Several nights in Bangkok

When we arrived in Bangkok, the Thai festival of Songkran was just beginning.  This is their New Year.  Originally, the celebration was about paying respect to elders and getting their blessing by lightly sprinkling their hands with water and giving them a floral offering.  

Over time, and especially in areas with a lot of tourists, the focus has shifted to an all out water assault.  At ANY given time, day or night, be prepared to be soaked.  Vendors sell all types of water guns, waterproof pouches for wallets and rain ponchos.  Luckily we knew ahead of time what to expect.  Big bummer for the unfortunate travelers who had no idea.  

It was all fun and games during the day, and sometimes even welcome because it was very hot and humid.  But at night, when all we wanted was to get some dinner and return to our room, forget it.  We had water dumped on us, sprayed at us, hoses . . . the ice water was the worst.  Everyone is fair game, locals and tourists -- even those in a tuk tuk (motorized open air taxi) or on a motor scooter.  

Garvin refills for the next onslaught.  People were set up all over the city waiting to spray the next passersby.  Part of the payment for getting water -- he got drenched.

 Flowers for sale to place on temple altars, or give as offerings to others.

 A few days after I took this, we had a chance to try both these fruits -- though I don't know their names.  We liked the one on the left -- texture almost of a banana and tasted like a mix of that and strawberry.  The one on the right was less flavorful, has a pit inside, and I have not come up with a way to describe the taste or texture.  You peel them both : )

This was amazing --  Wat Pho, The Temple of The Reclining Buddha.  A reclining Buddha is highly revered because it shows he's achieved enlightenment.

And here are his feet, inlaid with mother-of-pearl.  I love how he has toe-prints.

These designs are on the soles of his feet!

There were scores of these seated Buddhas lining courtyards throughout the temple grounds. 

 An altar in one of the courtyards where people could make an offering.

People sprinkle the Buddha statue on the altar with water.  Later I saw 2 minutes of a Thai soap opera, and family members were coming up to the matron of the family, giving her a flower garland, and lightly sprinkling her hands with water using cups like these.

 Wat Arun, The Temple of Dawn

These prang (the towers where relics are stored) are decorated with ceramic tiles and porcelain.  Many of the decorations were made from broken plates arriving on Chinese ships in the 18th and 19th centuries.   

Climbing the steps is a bit precarious.  The risers are narrow and the angle of the stairs is steep.

More Thailand to come.  Thanks for reading!

Viet Nam, Part 2

Wrapping up our time in Viet Nam . . .

Headed north on the overnight train from Ha Noi to Sa Pa.

One of the Mung huts in Sa Pa.  The Mung people left China 400 years ago to avoid persecution, and settled in the hills of Viet Nam.  China is just over a mountain range above the valley.  The Mung people dye their clothes black with indigo, and live in houses which have no plumbing, electricity, or anything we could consider a convenience.  This is the fire pit where they cook, and the side of the house where the women have to sit at meals.  I could hardly stand the smokiness inside.

This is how they hull their rice.  Water is routed into the larger log, and when it gets heavy enough, it pounds down at the other end and separates the rice from the husks.

Each day as hikers and tour groups head out to walk down among the rice terraces, the Mung women follow along hoping to sell bracelets or weaving.  Unless you tell them you're not shopping, they stick with you.  I bought a bracelet the first day.  The second day I told them I wasn't shopping so they could move on to another tourist.

 

The Mung people, and other tribes, have terraced the slopes throughout the valley in order to plant rice.

Back in Ha Noi.  Street "restaurants" like this are very common.  

Crossing the street is no small task.  Only a few intersections have traffic lights, so you just have to move slowly into the traffic and give the scooters time to move around you.  

Can you imagine being an electrician here?  We saw examples like this all over the country, Thailand too.

Ladies hoping to sell fruit and flowers.

One of many, many parking areas for the scooters.  Often the sidewalks are blocked by them.

A closeup -- fancy and modern on the bottom, but . . .

and, my beloved 'hardware store' truck from Mexico has turned into a 'hardware store' bicycle!

For a communist country, Viet Nam is incredibly capitalistic.  People seem to work long, hard hours and we saw many small businesses.  There are posters of "Uncle" Ho Chi Minh all over the city.  Nobody seemed to care that we were Americans, nor did anyone mention the Viet Nam War.  However, in the museum showing the history of Viet Nam's efforts to overthrow the French, and then the U.S., there are plaques referring to the "war of American aggression".  

