Trip to Thailand & Laos-Laos

After Chiang Mai I took two flights on Thai Airlines and a shuttle to the Friendship Bridge at Nong Khai and a taxi to Vientiane, Laos. A street vendor near my hotel

This building has been in the process of being remodeled for years. There used to be un upscale clothing store on the ground floor.

Pumpkin soup at one of my favorite restaurants.

My first banana split on this trip.

I never can resist these statues.

A new Chinese style temple which has just been built in the new park by the Mekong.

And a nearby tower. The park was designed to hold back the flood waters.

And includes playgrounds.

A beautiful mural on the temple wall.

On my last evening I had Chicken & Cashew Nuts...my favorite meal in Laos.

It's Time to Plan Another Trip to Thailand & Laos

Summer is just about over and it is surely time to plan another trip to Thailand and Laos. After a couple of overnights in Bangkok I am taking a flight to Nan, up in the mountains to the East of Chiang Mai. Its beautiful country and I have never been there.

On the way out I have to take a bus to Chiang Mai (the only flight was cancelled) so I will be able to see lots of this scenery.

The town is full of beautiful temples and has an ethnic museum.

But so far I haven't been able to locate the adress of any Banana Split shops. Fortunately there is my favorite one near my hotel in Bangkok so I can fortify myself for the rest of the trip.

Off to Vietnam, Thailand and Laos

My bags are packed, I'm ready to go. After a long...............series of flights and an overnight in the Bangkok Airport (I only have a six hour break between flights) I head for Hanoi, Vietnam, one of my favorite cities in Asia.

Air Asia has really inexpensive flights. And sometimes they even give away tickets if you can plan a year in advance. No such luck this trip.

After a day to recover at my hotel its off to Sapa, high in the mountains near the border of China.The Pumpkin Coach is part of a longer train and named for the Travel Agency which sells the seats.

It looks comfy but I hope they get rid of the flowers.

When the train arrives at 7 am there is an hour drive up the mountains to the village.

The area is famous for its treking and ethnic villages.

Market Day.

Bomb Disposal in Laos

My friend Phon Sai, the former monk, just finished an Advanced Bomb Disposal course in Laos. He wasn't in town on my last trip in February but I hope to see him in November.

Phon Sai remembers vividly the day he picked up a cluster bomb in the forest of Laos’ Xiang Quang province. It was the size and shape of a tennis bal—— about the same size as the balls Laotian children use to play a game they call bou.
And it was irresistible.
“We saw them all the time, and nothing ever happened. But when I picked this one up, it went bang,” he says.
Silavan was luckier than most. He wasn’t seriously injured by the cluster bomb but 20 years later still has the scars on his arms, leg and neck. “I was very, very stupid to play with this thing,” he says. “And my grandmother sent me to off to be re-educated at the temple because I was a naughty boy.” Becoming a monk was also the only way he could possibily afford school.
He seems to have learned his lesson. Today he is a field operations manager for the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) in Laos, helping find and render harmless leftover ordnance from a near-forgotten war.
The war ended 35 years ago, but left a deadly legacy. The U.S. military dropped more than 1.6 million tons of bombs on Laos during the war in Vietnam. That’s more bombs than it dropped on all of Europe during World War II, making Laos the most heavily bombed country in the world on a per capita basis.
Most of the unexploded ordnance, known as UXO, is near Laos’ long border with Vietnam.. bombs dropped as part of the U.S. effort to disrupt communist supply lines along the so-called Ho Chi Minh Trail, much of which ran through Laos.

