Luang Prabang - better around than in

Day 78 - 04/02/2016
Dien Bien Phu and Tuan Gyao

Next morning we jumped into half empty bus direction to the Unesco-protected city of Luang Prabang. Long strenuos journey through mountain area. Somewhere 2/3 of a way sudden explosion just below Roman interrupted the contemplation of the beautiful landscape around.

Descending to the cloud altitude

Lush forests

It wasn’t coming out of Roman’s bottom as usual :) On of the rear tyres gone flat. The driver kept driving for 10 more minutes through steep hilly curves until finally stopped and judged the case as not that critical ...

Bang !

The next 20 km of 1000 m downhill drop were scary and going slowly we found a garage who could repair it.

10 000 KIP to the person who guesses contents of the bag :)

Luang Prabang is situated in a peninsula where Nam Khan river meets Mekong. French colonial buildings mixed with ancient Laotian wooden houses, austere white monasteries  and coloured-glass temples give to the city a special charm.

Nam Khan flows into Mekong

The city has to be one of the most expensive in South East Asia (Except Singapore and Hong Kong).
But surprisingly it took us just 30 minutes of walking in right direction (thanks to the tip of a friend we met in Vang Vieng and earlier in Myanmar) and we found Moukdavan GH, which unexpectedly charged only 50.000 kips per room – the cheapest we had until now ! Yes it was not the boutique accommodation, but friendly family style drinking Lao Laao (Sticky rice whiskey) every night with friends.

Swastika on pagoda walls 

Knowing how crowded LP is, we organised our 3 days-stay differently. Most of all we wanted to spend Roman's 33rd Birthday in the nature. So what would give us more freedom than a motorbike ride through villages and jungle on challenging roads :) ?

We chose Chompet district (Xiang Men village) across Mekong river as our first day destination.

Crossing mekong on local ferry

Beginning as usual with the moto “Left around the chorten”, we first visited Ban Chan and for the first time we got our hands dirty with pottery wheel! The result was surprisingly acceptable !

Be gentle on that mud

Doesn't look right 

But don't give up !

Clay was not only used to do pottery but also clay bricks . The villagers were producing it in a, one could call , quite “standardised way” =)

This machine could be called "brick shitter"

Cca 36 km through bucolic landscape, felt a world away from white face infested town side – rice paddies, teak forests, quiet villages, under constructed monasteries and dirt rain washed and cratered roads made our day.

Our gypsy style lunch spot 

Porco e familia

No bridge, no problem

Beginning of silk thread

No road, no problem

Back in LP we had a quick stop in Ock Pop Tock, the crafts centre where dozens of weavers from nearby villages show their expertise and produce beautiful cotton and silk shawls. The coffee terrace gave us the best spot for birthday toast of lovely Laos coffee accompanied with the best sunset view over Mekong river’s beach !

Weavers in Ock Pop Tock center

Mekong beach

Next day we went on the road direction to Kouang Si Waterfall.

Kouang Si waterfall

As usual Roman’s adventurous sense took us to small detour through villages, jungle and little Dam on the way.

Where is a dam, there will be a road one day 

Little dam powers few villages around

Little village girl in her home

No school today, no problem

Road becoming a path

Path becoming jungle trail, no problem

We got to Kouang Si too late to explore the forest and the cave, but we still climbed until the top and experienced the powerful 60 m of tumbling water through limestone formations.

On the top of the waterfall 

Off the beaten bridge

We'll get wet !!!

Just before dusk we had some fun in the turquoise pools ! =)

How small we are ...

So let's enjoy it !

In our 3rd day, we got off the bike and finally ventured to explore the city on foot. One can cover all of the main sites on foot in a day with few stops for coffee or beer easily. If you like white face crowd stay there longer.

Luang Prabang has loads of temples

Sangha community is thriving in Luang Prabang

Football pitch on sacred grounds

To say goodbye to LP after long day of walking, deserving a beer Lao while watching sunset, we ended up again on the best, non touristic spot of LP - Mekong’s river beach.

