After New Years Eve in New York, I was soon back in Hong Kong for a week and then made my way to Bangkok for several days which allowed me to make extensive use of the SkyTrain and the Express Boats on the Chao Praya. I was able to see some of the tourist sights that I had not before made it to, plus do more mundane things such as obtain my Vietnam visa.
After Bangkok, I made my way north to Sukhothai and Si Srathanalai (both in Thailand) to see some amazing 13th century temples/ruins - very beautiful and lots of buddha statues still intact as well. The Sukhothai period was post-Khmer/Angkor but before Ayutthaya. In fact, Sukhothai broke free from Khmer dominance in order to establish the first Siamese capital although it only lasted 100-150 years before being overwhelmed by the Ayutthaya empire.
Then, crossed over into Laos to Luang Prabang -very cool, laidback city where the Lao royal family used to be based, thus there is the Royal Palace. There are also many wats here of unique design and Lao's most famous Buddha the Pha Bang. I also spent an entire day on the Mekong with a Canadian girl that I had met. We hired a boat & driver for the day in order to see some wats in a cave two hours upriver, plus we stopped at a couple villages along the way. On the way back, a group of Lao college students that were friends with our boat driver pulled up beside us and offered a shot of Mekong whiskey. We soon had shut the engines, tied the boats together, and progressed amidst lots of laughter to polish off two bottles amongst the ten of us while slowly drifting down the river as day passed from bright sunny afternoon to dusky early evening.
My trip to Phonsavan was a 9-hour tortuous bus journey through beautiful mountainous landscape. We suffered a late start, a flat tire, a road out, and a landslide - but we eventually made it! I met several people on the bus (2 women from England and a couple from the US). We all decided to stay at the same guesthouse and the next day the 5 of us (w/guide & driver) headed out to the Plain of Jars in an old Soviet Jeep - here, there are some mysterious huge jars (some weigh 6 tons) that likely have been here for 2000 years or more. In addition, this is an area that was bombed continuously by the US for 10 years utnil 1975. So there are craters everywhere, plus the people have used old bombs in everyday things - planters, fencing, houses, etc. Our guide told us some moving stories about when he was a little boy during the war and also that his brother once uncovered a UXO (unexploded ordinance) that damaged his face and arm. As there had been nearly 25 years that had passed, he himself told the story more matter-of-factly. We also had a chance to stop at a Hmong village and a Lao village. As you may imagine, the Lao are the dominant people here in Laos, but the Hmong are a significant minority, especially on the Xieng Khuan plateau (where Phonsavan/Plain of Jars is). These were just regular farming villages, they weren't trying to sell anything and was nice to see how simply the people live.
I decided to fly from Phonsavan to Luang Prabang and was treated to some beautiful sights over the countryside: green mountains, valleys, flowing rivers, and lakes. In Vientiane I had a 1-hour layover and used that time to hire a taxi to drive me around the city so that I could see all the main sights. Then flew to Luang Prabang the late afternoon to find all the electiricty was out so there were candles everywhere during dusk; thus at night dined along the Mekong by candlelight...very peaceful.
I go to Da Nang today and will be disapointed to leave Lao, the smiling people, beautiful scenery, and the wonderful food.
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