Laos Part 3 - The END

After visiting the caves in Vang Vieng, and spending the night in the hotel with all the rules...see previous post...we headed  through the mountains to visit the Plain of Jars.  The drive through the mountains was beautiful, a little scary and actually cold when we got to the top.  Here are some photos of our drive through the mountains.  They may not be exactly on the road to Xieng  Khuang, where the Plain is located, but all are of the mountains through Laos.                                                                                                                                                                   

 

We were driving along and saw these young girls tossing a ball back and forth.  They are of the Hmong tribe of Laos.  They were very sweet and didn't mind us taking their photo.  Their clothes were mostly the same, but they had different styles of head dresses.

As you can see from the photo above, there was a lot of rice farming in the valleys.  Most of the crops were already in, but even so the landscape was amazing.

Driving in the mountains was a little dangerous, not so much because cars were going 100 miles an hour, but because there was zero curb.  We were all a little shocked by how closely the children played to the road.  So, you'd be driving along, enjoying the scenery, and LOOK OUT!!!  A two year old is playing on the S curve of a mountain road:

Needless to say it was a little freaky for us!  At the top visibility got a little dicey as well.  Dad and Shawn must have told our drive 100 times to slow down, and be careful and watch it and so on and so on and so on.  I don't think he (the driver) minded too much because he didn't speak much English so he couldn't understand them anyway.  Mom and I could though so that part of our journey was a little...stressful.  In all fairness you couldn't see hardly anything.

We did drive in this fog for about an hour. 





















Eventually we came out of it and made it to the Plains. No one really knows exactly what these jars were used for.  They are around 2000 years old, and there are various theories as to what they were used for.  Some say they were used as sarcophagi, or for fermenting wine, or for rice storage.  There are some lids lying around for a few of the jars along with vases that may have contained human remains.  By and large they are still a mystery and may be related to some stone megaliths nearby.  It's been difficult to study all of the jars...there are unexploded ordinances all over the place (UXO), or land mines, so needless to say people don't really want to stroll around the area or dig around the area to find evidence.  There are around 20 known sites but these three are the largest and the sites that are pretty much cleared of landmines.  We stayed ON the paths!

The fog here made everything look very eery.  The jars were huge as this picture shows.

The girls were not immune to having people want to take their picture...even at 6am in rural Laos!

This picture shows Mattie pointing in the direction of safety.  If you look at the stone or brick in front of her you can see one side of it painted white.  The other is painted red although it doesn't really show in this photo.  These bricks were everywhere and indicated the safe zone.  Basically, stay inside the white area.  Everything outside the red is not safe of UXO's.  The amazing thing about the Lao people is that they were very kind to Americans, even though all of these UXO's were our doing.  During the Vietnam War, the U.S. dropped hundreds of bombs on Laos.  I won't quote the numbers because I'm can't remember exactly but the numbers made me want to start apologizing! 

 

Here we are at the top of the mountain eating diner.  We ordered chicken, and we got a chicken.  Look closely at Phoebe!  Yummy!

 

 

After we left the Plain of Jars and had chicken feet for lunch we headed to Luang Prabang to go on an elephant trek and see the surrounding area. 

Phoebe about to take off with Grandpa on her elephant ride

We got to ride our elephants in the river.  It was pretty amazing.

mom and mattie, dad and phoebe

mom and mattie

So we walked down the path and all was well.

Then we hit the steep part.  All I kept thinking was that I was going to die in Laos, death by elephant crushing.  Poor Greta probably couldn't breathe because I was holding her so tightly.  The elephants did fine and none of them slipped and plummeted down the mountain with us on their backs, so all was well.

Poor Emma was sick so they went to ride first, alone without the mahout.  Nobody else got to do that so it was special for Emma, but they were disappointed they didn't get to ride in the river.  Shawn took Emma back to the hotel.

Who needs an umbrella for shade when you can just pick a banana leaf?!?!

 

 This is the little girl who  you can pay to set the bird free.  From what I understand, the birds are trained to come back to the little cages and then visitors to the Wats (temples) will pay to set them free.  Absolutely no disrespect intended, but it's a Buddhist thing.

The little girl from the photo above this one was one of the children we saw while visiting Pak Ou Caves.  These caves are crowded with Buddhas and an impressive sight. You had to take a boat across the river then climb the stairs to get to there.

Luang Prabang has a long standing tradition that every morning the monks walk in a line around the city to collect alms from the locals and tourists.  The line went on and on and on and was amazing.  Mattie ended up participating as you can see from the photo below.  Some of the monks were very small boys, around 10 years old or so.  They live in the Wats and study.

 We were a little shocked to see this toddler wielding this knife.  I'm thinking a little later he probably starting to run with it. 

They were very tired.  Isn't Shawn just the best dad in the world?  Ok, it's a three way tie for number one. 

The photo below is my attempt at being a  Lao woman by carrying  Greta with the cloth thingy.  It worked awesome, and I could switch her from side to side and to my back and front.  Juli and Christy are probably laughing at me right now because they both used the awesome slings for their babies.  I forgot the Baby Bjorn though so we bought this from some Lao women selling their wares.