We went to Hoa Lo Prison, aka the Ha Noi Hilton, where John McCain and others were held and tortured as POW's.  It's history was awful and bloody from the beginning.  In the late 1800's, the French destroyed a village, famous for its porcelain products, and built the prison.  Most of it has been torn down and replaced with a high rise office building, but the rest has been preserved as a museum, showing the ghastly conditions for Communist Vietnamese (women included) imprisoned for trying to overthrow the French.  

The photos portray the Americans' time there quite differently, filled with outdoor recreation, happily cooking holiday meals, and receiving letters from home.    Garvin said, "It looks like they were treated really well here."  I had just overheard a woman say her neighbor was a POW at Hoa Lo, so we talked to her a bit.  My knowledge of the Viet Nam War is limited, but I was fairly certain the prison had not been a model of prisoners' rights for American POW's.  She assured Garvin that those photos of happy American soldiers were staged.

That said, we were treated well everywhere we went.  People were friendly and helpful, and very eager to please.  On our last night in Bangkok we met an English couple heading home after 2 years in Viet Nam. They said the Vietnamese could take or leave the tourists and would be happy to go back to their closed society.  I found that interesting, but it wasn't our experience.

Viet Nam, Part 1

Hello!  All is well.  We've been busy taking bus trips and overnight trains, I had a bad cold, internet connections were not in air conditioned areas, that was a problem in super hot Bangkok . . . and then we were very busy chilling out for the past few days at the beach in Thailand.  We were not in Phuket, so we avoided the earthquakes.  We've been on the island of Koh Chang, but more on that later.  I have to get you caught up!

This is a shot on our first day in Ha Noi -- a crazy place, probably the noisiest place I've ever been.  People are constantly honking to let those ahead know there's someone behind them.  They are really good drivers, which is a good thing because it's madness here.  Very few traffic lights, more motor scooters than I can describe, cars, vans, taxis . . . and remember, constant honking.  I liked Ha Noi because it was so alive, and still exotic, but a little goes a long way.  I got hit in the rear by the side view mirror of a scooter on our first day.  My fault.  Moved one way, then another.  Poor guy didn't know what I was doing.  

We saw an amazing variety of objects being transported by scooter.  Numerous cases of beer, soda, mattresses, lumber -- incredible.

Our $6 dinner (for all 3), if it was even that expensive.  Pho, pronounced fa -- Vietnamese soup with noodles, beef or chicken and herbs, with various garnishes like limes, chili peppers, chili paste.  Quite tasty.

A street market -- I was amazed at the variety.  One store had baskets piled high with fresh ginger root.  Women carry any number of items in baskets like these around the city, hanging from the end of a long board they have on their shoulders.  They have to walk in this rolling gait in order to balance the heavy baskets.  I feel tired just watching them.  They work so hard and earn so little.

This ended up being a $10 photo, or a $10 bag of pineapple.  The woman beside me was carrying the baskets and came up asking if we wanted pineapple.  I said no; she took the baskets off, placed the wooden bar on my shoulder, put her hat on me, got her daughter to take a photo, gave me a bag of pineapple and then asked for money.  It was so fast we hardly knew what happened, but you can be sure we were more emphatic with our "no" the next time we were approached!

More things people carry on bikes

Various options for a seafood dinner had we wanted to point and have it cooked.

This is a floating village in Ha Long Bay, an area filled with thousands of the rock formations you see in the background.  These houses have no solid dock around them, but instead are surrounded by nets.  

Craig thought I should get close to the monkey.  I did not agree.

On our tour boat in Ha Long Bay.

More to come on the rest of our time in Viet Nam, and then Thailand.  We head back to Bangkok tomorrow and on to Hong Kong on Wednesday.

Since your life revolves around following our travels, Garvin would be thrilled if any of you wanted to read his blog.  No photos at this point, but amusing narration.  We'll be working on the editing.  His blog:  lifeandtimesoftheg.blogspot.com

I forgot the plastic food, and the earthquake . . .

Because we're taking photos on different cameras, I forgot there were others which hadn't been downloaded yet.  So, a few final photos from Japan.  I feel better about moving on from the restroom info.  

On Sunday night in Tokyo there was a small earthquake.  It was between 10:30 and 11:00 pm, we were in bed on the 20th floor of the hotel, and we were literally shaken awake.  We waited, nothing more, no call to evacuate, Garvin and Craig fell back to sleep in minutes while I lay there wondering if the building was about to collapse on me.  Then I decided if it was there wasn't anything I could do and I eventually fell asleep.  We forgot to ask the next day, but the following day the people in front of us on the shuttle to the airport were pantomiming an earthquake so we asked and they said it was between a 3 and a 4.  It was enough.

