town took us past the Wat and when we got to the entrance we could see hundreds of people streaming in carrying offerings. These ranged from simple offerings of sticky rice to more elaborate ones in baskets with rolls of money attached to them. Monks were also arriving both on foot and by tuk tuk. Rather than proceeding into town we decided to follow everyone in to see what was happening. We had stumbled upon the That Luang festival, which is held during the full moon in November. We found a spot towards the side so that we were well out of the way, where we were befriended by a young monk who helped explain the festival to us. He was keen to practice his English and we were keen to understand what was going on. He explained that instead of the monks filing out of the temples as normal, on this day the monks came to this temple to receive offerings of food and money from local people. It was a spectacular sight and at its peak there were well over a thousand people jammed into the grounds of the Wat. They sat down on mats on the floor until the chief monk made a blessing and then they all lined up to hand over their offerings to place them in the bowls and big bin bags lining a row of tables in the centre. A lot of the local people were dressed in their finest and as it got light the place was a mass of people and monks. It was lovely to witness such an ancient festival. We could not help but smile though at some of the modern touches. We were not the only ones taking photos, some of the monks were taking them on their smart phones and a lot of the locals had their selfie sticks with them. Clearly it was a big event and it felt a real privilege to be a part of it. A few days before, we had left Vientiane and started heading North. We stopped to camp by a large lake that had been created by a dam. Here we met Christoph who ran a small guesthouse and a small animal rescue centre. He kindly showed us the monkeys and bear that had been rescued from animal traders. The bear had arrived as a tiny cub and had needed lots of work to look after at first. Whilst it's never nice to see animals behind bars, it was better than what they could have been subjected to.   The next morning, we were taken to see some of the monkeys that had been relocated onto an island in the lake. We didn't go onto the island itself as the monkeys are wild but were able to see them from the boat. Christoph still feeds the monkeys on the island even though there is probably enough natural food for them there. He does this for two reasons. Firstly by going to the island each day it signals to the locals that someone is interested in the monkeys and they shouldn't be poached. Secondly the monkeys can swim and as they are used to humans, they could swim back to the mainland in search of food. We continued to drive North to the village of Vang Vieng, which up until a couple of years ago was a real drug and drunken hangout on the backpacker trail. Fortunately it's cleaned itself up as it is in a beautiful setting on the river with karst cliffs behind. We tried to do a hike but the paths kept becoming over grown so we gave up and instead found a beautiful camping spot right on the river just outside of town. On our short walk we were given a stark reminder of what we had learned in Vientiane about all the unexploded bombs around the country. As we walked there were lots of examples of bomb casings (now safe) been used for things like metal posts. These are becoming increasingly common as we head North. There are two roads from Van Vieng to Luang Prabang. Route 13 is the original road which twists up and over the mountains. Route 4 is the new route. It is shorter and less twisty but it goes over a mountain range with a pass at 1850m. Although it's less twisty the road up and down is a long 12 per cent gradient. Having driven far higher in the Andes with few problems, we thought we would take the shorter route. Whilst the road was good it was steep and as we approached the top of the mountain we became enveloped in cloud. Towards the top, the road had deteriorated due to landslides and the tar became sticky mud in places. Just before the very top two small, very overloaded trucks were stuck. Thoughtfully, they had ensured no one else could get through. After persuading one of the drivers to back down a little we engaged 4wd and managed to pass quite easily. They must have unloaded some of their stuff to get up the last bit of the hill, as they whizzed past us a few hours later. Apart from the obvious tourist delights in Luang Prabang there was another reason we were looking forward to getting there. Gilly's sister Clare and her boyfriend Noel are travelling around Asia and had arranged to meet us there. It was lovely to see them and catch up on their travels. We spent our time with them visiting the various Wats and the Royal Palace but Alisha and Lucy weren't interested in any of this they just wanted to hear Aunty Clare tell them stories. Fortunately they are staying in Luang