          Phoebe, without fail, put her shoes on the wrong feet every time!  Shawn was being a supportive dad.

We saw some kids on the side of the road all working in this building.  We decided to stop and see what they were doing.  We think what they were doing was bundling up flax or some other kind of crop.  They were so sweet and dad took his camera and took pictures of all of them and then showed them.  We took the photo below of the sweetest little girl...

This is by far my favorite photo of a little girl and the one below is my favorite photo of an old woman.

Now before you think we're perverts or something, we took this picture not because of the half naked men, but because of the way in which they were taking their shower.  All throughout the mountains they had these pipes that clearly trapped water so that the locals could have clean, running water.  It must have been freezing, but you saw people all the time bathing.  The men and the women would all be standing there, the women covered up with a sarong or something and the men in their skivvies.  You can see the pipe in between the two men in blue albeit very little blue. 

Back on the road again.   

glad I'm not this lady

Or these ones, although they are making roofs out of straw.  Definitely noble.

But especially this lady.  I find it interesting that she is chopping wood right next to her satellite dish.

Now these boys were having some fun.  It's not really evident in this photo, but they were playing soccer.  Instead of shirts and skins, it was CAUTION tape or no CAUTION tape.

This photo was just too sweet to leave out.

Phoebe adores her Bampa.

And of course they all adore their Grandma.

So we made it back to the capital where we took the plane back to Bangkok, Thailand.  We decided to hang out at the airport for most of the day instead of trying to navigate the city.  Dad and Shawn just couldn't help rearranging the children's toys.  They deemed it unsafe in various locations so they simple moved it.  Looks dangerous huh?

So that's all.  We had an amazing 10 day trip.  Thanks to mom and dad for being so awesome and so much fun on this trip.  Finally finished Laos 2009/2010! 
Sa-ba-dee (goodbye (and hello) in Lao)

Laos Part 2

So if you read the last entry, you'll see that we made it to Laos.  We began our trip in the capital city, Vientiane.  We only had one day here before we began our track through Laos.  We did manage to see Pha That Luang. "It is a symbol of both the Buddhist religion and Lao sovereignty."  It was beautiful, but I think the children provided more of an attraction to the tourists than the actual site.

 I believe here we had Emma and Phoebe posing.

This lady did not want to let Greta get by here.  She was held and had her cheeks pinched by so many people, but she handled it pretty well.

The girls had a good time running around the lawn

It was so bright out that we all had to buy sunglasses.  After visiting Pha That Luang we at some dinner and called it a night.

The next day was a very long day on the road.  We rented a van and a driver, who although claimed he could speak English... could not.  I think he could say "hello" and understand the phrase "please return at..." and we would like to go...."  That's about it.  We were not on the road for one hour when we were pulled over by the police.  Our poor driver had to attempt to talk his way out of us going back to Vientiane. 

After about 30 minutes of sitting here we decided to bring out the big guns.  The police were very stern and strict, but then we whipped out Mattie and Emma under the guise of a toilet break.  The police began to soften.  Although we noticed a kink in the armor, we still were not free to go. Left with no other choice we brought out Phoebe and our ace in the hole...Greta.  By the end of it the police were holding the kids and laughing, and although the driver did get a ticket, we had blessings to continue our journey.  Kids are great. 

We saw so many things on our trip just alongside the road that were so amazing.  We will try and put photos of some of the more interesting things, but Laos is such a beautiful country that our photos will not do it justice.

We did stop at a market on our way to Vang Vieng, which was our half way point to see the Plain of Jars.  This market was supposed to have items like monkey heads and such, but I guess they were fresh out that day.  We did see a lovely pig head and some snakes though. 
                                                                                                        

  I believe this was an eel of some kind.                                                             

                                                                          YUMMY!!!!

 

This lady was really not that interested in selling her wares. I wonder what she would have done if we had woken her up?  We would have had to throw Greta at her so she wouldn't get angry at us.















                          
                                                        

Notice the hammer and sickle in this picture.  It was especially weird for mom and dad to see these flags hanging everywhere.  

This is just one of many beautiful landscape photos.

After a long day of driving, we ended up in Vang Vieng.  This is a backpacker's paradise where the young folks come to float the river and ride the rapids.  They then return to town, eat, drink and be very merry watching "Friend's" re-runs in all the restaurants.  We didn't float the river, but we did hike up to see a very beautiful cave.

The girls had a great time running through the cave.  I wish I could say more about it, but a cave is a cave whether you are in Laos or Tennessee!