Khammoune province is one such area. It’s about a five-hour drive south and east of the capital Vientiene on Highway 12, not far from the border with Vietnam. Among the soaring limestone hills and lush green jungle, leftover ordnance isn’t hard to find.
Silavan says it’s not just bomb-disposal teams that are looking for the ordnance in one of the poorest countries in Asia.
“Sometimes, the villagers attempt to open the big bombs to sell the metal and the explosives inside to scrap dealers,” he says.
Bomb casings from high quality U.S.-made bombs weighing up to 2,000 pounds can fetch more than $100. Empty cluster bomb containers, which once contained up to 600 of the deadly, tennis-ball-size explosives, are also used for decoration, or as planters.
On a recent morning in Khammoune, a bomb-disposal team quickly uncovers a half-dozen small cluster munitions, which it marks and then destroys where they were found. It is too dangerous to move them, Silavan says. Mine disposal technicans make about $220 a month, more than they can possibly make as a laborer or farmer.
The sound of the simultaneous, controlled detonations bounces off the surrounding limestone hills.
Leftover unexploded ordnance hasn’t made the Laotians poor but it has helped keep them poor.
Lots of agricultural land is denied to people because of the presence of UXO, and this is the main problem. It prolongs poverty because people can’t do what they need to do. If they know that UXO is present, they will not plow deeply enough to get a good quality crop.
MAG and other groups work to help farmers clear their land and try to educate them about the dangers posed by unexploded ordnance.
In Khammoune province, MAG has used money from the U.S. State Department and the Department of Agriculture to clear 125 schools and the land around them.
At a school in Ban Na Thin, students use their after-school hours to water a large garden next to their classroom. The vegetables grown there are divided up and taken home to help augment their families’ diet in an area of the country where finding enough food is still a problem.
Funding for bomb removal is another problem. The current budget is less than $3 million a year. There is no problem spending the money, but supply isn’t keeping up with demand. They can’t clear everybody’s land and have to choose the poorest or most marginalized communities. The ideal thing is to clear the whole community but they simply don’t have the resources to do that.
And there’s no guarantee that MAG’s efforts at outreach and education will be enough, even in places they have made safer.
Children at the school in Ban Na Thin say they know better than to play with unexploded ordnance. Asked if he believes the children, MAG field boss Silavan says he does. But after thinking about it, he adds: “Maybe not, but I hope so.”

Hmong Quilts for Sale

I have been purchasing these quilts for a number of years and this was the first time I have seen one with a yellow background.  Its just gorgeous.  I purchase these quilts from the makers in Vientiane, Laos. DOUBLE CLICK ON THE PHOTOS FOR A LARGER VIEW.

It represents animals in the countryside and EVERY SINGLE STITCH IS DONE BY HAND.  IT IS SEWN TOGETHER BY HAND AS WELL.

SOLD

This folk tale quilt begins with the story of two orphaned siblings.
An older brother and younger sister who go to work in the fields. The color is most accurate in the small shots.

$44.00 plus $4.50 postage

This royal blue quilt is different from the ones I usually purchase.
It measures 30 X 59"
It would be great for a table runner as well as for a wall hanging.
$44.00 plus $4.50 postage.

I have been purchasing these wonderful Story Quilts for a number of years from their makers in Vientiane, Laos. Although the Hmong can be found in Vietnam and Thailand I usually find the best quilts in Laos. And over the years I have developed a relationship with some of the makers who save me a nice selection.


Hmong story cloths are an art unto themselves, totally separate from other Hmong textiles which feature geometric designs rather than pictorial. They are called "Paj Ntaub Tib Neeg" and these lovely pictorial embroideries developed very recently in Hmong history. It appears that Hmong men began to draw elements of traditional Hmong stories to help make sure they would be remembered during the times of change. While in the refugee camps, if not sooner, women began to have the men draw on fabric so that they could stitch the stories on cloth.
They are an incredible blending of tradition and modernization. Story quilts come in an array of themes from food preparation to courting and wedding traditions to life in refugee camps.


This quilt depicts daily life, working the fields and travel between the different villages.

All the quilts measure approximately 34" X 50". Sold





This beauty focuses on caring for the animals. The quilts are made of cotton or poly/cotton and every stitch is made by hand.


The stitches used for story quilts seem very limited at first glance. But there is a surprising variety including back stitch and stem stitch in a dazzling array of colors, bokhara couching is used in the walls of the houses which does a fantastic job of mimicing the bamboo construction of the Hmong houses. People, animals, flowers and tools are all comprised of satin stitch. Traditional style clothing and adornment are delicately portrayed. Note the black jackets with blue sleeve cuffs which are everywhere in a Hmong village.
$44.00 plus $4.50 postage.

SOLD

Trip to Bali, Laos and Thailand...the Bangkok Airport

I have just returned from a trip to Bali, Thailand and Laos. This usually requires at least one lengthy stay in the new Bangkok International Airport. Flights from the U.S. arrive around midnight and I like to take an early flight to my next destination in order to not waste a day. If I go to a hotel I usually can't get more than an hour or two's sleep so I have lately opted to just stay overnight in the airport and not bother. This is one of the new huge statues in the checkin area.
And there was a beautiful orchid display as well.





I was flying on Airasia, a fairly new lowcost airline. Lots of other people were obviously waiting all night as well.
This piece has been in the departure area since the airport opened a couple of years ago.


Other than the beautiful statues and gardens the airport is full of ridiculously expensive shops and a few eating places...also expensive. However there is also a post office which would be very convenient if I ever needed it.