Prabang longer than us, so if they missed some of the sights on our look around they can always go back to them. Overall Luang Prabang is a peaceful, pretty town with plenty of places to eat. Whilst there are a lot of tourists it doesn't seem overrun by them except at the top of the hill for sunset. We headed up there with what seemed like everyone else one evening to enjoy the view. Whilst in Luang Prabang we also caught up with Robert Dolven who was riding his motorbike around the world. He had passed us just outside Vang Vieng and stopped to say hi. As we were heading the same way he joined us for dinner and a few beers one night and it made for a great evening. There was no way though I was going to be rising with the monks the next morning. One morning we took a boat across the Mekong and went for a short hike along the river bank. On pulling out the iPad to check the map, I had a quick check of the BBC front page. To my surprise along with the usual stories about Trump and Putin was a picture of Lucy walking up a sand dune in Namibia. BBC Travel had done an interview with us back in Australia about schooling your children while travelling and had just released it on their international website. If you are interested in the article non UK readers can see it at  http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20161108-would-you-teach-your-kids-on-the-road If you are in the UK try the following link:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ES1s57cDPyfrNxzxKZAkqBxbCJDmwXsqkI0iGblccQY/mobilebasic After a lovely few days with Clare and Noel it was time for us to move on. We never did see the monks filing out from their Wats to collect alms but the one time we rose early enough we had a memorable early morning with them at their festival.

A Buddhist Pumpkin and a Manageable Capital City

I have no idea what the link between pumpkins and Buddhism is but it doesn't mean I can't appreciate an autumnal gourd, 3 stories high, filled with depictions of heaven and hell. Confused? Don't worry, so were we. We were just outside the capital Laos, Vientiane, visiting Xieng Khuan, the Buddha Park. Lovingly created, there are a whole manner of mythical folk from Buddhist and Hindu mythology. A 30m long reclining Buddha took a well deserved relax next to a 3 headed elephant; a head with 4 faces facing different directions, topped with 3 similar heads including a skeleton one which also had octopus arms; and of course the 3 storey high pumpkin. The girls absolutely loved pretending to be gobbled up by the pumpkin's monster mouth, racing around the outside of "hell", "earth" and at last reaching "heaven" and climbing onto the top. On the top we got a great view of the park beside the Mekong, over its fast-flowing monsoon-swelled waters was Thailand. Steve and I squeezed though a tiny hole at the top of the pumpkin to see the inner sanctum of the celestial realms. "Hell" was unsurprisingly rather scary, but more health and safety wise than anything else, with just one bare flickering bulb at the bottom of the very steep irregular steps. Our route through Laos took us from the far south almost always within a few kilometres of the meandering Mekong river, until we got to Vientiane. Two days drive south of Vientiane we had squeezed into the gardens of a guesthouse in the town of Tha Khaek. The scenery outside town was full of rice paddies and towering limestone karsts. The karsts are riddled with caves, in one of them you can take a boat all the way through in the pitch black for 7.5km. Deep caves are not the girls favourite places, so we kept to the shorter more accessible ones.   After parking outside the closed village school, just 3 simple classrooms, we trekked a short distance through the forest and jumped from rock to rock over a stream to get to the Tham Xieng Liap cave. Seeing that Lucy would have to wade through almost waist high brown water, we chickened out on going to see the Buddha statues at the end, and admired the stalactites we could see from the entrance. A few kilometres away was the cave of Tham Xang, leaving the truck just short of the rickety wooden bridge amongst the rice paddies, we walked to the cave through the village. As water buffalo wallowed in muddy pools; recently harvested rice dried in the sun; and a group of Grannies at the temple waved Lucy over to coo over her blonde hair. She and Alisha in turn greeted them with "Sabaidee" with their hands pressed together with a slight bow, prompting lots of appreciative clucks. We have found that travelling with children, especially a blonde one, in Asia a really fun experience. It is a bit like travelling with a minor celebrity. The most unlikely of people pop out of their houses to say hello or smile and wave. We have joked that Lucy is our "secret weapon", whenever we need paths smoothed, out she comes with a sweet smile and suddenly officials couldn't be more accommodating. An Asian tourist at Angkor Wat taking photos of our "secret weapons". After the messing about in caves it was time for some long drives. As the sun started to sink over the Mekong, we saw a likely spot to stop for the night, a little track down to the waters edge just beside a bridge. Perfect we thought, until emerging from the bushes at the start of the track onto the little peninsular we saw a truck with an orange tarpaulin over the top. What?! We don't see hardly any overlanders for months and months and suddenly we found Dragoman (a commercial overlanding company, similar to the one we met on) having the same bright idea as we do for a night spot. Thinking it was bad form to crash their Mekong sundowners, we headed off down a side road to find our own spot nice beside a rice paddy.   