Heading to the beach

Locals enjoy the cooler time of the day playing football, picnicking, fishing or riverbathing ... We followed locals :)

Falang

Local

Christmas in Chiang Mai

Day 48 - 04/01/2016
Phu Chi Fa - Rom Fa Thai - Close to Laotian border

The longer we travel, the less time we have for writing.

Days past faster than in cold office and suddenly we’ve entered year 2016 :)

We haven’t posted anything about our mission in Thailand and I’d like to go back in our memories to the beginning - How did we get out of Myanmar ?

Our original plan was to go east direction deep into Shan state and cross border to Thailand by land in Tachileik, unfortunately this option was not feasible as Shan and Burmese Armies were giving each other bit of hard time for a change and only option would be to fly with one of domestic airlines - which would 1. be more expensive than to fly to Bangkok, 2. mean supporting one of the generals as all domestic airlines are own by military chiefs.

So we flew to Bangkok with AirAsia instead and took sleeper train directly to Chiang Mai. For those who’ve tried sleeper class in India, Thai trains are a bit of disappointment - less crowdy, no chai, no food vendors, only Thai railway owned restaurant coach which is bit overpriced and mainly being used by Thai police members. Light was on all night and in general it’s missing the Indian sleeper atmosphere - most of the passengers in cheapest sleeper were other white faces ;(. Another strange fact met first time on the train - You can’t drink beer but you can smoke cigarettes ?

Monkey business on Thai train

Anyway scenery was beautiful and we’ve enjoyed morning with reading and staring out of the window. By midday we’ve reached Chiang Mai - 2nd largest city in Thailand. Train station is some 20 mins east out of the town. We got dropped by Somphet market which is the centre of backpackers life. Within 10 mins we’ve found really quiet guest house hidden in a mix of concrete and garden and they still had one double bedroom available. We’ve checked in on 23rd of December for very reasonable 300 Bahts.

For next 5 nights it was our home. Old teak house with huge room on the 1st floor.

First day we didn’t get to do much, I was still tired from sickness so we’ve just chilled in the garden, read a bit and overdosed ourselves on Mango, Lime and Pineapple ice shakes :)

First full day in Chiang Mai we’ve wondered around the town, discovering market areas, few temples and afternoon spent in the shade of our garden, regaining energy. Christmas dinner was in the name of fish soup and Masamang Curry :) followed by early night in bed.

The orchids are almost as beautiful as Tati

On Christmas Day we’ve kicked ourselves to fresh fruit breakfast and rented old school Honda Dream - 125cc for a journey through Mae Sa Valley - so called Samoeng loop. Our first bike riding experience in Thailand, smooth asphalt roads winding through jungle forests are great to get little training on Thai roads!

Mae Sa Waterfall - more a cascade than proper waterfall but beautiful walk

Getting out of Chiang Mai through the road 107 heading north and turning in Mae Rim direction to Mae Sa waterfall and Samoeng. This area is full of tourist attractions - Adrenalin sports related, elephant camps, orchid gardens - Thai Tourism factory perse ...

But there are some lovely spots to be seen ! Mae Sa waterfall, strawberries farms and the road which takes you around Doi Suthep - Pui mountain in 100 km circuit has incredible views from the higher sections and some really good turns. Traffic is not that bad, but don’t expect to be alone on the road - for that you have to head much further north :)

Strawberries selection by RaT !

Our bums were getting square by the time we got back to the town and joined busy dusk traffic. We do it all the time :) ride till the last light of the day and join the crowd who’s doing the same :)

Getting lost in the fields around Samoeng

We kept the bike for next day and this time we went just west out of the town - Doi Suthep Pui national park area. Again most of the road is lined with tourist attractions but this time in different spirit - Hill tribe village - overpriced market and entrance fees to see everything, crowded Wat above the town, viewpoints of Chiang Mai aglomeration - lovely view ...

