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Today marks the beginning of the 3-month long Buddhist Lent period, known as Khao Pansa (or Phansa or Vassa). It occurs at the start of the rainy season, and it’s the time when Buddhist monks return to their home monasteries, there to remain for the remainder of Lent. It’s also a time when ordinary folks increase their spirtual activities and, perhaps, give up some of their luxuries (smoking, drinking, meat) for the period, much like the Christian Lent period. Click here and here for a couple of web sites that talk about this in more depth.
I talked to Nai last night, and he and his family were busy preparing an elaborate meal to serve today to the monks at the wat near his house. I was present several years back during this time, and below are a couple of photos from then.
Here’s the meal, with Nai and some friends who helped serve it.
Guess who got to wash the dishes afterwards?
This is merit making, doing good deeds, not because it’ll gain you spiritual favor, but because it’s the right thing to do. Another way of merit-making is to release animals, like birds, fish or turtles, that have been captured. Many of the animals can be purchased near the temples (a bit of a racket, it you ask me) and then released at the temple or elsewhere. While I was in Laos this summer, Nai made merit this way in the hopes that his fatally ill (according to Lao and Thai doctors) mother would gain favor. First, he purchased a couple of small turtles at one of the markets, then bought some birds at Wat Si Muang, where he prayed for about 10 minutes with one of the monks. Then we went to the Mekong, where he released the birds and the turtles.
Here are a few shots of the various statuary at Wat Si Muang.
Nai also told me that the local villagers have been warned that a repeat of the flooding of 2008 is once again a possibility. Many people blame it on the upstream dams built by the Chinese, but there’s certainly been a huge amount of rain in China that’s contributing to high water levels. Let’s hope they don’t get higher. More later.
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After an uneventful journey on the overnight train to Nong Khai, I met up with Nai and we decided to stay in the small border city for a few days before going to Laos. At the moment, I’m in Vientiane, and I still haven’t decided whether to venture up to Vang Vieng or to go back to Bangkok tomorrow and then to either Phuket or Hua Hin to take in a few days at the beach.
Nong Khai hasn’t changed all that much, unlike Bangkok, which has dozens of new buildings going up and old ones being torn down; the skyline seems to be in a constant flux, undecided as to what face it wants to show. Everything is open again, at least those places not destroyed by arson in the recent protests. There are very few signs of the trouble, though a cleaning man pointed out a couple of bullet holes in the metal railing of one of the skywalks near Central World, courtesy of the Thai army, he told me.
Vientiane is also seeing a lot of activity, with new construction going on in the city itself and along the banks of the Mekong, where a new waterfront park is slowly taking shape. It’s been very dry and hot here, though we’re getting a bit of rain this morning. I’m not sure where my next post will be from, but I’ll certainly have more later.
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My friend Nai said that “we have rain a lot last night,” so, hopefully, the drought over there will be ending soon, with the monsoon season approaching. I check the Vientiane weather report every day at Weather Underground, and I can’t begin to tell you how many days the temperature has been over 95 degrees F. the last month or two, with no rain. Recently, Nai said that there have been days when there’s not been enough water to take showers (they buy all their drinking water in bulk), and the crops are hurting. The Weather Underground site also reports that March was the hottest or 2nd hottest month on record globally (depending on which agency–NOAA or NASA–reported it). To top it all off, Nai’s mother has been ill for about 3 weeks now, so the recent Songkran Festival (Thai and Lao New Year Celebration) was dampened quite a bit, due to the weather and the sickness. If you’re interested, there’s a very cute animated music video on Youtube about Songkran. Check it out here; I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!
As long as I’m on a Laos kick tonight, here’s an article about the French influence that’s still present in the former colony. Among other things, the author writes about the delicious baguettes, croissants and muffins, to which I’ll attest. It’s quite odd, but somehow satisfying, to see and smell the culinary relics of the French colonial era in this Communist relic.
Thankfully, I have the next week off, our usual mid-semester break. I’ll try to get out and hunt down some interesting photo opportunites–I have a few in mind, including some night shots and photos of the western coastline of Yeosu. Unfortunately, the weather service is predicting rain through next Thursday and we’ve had a bit today. More later.