Here is another sample of train food, chocolate covered pretzels, but Garvin informs me these are available at home.

 More shots of the food stalls in the department store basement.

And now for the plastic food.  This is a big deal in Japan, and a specialty industry -- the guidebook gives it mention.  At many restaurants there are outside displays of the dishes offered, only those dishes are plastic examples.  There's an area, and one street in particular, called Kitchen Goods Street on the tour map, which has every kitchen supply item you might need if you owned a restaurant, including displays of plastic food, which are not cheap.  One sushi piece -- $10.


This food below, all fake.

Garvin had just eaten shrimp for lunch which looked exactly like the ones on the left.

I thought you needed a closeup of this.  Still fake. 

Temples and Tokyo

A combo of our last day in Nikko, and then our time in Tokyo.

Giving his new chopsticks a test run.  He bought them a few blocks earlier as we walked to the temples.  It's raining outside so we decide a lunch break is wise.

 The guidebook says it's unclear if this is the origin of the "Hear no evil . . ." expression.  It's one in a series of wood sculpture friezes depicting the cycles of life.

These stone lanterns (Ishidoro) are all over the temple grounds.  We got a little carried away taking photos of them.  I did a little checking -- they date back to the 6th century AD and were originally used at temple grounds to light votive tributes.

 These temples were amazing in their detail, lavishness of color and design.  A detail to give you an idea.

 More lanterns, and yes, leftover snow.  We left a rare, early spring in Colorado to find a late one in Japan.  Normally the cherry blossoms would be in bloom now, but they're a few weeks away, especially in Nikko.  The wood sculptures on the temple are elaborate scenes of animals -- peacocks, tigers, various birds . . .

More temples, more lanterns

 A five story pagoda is rare. This entire temple complex, which is sizable, and encompasses 15 or so buildings, is in a forest of huge trees. Cypress I think.

 This should be the last of the lantern photos to which I'll subject you.

When was the last time you saw a Bugle?  Taking the train back to Tokyo.

In the department store food halls again -- huge variety, reasonable prices.  These are baby anchovies.  The stall owner offered us a sample.  Quite salty.

This is the Thunder Gate and was the most crowded place we encountered in Tokyo.  Behind the gate are the shops below, and a temple at the far end.

Cherry blossom street fair, and some of the food for sale 

We tried this -- a combo of cabbage, onions and pork in a batter, topped with a sweeter, thicker version of soy sauce, and some salty shavings of  ...?  It was ok.

This is a Japanese country band, singing, and I am not kidding --  "Will the Circle be Unbroken"  with a Japanese accent.  I sang along with them.  Nobody else in the crowd seemed to know the words.

More snacks

A traditional drum performance. 

We saw several versions of our cabbage/onion puff.  This was the most elaborate, but we didn't have one.  Garvin and I had just tried these octopus puffs below.  Balls of batter with a piece of octopus sticking out, topped with the sweet/salty sauce and some green garnish and the salty shavings.  I think it's an acquired taste.

We saw a few cherry blossoms!

Back at the food hall, they find something more to their liking.  These are waffles stuffed with a variety of whipped creams and fruits.  Quite tasty.  The array of options in the dessert area is dazzling.  Beautiful candies, parfaits, chocolates, cakes, cut out cookies of ducks, pandas, lady bugs.  The colors and artistry, as well as the care they take in packaging up your purchase makes it feel very special.

We're now back in the shopping area behind Thunder Gate -- still packed with people on a Monday morning.  These are charms to put on cell phones.  Many are bells.  We've also seen stuffed animal charms -- imagine a toy the size of my fist hanging off your cell phone.

Waving this incense smoke on you brings good luck.

Looking from the temple back through the entry gate.

A garden on the temple grounds.  We weren't sure if the turtle on the rock was real or not.

The sign on the toaster at our breakfast buffet : )

Ok, toilets are a big deal in Japan.  The seats are usually heated, and after our time in Nikko, I totally understand and appreciate this feature.  Central heating is not the norm here, so you heat the room you're in.  At night we turned off the heat, but had electric blankets, so it was just that first shock in the morning before the heater had taken away the chill.  However, the heat doesn't reach the bathroom, hence, our gratitude for the invention.  But it doesn't stop there.  In some public bathrooms -- this is a sign in an airport stall, you can have sound effects like running water, and many toilets offer personal cleansing features.  Sometimes there's a sink on top of the tank with a faucet which allows you to wash your hands before the water goes in to refill the bowl.

I'm sorry to end this post on the topic of bathrooms, but this is the last photo I took in Japan.  We're onto Viet Nam.