After our cave hike, we headed to dinner then back to the hotel.  This sign was posted on every door.  These are some very strict rules.  It was very difficult for dad to comply with some of them.  I did notice that only some weapons were not allowed.  Does this mean that some are?  We didn't know any outer-people so no worries there.  Number 7 is just funny and slightly disturbing, and the fact that they needed to include number 8 is hilarious.  Do some people go into the hotel room and try and redecorate?  Why would anyone do this?  It is not only in the room but on the guesthouse itself!   Hmmmm?!?  We did read something about the milkshakes in Vang Vieng being "happy" milkshakes.  Much in the same vein of "happy" brownies.  This might explain a lot.  Read on and enjoy

This concludes the Laos Part 2 - Vang Vieng.  I will write more later, but I've found if I do this in smaller bursts it works better.  Besides, most of you know Amy Foster, and Shawn just called and said they are on their way home from the airport!  Yae!  

Goodbye for now!

Trip to Laos Part 1

  

 So we have finally begun to write about our trip to Laos!  The day after Christmas, we all boarded a plane...the 6 of us and mom and dad and we headed to Thailand.  It was a little too pricey to fly all of us directly to Laos, so we had the brilliant idea to fly to Bangkok, which is pretty cheap, then take an overnight train to the Thai/Laos border and then travel to Vientiane by bus or taxi or whatever.  So this is what we did.  We arrived in Bangkok and made our way to the train station.  I had already purchased our tickets on-line but we had no idea 

what  we were getting so we were a little nervous to 

see exactly what we would be spending the night on.  Did we have a bed?  Just a seat?  We had no clue.  So we went to eat at a  mall like thing that was close by.  The girls were thrilled because for the first time in 4 months they got to eat McDonalds!

After our McDonald's adventure we headed back to the train station to wait.  While waiting we decided to go ahead and buy our return train tickets, this time getting first class.  They only let you buy these tickets at the train station.  You can buy 2nd class on-line so that's what we had done, but as we weren't confident in what we were purchasing we had decided to wait to buy the return ticket so we could ensure the 1st class.  Boy what a mistake!  As it was a holiday weekend, everyone in Thailand decided to travel, so there were no seats on the return train.  This made us effectively stuck in Laos!  Thankfully Dad came through and we went to a travel agent (in the train station) and purchased airline tickets back to Thailand.  Dad really didn't mind as he wasn't overly keen on sitting on a bumpy train for 12 hours anyway.  We had decided to take the train originally because I didn't feel like Lao Airlines was particularly safe, but in light of the fact that we didn't have a return train ticket, and the option was to drive, we opted to risk life and limb and fly on Lao Airlines.   I suggested that we take two different flights so that Amy wouldn't lose her entire family in one fell swoop but Dad was confident that we would make it.  Obviously he was right!

So, the train ride to the Laos border (I should say now that you do NOT pronounce the "s" in Laos...it sounds like Low, rhymes with now) was quite the adventure.  We boarded the train at around 6:30 pm and ate our dinner and just talked for a bit.  The train guy then came by and began making everyone's beds. 

Phoebe playing her game on her bed 

Emma and Grandma on the train

So the train guy pulled the seats together to make a bed, then for privacy you pulled the blue curtains closed.  Each adult slept with one kid.

The girls loved being on the top bunk!

The train ride was a lot of fun.  We didn't really get a lot of sleep and most of the time the train was rocking so bad back and forth you felt like it was really going to come off the tracks.  Shawn said at one point he held onto his stomach it was jiggling so bad!  The girls did great though and we found it to be a great way to travel!

After arriving at the train station we took two tuk tuks to the Thai/Laos border.  We had decided to just get our visa's here which turned out to be a good decision.  The people who already had their visas had to wait in the long line at passport control, but because we bought our visa there we just had it stamped behind the counter and someone walked us through to where we had to then get on a bus to take us across the border.  It could have also been because we had the 4 kids that it went fairly smoothly.  We did shamelessly use the kids to further our endeavors throughout the trip. 

As anyone who has ever traveled in Asia knows, there is no such thing as a line.  You do not wait in line anywhere. You simply push your way to the front if you want to do something.  Being nice and polite gets you nowhere.  So, when trying to get onto this bus to drive us across the border we had a strategic plan.  Shawn and Dad were going to get the luggage under the bus, then mom and I with all of the kids were going to muscle our way to get seats.  I have to say mom and I did great.  I did have to physically hold back an 80 year old woman from stepping all over Phoebe, but I was bigger and she was frail (but feisty) and so I managed to hold my arms out and block her and all who dared to get on the bus.  Even the geriatrics held no sway over me!  After safely seeing my children on the bus I did turn around and hoist granny up the stairs which had to redeem me in some small way.  It was then up to Dad and Shawn to actually make it on the bus.  We did have to fight to save them seats though.  Alas, everyone made it on and away we went.

We made it to Laos!  We took a car, plane, taxi, tuk tuk, train, tuk tuk, bus, van, but then we were there.  We finally made it to our wonderful hotel the Day Inn.  Not Days I might add, but Day Inn.  Maybe they forgot the S.

I have decided to post our Laos trip in installments.  It is the one thing I do not like about this site.  I spend forever downloading the stupid pictures, then if I lose a connection and haven't actually put the photos in the body of the blog I lose them.  In fact, I just lost about 30 pictures I had downloaded.  So, I will post in installments so as not to lose anything.

More soon!