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As I figured a few posts back, I jinxed Yeosu by talking about the nice spring-like weather. Sure enough, we had around an inch and a half of rain yesterday. Though it was warm while the rain was coming down, as soon as the front passed through, cold air followed. It was near freezing this morning and a vicious wind snapped at me as I walked to work this morning. The skies are clear and the sun is shining brightly right now, but the temperatures are still somewhat low and the wind is still whipping around. Sigh. In reality, spring doesn’t officially arrived until the 21st. Hopefully, we’ll see the permanent arrival of spring soon, but rain and cooler temperatures are forecast for the upcoming weekend.
Meanwhile, I’m sure the people in South-East Asia could use some of our rain. They’ve been experiencing one of their worst droughts in decades, with the Mekong River running (barely, in places) at its lowest levels in memory. You can read about it at the Earth Times: Rivers and waterfalls run dry in Laos and in another article, East, South-East Asia left high and dry this hot season. I talked to my friend Nai last night, and the drought is affecting him and his family. One the one hand, they have a water pump (courtesy of yours truly) to bring water to their crops; on the other, there is sometimes no water to pump. He tells me that the cost of drinking water and electricity has shot sky-high, and many Lao people are putting the blame on their government (for the prices) and on China (for all their dam-building upstream on the Mekong). Then there’s the heat: I check the Vientiane weather every day, and for the past several weeks, except for a few days last week, the daily high temperature has been in the mid-90s to low-100s. Hopefully, they’ll get some relief soon, and I’ll continue to help them out when I can.
Then, there were the series of snowstorms in the eastern and north-eastern areas of the United States this past winter. A lot of people who think that there’s no such thing as global warming going on, such as Sen. James Inhofe, seem to think that all the snow and cold disprove global warming. Yet, at the same time the east was being buried, Canada was experiencing it’s warmest winter ON RECORD. You can read about that here at Dr. Jeff Masters’ weather blog at Weather Underground. Not that either of these events proves or disproves anything–I’m just sayin’.
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Here are a few more photos of my recent trip to Laos. These are shots taken of a couple of wats–Buddhist temples. I did an early morning walkaround one day while we stayed in Vientiane. Nai was still asleep, and I forgot to ask him later the name of the wat pictured below. I think it’s Wat Sithan Neua. It’s a few blocks up from Fa Ngum Road, downstream of the Inter City Hotel. Anyway, it was a beautiful, clear morning, quite pleasant for just strolling aimlessly. Here’s a shot from outside the temple grounds.
Here’s some detail of the wall of the main entrance. I’m fascinated by the murals in Buddhist temples, both here in Korea and in Laos and Thailand. This one appears to show some highlights from the Buddha’s life.
This is one of the entrances into the temple grounds.
Later that same day, we went to Wat Si Muang to ask for blessings from one of the monks. On the temple grounds are a few vendors who sell incense, candles, flowers and wooden cages of small birds (sparrows?) which will be released later. One of the vendors sells long lengths of candles that are used to measure the length from your outstretched arm to your chest and the length around your head. The thin, flexible candles are folded at these lengths. Later, when the monk gives the blessing, he burns these candles. Nai, I and another unknown Lao fellow were blessed by a young monk. As we sat on the floor in front of him, the monk took a spool of string and wrapped it around the three of us and chanted for about five minutes, asking for Buddha’s blessing. Afterwards, Nai burned the incense and laid the flowers at an outdoor altar, where he also released the birds, about 6 of them in all. I’m sure they were happy to get out of the cramped cage and regain their freedom. I wonder how many of them are caught again. All in all, it’s a very peaceful, spiritual ceremony.
Inside the main temple, in an alcove beyond where we received the monk’s blessing, there is this jade (emerald?) buddha. It’s another area where people pray and offer incense and flowers. There were no worshippers in here at the time, so I took the opportunity to snap this shot.
That’ll do it for my Laos photos. The cold weather in this neck of the woods is supposed to lessen next week, so hopefully I’ll get off my lazy, but warm, duff and get some shots of Yeosu. More later.
