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Published: October 29th 2006
Night market
A bit blurry - can you get the feel though?I was in Vientiane, Lao about to cross the Laos / Thailand border via a huge bridge that crosses the Mekong called the Friendship Bridge, financed by Australia at the end of my last blog....
I think i should go back a few steps as there are a few things i forgot to say about Lao.
I forgot to mention that while i was there i went to a Traditional Lao Massage house every single day, yep, every day - except for the last day during my projectile vomiting stage. First up i would go for an hour massage which is a full body oil massage. Done on a thin mattress on the ground, now, i have had hundreds of massages and learnt how to massage... BUT this massage was the BEST i have EVER had. YAY!! These people were amazing. and it was run by the red cross so people from poor villages were able to come to the red cross learn how to do massage and make some money. You know the type of massage that is very firm and maybe a little painful but the relaxing sensation that it brings on is just too delicious to
I just like this photo
I dont have any photos of the Lao Massage House so here's another one from the Waterfall I went to just out of Lueng Prabang let the pain reach your brain to call out 'Ouch'. Anyway after an hour of having my legs, arms, head, feet... mmm so good, hands, back and neck massaged, I was wrapped up in a sarong and sent off to the steam room. The smell of oakwood/sweat / Laos tea brewing / steam & tiger balm was hypnotising. It was quite rustic and the building was like an old queenslander. Very open and breezy although private and with much character. I sat in the ladies steam room for maybe 10 minutes, it is the size of a walk in wardrobe and fits about 8 people facing each other on wooden benches and it is dark. I came out covered in moisture and sit down and drink hot hot Laos Tea. It is a little sweet however no sugar has been added, it has a pink tinge and is drunk out of a glass. about 15 minutes of drinking my tea sitting on wood seats amongst many other Laos women. Noticing their curiosity and me trying to hide mine. I like to think of myself an a Lao lady now. Back in the steam room the beautiful Lao womem make me
feel very welcome and move along to give me room. The steam and my sweat is a great way to get rid of the oil and probably many toxins from my body. I sit down outside of steam room for one more glass of tea, smiling at the locals (I have noticed as i was wondering why people would be staring at me with a blank look on their faces, then i reallised that i was starring back at them with that exact same blank look. So now, if i notice someone looking at me i give the biggest smile straight away.... instant friends, a universal language). A cold shower and i am on my way... Walking on air after my 2 hours on self care.
I did this 2 days in a row and the last 2 days i just had a massage as i think my body was going into a little bit of shock.
So I would highly highly recommend if ever you are in Lueng Prabang, Laos to go to the Red Cross Massage House. $3.20 for 1 hour massage and $1.10 for steam room. These people really know what they are doing!!
Next thing i didnt really talk about during my time in Lao was the night market. The weather in Lao was very warm and humid with a lovely breeze every now and then to cool me down and wake me up and remind me how lucky i am to be a free spirit travelling.
The Night market had an exciting high vibe to it " Ma darm, Ma darm, today you lucky, i give you good price!!" Ha ha today i am lucky because I know that 5 dollars isnt a good price - infact 3 dollars is.....hahaa!! I would say that every 3 third person with their goods spread out on their blanket on the middle of the closed off road was selling silk. Beautiful hand made silk scarves. I watched these being made in a village on my way to the 4000 Buddha Caves and every single strand is threated by hand and locked in with a contraption that could be mistaken for a torture device from the 12th century. There were hand made bags, jewerly, slippers, flowing pants, loose shirts, wrap around skirts, opium pipes - (I have been offered optium in every town i have
been in throughout Lao.. yeah, thanks mate for the offer but NO!!) fruit, vegetables, river wheat which look like branches with green berries however crack the hard shell and a delicious puff of wheat is inside. I had to ban myself from the market as i kept buying stuff.
After i had spent about 5 days in Lueng Prabang, gotten over being poisoned by that bloody chicken and my head was starting to heal (i have a 3cm crusty scab near my forehead now urgh!!) i caught the overnight bus which i have spoken about previously and spent the day in Vientiane then headed back to Thailand. Crossing the border was quite a chore. Tuk tuk to immigration, wait in line outside to have passport checked and stamped, buy ticket for mini bus to cross over friendship bridge, over bridge to Thailand (Bye beautiful, spirited Laos) through immigration again and i am back in Thailand. I had no idea what i was going to do, what route i was going to take or where i was heading to stay that night. - What a great feeling!!!
I sat down right next to the customs area, (a little nervous
as their dogs were barking, eek, had someone put drugs in my bags???) and waited, i knew someone would come up to me if i just sat there. About 5 minutes later a man came up and asked if i wanted a taxi to Nong Khai - Yep, that sounds great!. Nong Khai is only about 3ks from the border so I quickly looked in my Lonely planet book and told him a guest house that i wanted to stay in. He didnt speak much English and I dont know what he thought i said but i ended up in this wonderful rustic guest house on the banks of the Mekong. Perfect, just what i needed.