After another long drive, we came to the outskirts of Vientiane and stretched our legs enjoying the delights of the Buddha Park. We headed away from town to find a peaceful spot to do some jobs and for the night. The villages seemed to go on forever but eventually the road turned to dusty gravel and we found a big patch of grass beside the Mekong. With only fields opposite and no houses nearby it seemed a lovely spot. A couple of hours later after a hot and sweaty truck clean, I was looking forward to a cup of tea admiring the sunset, when two guys pulled up on a motorbike. Lots of smiles and "Sabaidee" all round, all very friendly but eventually they got their message through to us via gestures and a friend on the other end of the phone, who also didn't speak much more English. They were happy for us to hang out for the day but they didn't want us to stay there for the night. A shame, as it was a lovely spot, we never found out who they were or why we couldn't stay. As we waved goodbye, it left us with less than half an hour before the sun set to find a good spot for the night. We had seen a backup spot about 25 minutes away, a quiet spot in a huge gravel pit just off the empty motorway. Not the most scenic spot but the last rays of the sunset was gorgeous, it's just a shame we didn't watch it over the Mekong with a cup of tea as I had planned.   Vientiane might be the capital of Laos but compared with the big Asian cities we've been to recently, like Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and even Phnom Penh, it seems like a sleepy backwater and I like it even more for that. Although those other cities came with an undeniable energy, it was hard to enjoy them at times because of the frenetic nature of the traffic. There is nothing fun about exploring a city on foot with 2 kids when you are constantly in danger of being mown down, and that's when you are on the pavement. Vientiane was far more relaxed, smaller-yes; less vehicles - definitely; but better road manners too - some cars even slowed down so we could cross on zebra crossings. Wow! It all made for a pleasant change.   We had found secure parking for the truck downtown and had decamped to a guesthouse for some peace and air conditioning. All through South America we slept in the truck for our short stays in capital cities, here in Asia there is little respite from the heat. At night we always have all the windows open all night, which is great in the peace of the countryside but not so good for noisy big cities. Steve found a room with an amazing balcony with a view over the neighbourhood, well worth the 6 flight stair walk to the top floor.   Apart from checking out the city, our main reason for coming to Vientiane was to apply for out Myanmar visas. We trotted off to the embassy first thing on Monday morning, it was all pretty straightforward as we have had to engage a guide already for our drive through Myanmar. Waiting for the visas it gave us 3 more days to enjoy the city.   Vientiane seems a unique mixture of French colonial architecture and town planning with its wide boulevards; modern Asian investment, especially from China, with mirror windowed offices; Buddhist Wats; and just a touch of Soviet in the government buildings. After all our years in Moscow, we are very familiar with the latter style and kept on pointing out the nostalgic touches of communist style. The People's Republic of Laos to give it its full title may still be communist in name, but like China and Vietnam, capitalism seems to rule. Although to a far lesser extent than its near neighbours. The national flag is always seen alongside the hammer and sickle, I thought that symbol had died with the breakdown of the Soviet Union so it seems strange to see it on a mobile phone shop. The rest of the time in Vientiane was spent exploring its historic Wats (Buddhist temples). My favourite was Pha That Luang, a golden stupa, which supposedly contains a piece of Buddha's breastbone. Still with its scaffolding up from its recent painting, it glowed in the sunlight surrounded by dark grey rain clouds. Elaborate structures made of plants, marigolds and wax were brought to the temple as thanksgiving. We had lots of time to enjoy its beauty and observe its worshipers arriving as we got stuck under a shelter