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As promised, here are some photos from my recent trip to Laos. I guess we can call this the food-themed post. If you ever make it to Vientiane, one pleasurable thing to do is to eat at one of the many outdoor restaurants lining the Mekong and watch the sun slip below the Thailand horizon across the river. It’s quite laid back, though you’re right next to the main road along the Mekong, Fa Ngum Road. Along here you’ll find the Inter (City) Hotel and the Bor Penn Yang rooftop bar, from where I took the first photo below. There’s also a lot of construction going on; apparently, the authorities are building some flood protection devices, as well as creating a new park in this area. The first photo shows some of this construction. This is near quitting time, so a few of the restaurants set up some of their seating on a portion of the construction area that won’t be used again until the next morning. As you can see, you can sit at a table or sit down on floor mats, Lao style.
The menus in these eateries are quite extensive, featuring Lao, Thai and some Western food. Here’s a shot of a variety of fresh food waiting to be used in some mouth-watering delight.
Nai is preparing to wolf down a plate of Mekong clams.
My favorite dish is grilled Mekong river fish. Here are a couple of the restaurant workers (sons of the owner, I think) grilling a variety of fish, prawns, meat, chicken and other goodies. Ahhh, cripes, I wish I were there right now, out of this cold weather, chowing down on grilled fish, stir fried rice and spicy papaya salad.
And, of course, the aforementioned sunset.
I’ll get some more photos up soon, but this week marks the beginning of my 4-week schedule from hell, so I’m not sure when I’ll be able to post again There will definitely be more later.
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I’m just kind of hanging out in Vientiane right now. The SEA Games have finished, but Vientiane is still very crowded, especially with traffic. It’s quite difficult to cross some of the main streets at rush hour except at stoplights–I think the sleepy days of yore are at an end for the still-small city. I suppose that’s good news or bad news, depending on your point of view. Good news for local merchants but bad because of all the negative impacts of increased tourism. The Lao government is actively pushing for more tourism, but I hope they do it right and don’t import some of the problems that Thailand has, especially the sex industry, increased crime, etc.
About the only events of note lately are the snake hunt and the wedding of the title of this post. “Snake hunt?” you say. Yeah, someone spotted a snake at Nai’s house, so he and his sister, Nui, tracked it down to a junk pile nestled up against his house. They dismantled, carefully, the pile, while I supervised from the top of the outside stairs and kept an eye out for the intruder. They found it and ingloriously dispatched it with a bamboo pole and a hoe into its next life (or whatever). It was a thin, green thing, about a foot and a half long. I asked Nai if it was poisonous, but he didn’t seem to know. I sure wouldn’t want to find out the hard way.
Then, a friend of Nai’s had a wedding reception for his daughter, to which I was invited. I’ve met the fellow 3 or 4 times, and he’s a teacher in one of the local schools. Among the subjects he teaches is English, so we can communicate with each other pretty well. He also has an English teacher friend who was invited, but Nai said the guy had to work until 9 p.m. and wouldn’t turn up until then. Well, he turned up about 8:30, completely smashed. I talked to him a bit and what I could get out of him is that he decided to cancel his class because he started drinking earlier in the day and just kept imbibing. So much for professional integrity. Anyway, it was a good reception and I made some new Lao friends. I have some photos, but can’t get any of them posted at the moment. There isn’t much different from a typical U.S. reception–lots of dancing, drinking, eating and other merriment.
So, we’re either going to Vang Vieng or Nong Khai tomorrow, but we haven’t decided. It’s kinda like the Beatles sang on Abbey Road: “And oh, that magic feeling–nowhere to go.” More later.
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Well, it was pretty quiet last night after the Laos-Malaysia soccer match. Yes, unfortunately, Laos got beat 3-1. Malaysia scored about 15 minutes into the game on a spectacular over-the-head scissors kick. It stayed that way until the second half, when Laos put on charge after charge toward the Malaysia goal. They finally broke through about halfway into the period, tieing the game at 1 apiece. It was bedlam when the goal was scored, with all the Laos fans (and yours truly) screaming and shouting with joy. Hope had been restored that the unexpected might happen–that Laos might play for the gold medal. Alas, Malaysia stormed back with 2 goals to win the game. Not all is lost, though–Laos still plays for the bronze against Singapore this coming Friday, I believe. Viet Nam squares off against Malaysia for the gold.
Below are some photos I’ve taken recently. None of them have been optimized and I won’t be able to do any postprocessing work on them until I return to Korea. But, I suppose they’ll do until then. Enjoy.