The friendly taxi driver (very friendly since i just paid 4 dollars instead of 1 dollar for the pleasure of him driving me 3kms.) dropped me off outside of Mut Mee Guest House. There was a pebble road to walk down before reaching the bungalows from where i was dropped of by my taxi driver, there was an internet room, bookstore, meditiation area and yoga centre. All very earthy with dirt or concrete floors, wooden walls, large open window with stutters and slow
moving fans.
I chose a room which had wooden walls and roof, similar to a tree house with a bed, wooden table, fan, mosquito net and 2 big airy windows. I was to share my bathroom which consisted of a squat toilet and cold shower (hose hangin from the roof) with an English girl who was volunteering to teach English during the day and study Yoga during the evenings.... This is the Thailand i have been searching for. I unpacked, showered and headed out to check out this fresh town of Nong Khai.
Nong Khai is a slow but friendly town, my experience of it was mainly lazily swinging on a Cane Hammond under huge tree ferns overlooking the Mekong with a book, I was to spend many hours during the next few days doing this.
My 2nd day i hired a bike and followed a map for 1 hour to a famous sculpture Park. I cycled through a market, along the Mekong, right through the middle of a school, through gates of the Wat (temple) where Monks were living and working, 'Sa wa dee Kaaa' - I hope Im not interupting!!! until i found my way
Sculpture park
These cement statues were huge!! to Sala Kaew Sculpture Park.
(the following is info from Lonely Planet with some of my input...)
Nong Khai's most enigmatice attraction is Sala Kaew Sculpture Park. It is a surrenal sculptural journey into the mind of a mystic shaman. Built over a period of 20 years by Luang Poo Boun Leua Sourirat, who died in 1996, the park features a weird and wonderful array of gigantic sculputres, ablaze with Hindu - Buddhist imagery.
As his own story goes, Luang Poo, a Lao national, tumbled into a hole as a child where he met an ascetic named kaewkoo. Kaewkoo was a hermit and lived in what turned out to be a cave and he introduced Luang poo to the mysteries of the underworld and set him on course to become a Brahmanic-yogi-priest-shaman. He created his own unique blend of Hindu and Buddhist philosophy, mythology and icononography.
The park is a real smorgasbord of bizarre cement statues of Shiva, Vishnu, Buddha, and every other Hindu and Buddhist deity imaginable, as well as numberous figures, all carved under Luang Pu's direction.
The tallest sculpture, a Buddha seated on a coiled Naga (snake) with a spectacular multiheaded hood
Buddha Statue
Just so you can get an idea of how huge these statues were is 25m in height.
(...thanks Lonely Planet)
The park also had a shrine to Luang Pu which had his mummified body inside of a glass case. Photos of his life including when he was dieing, specimens of what seemed to be blood that he had coughed up in his last hours. His bed, instruments that were used from the hospital were also kept in this area. Many people were on their knees praying, it was quite creepy to tell you the truth. I honoured the process but i was happy to walk right out that door.
During my few hours at the sculpure park i was approached by some tourists from Bangkok who were more interested in having their photo taken with me 'the token foreigner' than to see the amazing statues. This happened with 2 different groups, the other group was from Udon Thani about 60 ks south from where i was. They were so excited as they had never spoken with a foreigner before. I was honoured!!
This is about all i did in Nong Khai it was a welcome relaxing few days and i really enjoyed living in the simplicity of my accomodation.
Sculpture park
Family from Bangkok were more interested in having their photo taken with me than photographing the sculptures. What the hell are those shorts i am wearing??? I am now in Sukhothai. To get here i caught a tuk tuk to the local bus station and caught a local bus to Udon Thani an hour trip away. I was dropped on the side of a dirt road amongst a couple of stalls selling fruit. There was a tuk tuk driver there so i bargained for him to take me to the local (at this point i have to tell you that a local bus isnt like a local bus at home... local bus at home is really a VIP, 1st class with air con and toilet bus, similar to the one i caught from Bangkok to Chiang Mai at the beginning of my travels - anyway, a local bus is an old bus maybe 20 years old with no windows.) bus station, i caught a 7 hour local bus to Phitsanuok stayed there the night then an hour bus to Sukothai... Now, i have been sitting in this internet shed for over 2 hours, my ass is sore, my mosquito bites are itchy and my tummy is rumbling so that's all for now lovely readers, if you are still with me and i have keep you
New friends
These beautiful student nurses asked me to walk with them around the Park. I had just walked around once but how could i refuse. interested, thanks for your interest.... I will write about my adventures in Sukothai very soon, I am going out tonight so i am sure there will be some stories for tell...... - AND i havent written anything about the food so far.... Again, stay tuned!!!
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Aunty
non-member comment
I reaaly amgoing to go with you you next time