with the sparrow-releasers (people often release small caged birds as part of their prayers here) and other devotees for over an hour as a thunderstorm ranged around us. The heavens literally opened as we watched many beautifully dressed ladies with a straight silk sarongs and a diagonal scarf draped over one shoulder, make a dash out of their cars or tuk tuks carrying their elaborate offerings. We never found out if there was a particular significance of the time or date for so many well off elegant ladies to attend the temple. We visited the COPE centre, which provides artificial limbs and medical assistance for people who have been injured by UXOs (unexploded ordnance) left over from the Vietnam war. Even though Laos was never officially at war with the US because the Ho Chi Min Trail passed though Laos and there were many supporters of the communist forces here, Laos has the sad distinction of being the most heavily bombed country ever. Unfortunately the legacy lives on as people are still being blown up by the small but powerful "bombies" that didn't go off 40 years ago when they were first dropped"   Our last day was taken up with more mundane activities like driving miles out of town to get a new back taillight to replace the one smashed in the accident we had in Cambodia; restocking the food in the truck; and picking up our Myanmar visas. After another warm but wet soaking in the rain, on the way home from a delicious Lao dinner, we were ready for our last night in the air conditioning before we hit the road north the following morning.

Meandering Along The Mekong

There was no way around it, to get out of Phnom Penh we just had to throw ourselves into the traffic. It was as chaotic as ever and the motorcycles were crazily weaving all over the place. The best policy was just to edge forward slowly but even then you had to make sure a bike hadn't pulled into the space in front of you. As we cleared Phnom Penh though the traffic improved. The road was good and the area was less populated so there was also less traffic on the road.   Our route North was following the mighty Mekong river which comes all the way from the Tibetan plateau. At this time of the year at the end of the rains the river is full, brown and fast moving. As we drove North we would get fleeting glances of it through the rice paddies. We were in farming country and the farmers had a hard life tilling their small plots of land. Water buffalo were still been used to plough the fields and the rice was been picked by hand. At the end of the day we turned down a small lane off the main road and came across a spot of uncultivated land right on the edge of the Mekong. It was an idyillic spot and had clearly been used for picnics before as there was evidence of a fire ring and unfortunately as is always the case some litter. We settled in to enjoy a lovely sunset over the Mekong. The next morning we were awakened by the tinkling of cow bells. The local farmers were bringing their cows out to graze. They seemed fascinated by us as we were by them. Heading North of Kratjie we were hoping to see the rare Irawaddy Dolphin. This dolphin is found in the Mekong and a couple of other rivers but is endangered. In the Mekong there are thought to be less than 100 remaining but as they tend to stay in the same area we were hopeful of seeing some. We hired a boat to take us out and of course he knew exactly where they were. We spent an hour or so observing them in the deep swirling pools. There must have been a pod of about a dozen that we saw. The dolphin has a slightly unusual shape in that it does not have a beak but instead has a bulbous head rather like a Beluga Whale. Whilst they did not come that close we felt really privileged to be seeing such a rare creature. Late that afternoon we reached the border with Laos. Not wanting to cross so late in the day we looked for somewhere to camp. I had noticed a small road a few hundred metres away from the border post heading down towards the river so we headed down there. It led to a tiny village with water buffalos, chickens, cows etc. There was a nice flat grassy area so we asked at one of the houses if we could park for the night. They said yes and seemed very relaxed by it waving to us as they passed on their scooters. The children were more curious coming up to us to say hello. In the end they were desperate to have their photo taken. Looking at the map I realised we were really close to the border. I walked further down the road and had not got 200metres before there was a pole across. I guess we had got as far as we could. The next morning we were up early to cross the border into Laos. As it was a Sunday and in any event things don't seem to move very quickly in either Cambodia or Laos not all the border staff were about. Whilst the border was open it is normally very quiet anyway so we had to search all over for the relevant staff. Leaving Cambodia there was no one at customs. As I needed to have my Carnet stamped we needed to