Here’s a shot from yesterday with a few of the Viet Nam fans sporting their colors. I took this from a tuk-tuk, so the sharpness isn’t probably all that great.
Here’s another shot taken last night while we watched the soccer match. We usually eat at one of the outdoor restaurants along the Mekong, and this one is our particular favorite. Here, a couple of the guys are busy cooking up some goodies. I love the big fish you can see on the grill. They’re stuffed with some kind of herb and coated with salt, which gives them their white color before they’re browned. Yummmm.
To continue with the food theme, here’s the view of the Hotel Lao’s charming courtyard, where breakfast is served. As you can see, there’s an empty chair at my table. Care to join me?
We’re heading out to Nai’s house today, so I’ll probably be out of contact for a while. But, as always, more later.
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As I wrote in the previous post, I’ll be heading up to Incheon Airport tonight, on my way to Laos. I don’t know how often I’ll be able to post in the next three weeks, but if past actions are any indication, it won’t be often. I always have good intentions to keep the blog updated when I’m out and about, but it’s not always that easy to do. Still, I’m going to bring along my memory card reader so that I can upload photos here and try to keep everyone up to date. Hopefully, I can make at least a few posts. Vientiane and Vang Vieng have many internet cafes, but if I end up out in the sticks, my chances of finding a good connection might be somewhat less.
Here’s an article from Voice of America about the SEA Games going on in Vientiane. Like I stated in the previous post, I hope to see some of the action. I’d like to take in a soccer game featuring the Laos team, but tickets might be hard to come by. Before a packed house last night, they and Singapore played to a 0-0 draw, which means that both teams advanced to the semi-final round.
In baseball news, the Yanks got Curtis Granderson from the Detroit Tigers in a trade a few days ago. It was an excellent deal for the Yankees, and, with the re-signing of Andy Pettitte, it should only strengthen their chances of repeating as World Champs in 2010. It certainly puts the pressure on Boston. Hmmmm, maybe Major League Baseball should just hand over the 2010 Trophy to New York already.  More later.
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I just called my friend Nai in Laos. The entire family was gathered around the TV, watching the opening ceremonies of the Southeast Asia games and they (and probably most of Laos) were very excited about the event. As far as I know, Laos has never hosted anything like this before, so the country has been quite proud that they’ve been selected as the host country. I hope to take in a few of the events when I head back there on Saturday. The Games run through the 17th or 18th, so I should have a good opportunity to do so. I’m sure Nai will be happy to watch some of the sports, especially his favorite, volleyball; he wouldn’t normally be able to afford a ticket, so I’ll buy. What the heck, I’ll buy tickets for the whole family! It’s probably a once-in-a-lifetime event for them, and I wouldn’t want them to miss out on the chance to attend if they want to and if I can get tickets.
Actually, some of the events are free–cycling, golf, billiards, and track and field are some of the freebies. The soccer games, badminton, swimming, boxing, volleyball and others aren’t, but they’re not all that expensive, at least not for the “rich” westerner. Between 4-6 bucks. It should be a good time. Here’s a photo from 2005 showing Nai, a.k.a., Volleyball Slayer, trying to spike the ball. Notice the smiles and laughter from the spectators. (Click on the photo a couple of times for larger views.)
Pretty much all of my classes have finished the semester and I’ve got most of my administrative duties completed, so the next couple of days I’ll be packing and preparing to go. I’ll be leaving here on Friday night on the 11:10 p.m. (and only) bus to Incheon Airport near Seoul. I’ll get there about 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning and then wait around for my 10:30 a.m. flight to Hanoi. That flight arrives at the Noi Bai Airport around 1:30 p.m. and then I have another 3 1/2 hour wait until the 5 o’clock flight to Vientiane. Long night and day, but for the most part I love traveling and hanging around airports.
Incheon is one of the best airports in the world, but Noi Bai leaves a bit to be desired. However, the last time I was there, a lot of construction was going on in the transit area–it looked like a lot of new shops or restaurants were going to be opening, so I’m certainly curious about what developments have taken place. You all will be the first ones to know, since I’ll probably write a post from one of the restaurants there that has internet service. More later.
Noi Bai Restaurant from last December
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