Hi everyone! This marks my first time ever blogging so I am nervous but excited to share my trip to Asia with you all! I spent the first few days adjusting to the time zone in Shanghai while my Aunt Joanne, Uncle Ben, and my Grandma stuffed me silly with delicious Shanghai food and cheap massages. I left Shanghai on 3/13/2010 and after a 4 hour flight to Bangkok, 12 hour layover at the Bangkok Airport, and a 2 hour flight, I finally reached Luang Prabang a dusty but charming city in the north half of Laos. I was in a state of shock and awe as I exited the plane and took a minivan to our guesthouse, but then quickly turned to pure joy when I saw Ali in our room. Ali has been in Chiang Rai, Thailand since October on a Fulbright scholarship to teach English at a boarding school. It was really great to see her again and I look forward to our long but epic adventure in Southeast Asia.
We spent all day yesterday sightseeing in Luang Prabang, starting out early in the morning ascending the steep climb up to Phou Si, a major hill that overlooks the city also dotted with small religious buildings such as Wat Pa Houk (Wat = temple) and Wat Pha Phoutthabat which included a small shrine dedicated to the Saquatch-sized imprint of "Buddha's footprint". There were also multiple gold Buddha statues in many shapes and sizes and an abandoned aircraft cannon. At the peak is a stunning gold stupa, which can be seen almost anywhere from the city and from the airplane. Ali and I caught the Royal Palace Museum right before lunch time to check out the now-extinct monarchy's former digs and we were blown away by the wall artwork, which consisted of scenes of mosaic-like shapes of people in war and at labor, depending on the wall. The pieces were made of Japanese glass and looked like colorful mirror shards, I hadn't seen anything like it before.
After a quick rest of lemon fruit shakes and A/C, we walked over to the famed Wat Xiang Thong, the oldest standing monstary in Luang Prabang and definitely one of the most eye catching. I loved the low sweeping roofs, and the dragon-headed gargoyle like creatures lining the roof. The walls of the main temple had the same mosaic scenes we saw at the Royal Palace Museum so we were now able to take pictures of these images. The courtyard also had a small belltower, some smaller religious fixtures, housing for monks, and a golden chamber containing the the funeral chariot and urn of a former king. Every angle of this wat showed me why Luang Prabang was worthy of a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation.
Throughout the day, we had walked by quite a few monks in their orange shrouds, which I was quickly told that females should not make the slightest contact with them so when they walked by, I stood out of their way and made eye contact with the ground. From afar though, the presence of monks gave us a sense of calmness and inspiration and I'm not sure if it's because of the shade of orange they wear or their simple appearance but there is definitely an intangible force that makes monks so special in this community. Ali sees monks on a weekly basis in Chiang Rai and still feels this way, so there is definitely something powerful about their presence.
We ate a delicious Lao dinner by the Mekong river that night and strolled through the night market, buying some souveniers before closing time. I was really glad that we started out our trip in Laos' national treasure.
A bumpy but brief plane ride has brought us to Vientiane, where we have missed the sightseeing hours so we walked to the U.S. Embassy because Ali needed to get more passport pages. We reached the embassy, and surprise, Ali left her passport at our hostel. She says I can give her a hard time here and remind all of you of the good old Ali I get to spend lots of quality time with :) But no worries, I think we can accomplish everything we need to get done tomorrow morning before we leave for Hanoi.
In contrast to Luang Prabang, Vientiane is a more developed, laid back city with French influenced buildings and tree lined streets. We witnessed a minor accident during lunch where both parties handled the back-end calmly and quickly. There are wats dotting the streets of Vientiane but they look so different from the ones in Luang Prabang, as they look more extravagant and bold than the designs on the exterior of the Luang Prabang temples. I look forward to checking out what Vientiane has to offer tomorrow.
By the way, I can't post pictures quite yet because I didn't bring my USB cord to upload photos but they will be up soon! We took a LOT of pictures yesterday.
Also, if you were wondering about the title, I came up with it because I had so many worried comments before leaving on this trip. This will be a constant reminder that Ali and I are doing great over here so please don't worry!
We spent all day yesterday sightseeing in Luang Prabang, starting out early in the morning ascending the steep climb up to Phou Si, a major hill that overlooks the city also dotted with small religious buildings such as Wat Pa Houk (Wat = temple) and Wat Pha Phoutthabat which included a small shrine dedicated to the Saquatch-sized imprint of "Buddha's footprint". There were also multiple gold Buddha statues in many shapes and sizes and an abandoned aircraft cannon. At the peak is a stunning gold stupa, which can be seen almost anywhere from the city and from the airplane. Ali and I caught the Royal Palace Museum right before lunch time to check out the now-extinct monarchy's former digs and we were blown away by the wall artwork, which consisted of scenes of mosaic-like shapes of people in war and at labor, depending on the wall. The pieces were made of Japanese glass and looked like colorful mirror shards, I hadn't seen anything like it before.
After a quick rest of lemon fruit shakes and A/C, we walked over to the famed Wat Xiang Thong, the oldest standing monstary in Luang Prabang and definitely one of the most eye catching. I loved the low sweeping roofs, and the dragon-headed gargoyle like creatures lining the roof. The walls of the main temple had the same mosaic scenes we saw at the Royal Palace Museum so we were now able to take pictures of these images. The courtyard also had a small belltower, some smaller religious fixtures, housing for monks, and a golden chamber containing the the funeral chariot and urn of a former king. Every angle of this wat showed me why Luang Prabang was worthy of a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation.
Throughout the day, we had walked by quite a few monks in their orange shrouds, which I was quickly told that females should not make the slightest contact with them so when they walked by, I stood out of their way and made eye contact with the ground. From afar though, the presence of monks gave us a sense of calmness and inspiration and I'm not sure if it's because of the shade of orange they wear or their simple appearance but there is definitely an intangible force that makes monks so special in this community. Ali sees monks on a weekly basis in Chiang Rai and still feels this way, so there is definitely something powerful about their presence.
We ate a delicious Lao dinner by the Mekong river that night and strolled through the night market, buying some souveniers before closing time. I was really glad that we started out our trip in Laos' national treasure.
A bumpy but brief plane ride has brought us to Vientiane, where we have missed the sightseeing hours so we walked to the U.S. Embassy because Ali needed to get more passport pages. We reached the embassy, and surprise, Ali left her passport at our hostel. She says I can give her a hard time here and remind all of you of the good old Ali I get to spend lots of quality time with :) But no worries, I think we can accomplish everything we need to get done tomorrow morning before we leave for Hanoi.
In contrast to Luang Prabang, Vientiane is a more developed, laid back city with French influenced buildings and tree lined streets. We witnessed a minor accident during lunch where both parties handled the back-end calmly and quickly. There are wats dotting the streets of Vientiane but they look so different from the ones in Luang Prabang, as they look more extravagant and bold than the designs on the exterior of the Luang Prabang temples. I look forward to checking out what Vientiane has to offer tomorrow.
By the way, I can't post pictures quite yet because I didn't bring my USB cord to upload photos but they will be up soon! We took a LOT of pictures yesterday.
Also, if you were wondering about the title, I came up with it because I had so many worried comments before leaving on this trip. This will be a constant reminder that Ali and I are doing great over here so please don't worry!
First!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteHave fun on your trip! I just subscribed in g00gle rEaDeR, so I'm expecting >= 1 post/day, no less.
Have fun! keep us posted!! I did the same thing, but only made one post in the end... hopefully you post more
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