find someone. The immigration office used his phone but with no result. Eventually he found a key to the customs office. After rummaging in the drawer he found he necessary stamp and with my guidance we completed the exit form on the Carnet. Arriving in Laos was no different, the first point of call was to get a visa on arrival but the man who did this wasn't there. Immigration gave him a call and after 10 minutes along he came. Once we were stamped in it was the turn of the truck at customs but the customs man had gone off somewhere. After a few calls and a wait the truck was cleared. The last thing was insurance. There was an office at the border but it was closed. We were worried as it was Sunday it may not be open but immigration assured us it would open eventually. Since we thought it better to get the insurance there and everything was very relaxed we decided to wait. In any event the girls had their schooling to do. Eventually the insurance man came and we were all sorted to enter Laos. We were not going very far just 20kms to the first town where we were going to park the truck while we took a boat out to one of the islands in the Mekong. At this stretch of the river it widens out and creates a network of supposedly 4,000 islands. We were going to head out to one of these to spend a few days. This is also the part of the Mekong where there are some impressive rapids, so impressive it meant the river was not navigable so the French built a railway line across one of the Islands to transport boats. I will let Alisha describe our time there below. Cruising up the Mekong on a rather noisy old boat we went to the island of Don khon ( which I have no idea how to spell) where we searched for a guest house. After what seemed like hours searching we finally found a good place with both a fan and air con. Lucy instantly fell in love with the mosquito nets hanging above the beds and instantly began to take them down and tuck them in luckily she was stopped as we prepared for a walk. After walking through the small village we walked among the rice fields to a part of the Mekong where there was a dramatic fall complete with Rapids and large pointy rocks here Lucy befriended a kitten.   The meal that night was atrocious the noodles where disgusting, the pork burnt and the Spring rolls yucky. Luckily we didn't get tummy aches the next day. The only bright side was that the restaurant housed a cute puppy and a kitten so Lucy spent most of the meal in raptures watching the kitten and puppy play.  The next morning I was woken by a very, very, very noisy boat. After a delicious breakfast of banana pancakes with chocolate sauce we went for a walk across the fields to the other side of the island where we had a lovely encounter with another lovely playful puppy. On returning we found out that we had to do school ( boo hiss ) after an hour we went out for lunch. Just as we were leaving we found out that Lucy had impetigo a skin disease that gives you nasty scabs, we had the cream to cure it back in the truck though. Lunch was gorgeous, a tasty pizza with a massive sandwich for daddy and mummy to share. Me and Lucy kept watching the playful cat try to catch and eat a cricket. After school and a rest we walked to an old steam locomotive that the French used to transport gunboats around large waterfalls. We also went to see a Wat ( What Wat ?) Mummy told us a funny story and Daddy drove us all crazy by saying "What Wat ?"  We went back to that lovely restaurant for dinner where we had had lunch Lucy played with the little girl although Lucy could not touch her due to her infection. We stayed till past nine after that we all felt rather glad to get to bed. The next morning after breakfast we went back to the mainland on another little old rickety boat. We got back and cleaned and treated Lucy's impetigo with clean water, soap ,cotton wool and antiseptic cream.  Then school ( double boo hiss) and then we a drove to a waterfall up on top of a plateau where the temperature was going to be 18 to 19 degrees ?. We dressed up for Halloween after dinner. Me as a witch of the night and Lucy as my little spirit assistant we got lots of sweets ??. On the third time we went round daddy put on a funny voice and kept offering us vegetables. It was a great Halloween. All except for the fact we where woken by very very noisy barking dogs AT FIVE IN THE MORNING. But apart from that and a few other little things, it was a great few days. As Alisha has said, from the Mekong we headed up to the Bolevan Plateau. The Plateau is famous for its waterfalls but what we were looking forward to, was that as it was at over a thousand metres high, it being a lot cooler. We were able to camp at the first waterfall and enjoyed a lovely quiet, cool night, that was until the dog started barking. We spent a very pleasant day exploring a number of impressive waterfalls that were in full flow. At the end of the day we found a nice quiet spot to camp up a rough little road next to an antennae.