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Published: November 21st 2007
In February 2005, Ken and I traveled to SE Asia to visit my home country - Luang Prabang, Laos. This was my first time back home since I left Laos in early 1981. Our trip started when we flew from San Diego to Bangkok via Narita, Japan. We stayed in Bangkok about 3 days where we visited the Grand Palace, Wat Pho, the River Market, Khaosan Road (Backpacker Heaven - Interesting place!) and a few other places around the city.
We then flew from Bangkok to Luang Prabang, Laos. This was where I got very emotional since it was my first time back home after 24 years. The city is now a World Heritage Site. Luang Prabang is a former Royal city with many temples (called Wats) along the Mekong and Nam Khan Rivers. We arrived in Luang Prabang around noon. My cousin picked us up and we headed back home/hotel. We stayed with our cousin at his hotel called the Ban Lao. There were three main buildings, plus the restaurant which was built over a pond. The main building used to be the French embassy/consulate. It is now part of the hotel. The second building was where we stayed
and was built about 10 years ago by my cousin. It was built using Lao architecture and style. And the third building was a small house where I was born! Believe it or not I was born at home, not at the hospital :-)
We drop off our stuff, then we headed to the buddah cave called Tam Ting about 50 minutes away from town. When I was small I never had a chance to go there because the road was bad and we had to cross the Mekong river by boat and my mom told me that I was too young to go there... It was nice to get to see the caves after all these years. Later that night we went to the night market and shopped around. The next day, we woke up around 7:00 am and walk around the city to visit places I remembered from my childhood. We went to the temple where my parents worshipped and other temples along the river. We stop at the French Bakery and had chocolate croissants then headed to the Royal Place. Now it is a musem. I was never allowed inside this place when I lived here
because I wasn part of the rolay family.
Luang Prabang is a very small city which is easily walkable from place to place. We climed up about 300 steps to the temple on the top of the hill called Wat Phousi. This was where I went to worship when I was little with my family during Lao new year in April. We continued walking around the city, stopped at one of the restaurant on the main strip, then headed back home/hotel. That night my cousin and I went to night market to do more shopping while Ken slept at the hotel. On our final day in Luang Prabang, my cousin drove us around the city and I visted my old home and a few 5 stars hotels. This town is becoming a tourist mega-spot since it became a world heritage site in the 90s. My cousin dropped us off at the airport and we flew back to Bangkok and boarded a plane for Koh Samui (Koh means Island - Island off of Gulf of Thailand).
We arrived at koh Samui late in the afternoon. Met our driver which we had arranged through the hotel, got our luggage, then
Grand Palace 1
Bangkok, Thailandheaded to our hotel. We stayed at Central Samui Resort at Chewang beach. This hotel was very nice and we loved it... We got to our hotel and there were no reservation desks like here in US. Instead, we were greeted by the host & hostess. They welcomed us and sat us down on the couch at the beautiful hotel lobby. They asked for our passports to check us in and served us topical drinks. 10 minutes later the hostest gave us the room keys and show us our room. In the room, there was a tropical fruit plate to welcome us. We unpacked our stuff then we explored the hotel, the beach and the city. We stayed for 5 days. All we did was relax, sat by pool overlook the beach and had thai foods and messages. On the fourth day, we hired a tour guide who took us around the island. We went to the Big Buddah on the top of the hill, other temples, other beaches and to a working coconut farm where the monkey climbed up the coconut tree to get the coconut. We had the coconut drink then headed back to the hotel.
We
Grand Palace 2
Bangkok, Thailand flew back to Bangkok and stayed there for a couple more days. We visited Jim Thompson House, the outdoor market where ken discovered the tropical fruit called Mangosteen. He loved this fruit. I had other fruit i.e. leechee and Rambutan as well.
The next morning we got up very early and headed to the airport to catch our flight home.
Ken and I will be going back to SE Asia next month. This time want to share our journey with friends and family. We added more cities in Thailand & Laos and two cities in Cambodia.
Come along and experience our adventure with us...
Steven & Ken
P.S. Ken will write our next blog..... 😊
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