There were 2 highlights of the day and both had one simple thing in common - being alone in wild nature. Few kms above Zoo, there is Mon Tha Tan waterfall and close to that is 1.6 km long nature trail taking you through the deep jungle on muddy path. If you’re lucky there might be no one to collect the entrance fee and you save yourself some 200 Bahts each ;)

Waiting for the waterfall engineers to turn the tap on :)

Next nature trail is located almost on the top of Doi Pui itself. Park your vehicle in the campsite and within 30 minutes hike you reach the top - 1685 m. Top of the peak is in deep forest, but don’t despair keep going north direction and you’ll reach viewpoint on pretty steep ridge. We carried huge pineapple with us for last 2 days and this was the time to eat it !

View from Doi Pui viewpoint - looking North West direction

Pineapple lunch !

Surrounded by clean air, with just few random Thai guys and one American girl passing by in 40 mins, it didn’t feel like being so close to the city at all.

This time we’ve managed to get back to the town before sunset, returned the bike, did some laundry, had massive dinner and fell dead into our bed :)

Next day was the day of preparation for proper bike mission !

We’ve secured Honda Phantom 200cc, helmets big enough to fit on our hairy brains, bought gloves, Golden Triangle biker map, monocular and did more research about which direction and for how long we should head !

(in the time of writing our 8th day has just passed and we’ve done close to 1000 km)

Historic stupa in Shan temple

In the afternoon we walked around to see some of the most important Wats of Chiang Mai, late but not forgotten proper tourist tour =) and ended up in the famous busy Sunday street market in the centre of the town. A quick walkthrough was enough to understand the purpose - to satisfy white-faces consuming mood and made us return faster to our guest-house and our planing-trip mission !

Old temple built by Myanmar monks

Next morning we had a full western breakfast for a change accompanied by huge rat trying to steal fruit offered to Buddha in little shrine, it tried few times and didn’t care that we’re sitting just meter away from it :)

Architectural centre in Chiang Mai - detailed expositions of traditional Thai housing

By 10 AM we checked out, with one oversize backpack on Tati’s back - the rest of our stuff stayed hidden in storage room of Chok Dee guest house.

But that’s all folks for now!

Next adventures are captured separately with proper map, road descriptions and large photo gallery.

All roads lead to Mandalay

Day 39 - 26/12/2015
Chokdee guest house - Chiang Mai - Thailand

Hello folks !

It's been exactly 2 weeks since our last post and to be honest we didn't write a single line even to our internal diary ...

However all important memories are still very alive and not important ones are not worth mentioning :)

Our last post was written on a bus from Rakhine state to Mandalay, 14 hours comfy journey with bitter-ish arrival at 4 AM to sleeping city.

Accompanied by our new Russian friend - Anton Antonovskyi we all checked in to Garden Hotel for reasonable price matching reasonable room.

We almost made it for the sunrise :) underestimated distance to Mandalay hill only by 2 hours of walking :)

Anyway street Mohinga and massive Papaya shared between three of us served as great start of the day and only meal till late afternoon.

Main tourist attractions in Mandalay include - Royal Palace (occupied by military and can be missed),

Moat and Palace walls are the heart of modern Mandalay

Inner Palace grounds viewed from watch tower

Main entrance

Kuthodaw Pagoda - in the surrounding area one can find the largest book on this planet

Each pagoda protects one stone carved chapter of Tripitaka 

Inner Yard of Kuthodaw pagoda complex

Sandamuni Pagoda - newer copy of Kuthodaw with the Teravada books transleted to Burmese script.

Burmese Tripitaka translations

Endless field of white pagodas

Atumashi Monastery - Rebuilt and renovated lately - very impressive feeling inside

Detail of inner staircase

Atumashi pagoda in full glory

Shwenadaw Kyaung - old teak monastery saved from the bombs of WW2 allies only because it was relocated out of the Royal Palace

Impressive detailed carvings

Inner walls are covered with gold and used to serve as king's chamber 

Last but not least to mention is Mahamuni Temple complex on the bottom of 84th street surrounded by stone carving industry where you can see Buddha statues of all shapes and sizes.

Golden face of Mandalay, all statue except the face is covered with golden leaves 

Modern handwork

Face comes last as it's most difficult and only some masters can do it correctly

Another one bites the dust !

It's possible to score all of these sites within one day, but it's a little bit tiring :) we started at 7 am with long walk around the Palace walls - one side of the wall is bloody 3 kms long ! and just before the sunset we were leaving Mahamuni complex.

As mentioned earlier, Palace is not as attractive as one would expect, Kuthodaw Pagoda area is incredibly calm place where locals come to chill in shade of little pagodas protecting book fragments, Large trees are full of birds and you can easily fall asleep even in the midday heat :)

Mr Anton Antonovskiy having a nap :)

Mandalay hill is a hike which might be worth it on clear sky day for sunset / sunrise (wondering when this happens in city with such high air pollution), we started climbing around 3 pm and it cost a lot of energy.

Nirvana awaits  much higher in the heavens than you can see !

Endless steps take you around beautiful viewpoints all the way to the heaven and the last step leads directly to NIRVANA !

View south east from mid Mandalay Hill - Left is Kuthodaw and right is Sandamuni complex

Next morning we rented bikes and leaving early to avoid morning peak hour traffic we set off south direction to Amarapura and Inwa.

Things do not go by the plan all the time and Ganesha was obviously not on our side that morning.

Firstly we almost had a collision with a lady on a motorbike heading straight at us in 10 km/h speed, after 3 maneuvers trying to avoid inevitable crash on completely empty street our back wheel betrayed us, skid on loose rocks of dirty road and we tasted the force of gravity ! Nothing serious happened to either us or bike, minor scratches on our hands, little bruises and broken driver foot rest on the bike. We exchanged the bike for older more resistable model explaining that the footrest just fell off :) wrapped drivers hand in few bandages and set on the journey again.

Tarmac tattoos couple of days later 

Don't buy fuel from unknown strangers unless you have cheap shitty chinese bike which can run almost on pure water ! Mr Anton's bike (Honda) stopped running at the end of 84th street and further bike exchange delayed us by more than hour.

By 9:30 we finally made it to Amarapura and after brief walk on the longest teak bridge in the world we had amazing Mohinga again (How I miss Mohinga these days.... Mohinga, Mohinga, Mohinga !!!)

Longest teak bridge in the world - Amarapura

Business as usual in Amarapura, new harvest is coming soon !

Stop in monastery to see lunch procession of monks took us some time as we got into few conservations and at the end we got stuck sitting with one monk inside his tiny room discussing basics of Buddha's teachings. Sure he wanted donation for his studies at the end :)

Patient queue for lunch at 10:30 - last meal of the day

Ancient city of Inwa spreads over the plains south of Myitnge river and it's hard to imagine full size during the main glory period. These days remains consists of many pagoda ruins and few monasteries, all vedged into beautiful landscape of lakes, rice paddies and banana plantations.

Earthquake surviving watch tower

We spent the rest of the day wondering through this vast area and even on the way back we're discovering many more ruins of grand scale.

Even monks act as tourists sometimes !

Inwa - Brick monastery

Buddha exchanged Boddhi tree for Toddy Tree :)

RaT watching bright future !

Concentrating since 1623 !

Oldest still working teak monastery in Myanmar

Pagodas lost in the rice fields

Tati awaiting moto-taxi back to Mandalay :) Good luck on this busy highway !

Teak monastery hidden in the palm trees and lotus filled lakes 

Pagodas, Payas, History etc ...

We expect this to be earthquake surviving entrance to huge building !

To get back to Mandalay centre we joined Transoriental highway from Yangon and killed 35 kms distance in very short time. We joined dusk peak traffic and enjoyed it to the maximum. Anton was singing his favourite song half the way surrounded by 3 lines of motobikes and further 3 more lines of trucks, vans and cars.

Where are the girls ???

At the end of the day we got fairly used to simple asian driving rule - Don't think, don't look left and right too much and keep your pace in straight direction, everything works out on its own :)