SHADES OF PAST GLORY

The day dawns cloudy but not raining at last. We can breakfast on the nice outdoor patio and it's ooler to head off to The Citadel, a walled mini-city created by one of the many self-appointed kings. It's hot and humid but we find a lovely garden to rest among the lily ponds and bonsai, and the three and a half hours goes by enjoying the rather dilapidated fortress,with some nice restored palaces, temples, etc. It's a huge imperial complex, with two lovely temples in the back, probaby missed by many tourists, who whiz around this city doing all the sites in a day. The dowages empresses are honoured with their own residences and tekples. Mosaics at Truonag Trong San are impressive, as is the pool and garden there. The Thien Tho residence is also beautifully restored.
  Nine dynasty bronze urns attest to the longevity of this family's grasp on Vietnam's early days.
  Back at 1pm, we find a French patisserie for mango shake, pain au chocolate, nice lunch, just round the corner from our overpriced and under-supported hotel restaurant prices.
 I retreat to the pool, which unheated is cool, and when the wind comes up, also cool on the deck! Quite unexpected here.
  I have a big bath here and they deliver blue bath salts in a little pot every day so I soak in splendor, which Ted goes off on one of his explorations.
  This time to local market, mainly food and kitchen supplies. We are now looking forsilk sheet/sleeping bags for our train trip and maybe boat trip from Hanoi. This is the place to buy them, and we missed doing that in Hoi An. But not at the local market.
  Sunday we join our NBFs Wendy and Phil at Les Jardins de Carambole, a lovely restaurant over the river in a residential area, looks like a niceyellow French house but has een uilt specifically to be a restaurant. The fixed price menus are lovely. Everything comes decorated with beautiful veggies and when we ask, our serverbrings out the tiny lady (apprenty 24 looks 13) who demonstrates to us how she does it!
  W&P will come to North America on a trip in September. They will be in Banff but we will probaby be in France then! Too sad...
  W&P have an early start at 4:30am tomorrow. It is now pissing with rain again. We call a cab and are home in bed by 10pm.

HUE, ANCIENT CAPITAL AND SEAT OF EMPERORS

We've read a lot about this coastal trading city, now 300,000 people, and its seat as the home of the Emperor Dynasties before the French took over and Vietnam became a communist country. The ego trtips associated with the dynasty are legion, shades of Xian in China on a much smaller scale. Vietname is attepting to regain its past, its a big tourist draw after all, and people from all over Asia come here for that reason.
  Our NBFs from Oz have recommmended the Iperial hotel and indeed we feela  bit like emperor and empress staying here. Our view fianlly after 1.5 days of rain emerges, 14 floors high above the Perfume River and it's gorgeous in the sun. Our corner room has two big picture windows and the other looks over the Old City and newer hotel/restaurant area. Everything within walking distance normally, except when we've had enough of traffic, noise and heat.
  Cyclos are everywhere but we give them a miss as cabs are inexpensive and AC.
  Our first nigh we visit Carambole for a nice Vietnamese meal, mine a set menu of several little courses which I love: crab soup, Hue's famous crispy rice wraps with pork/shrimp, stir fried veg and calamari, poached shrimp, beef wrapped in lot leaves and BBQd lightly (almost raw), topped with creamy coconut ice cream and tropical fruits.
  We stroll back around downtown on the riverwalk, which is jumping tonight with all the locals and some tourists out. Night boat trips are popular, it's lovely watching the colours change on the main bridge across to the former sea of government, The Citadel.
  Outside the main hotel on the corner of the river there are a group of students, sitting singing on EarthDay here, "Turn off the lights and turn on the future". The glorious optimism of young people eerywhere! The hotel lobby has turned off all the lights, lit candles and is passing out free lime dacquiries to passers-by. Yes to all that. 

EXPLORING HUE - LAUNDRY - TOURS -

Our hotel has any number of expensive trips, cramming it all in in one day, but we don't need to do that.
Also laundry can be done here for $2 for a pair of socks. In Luang Prabang hotel it was 1kilo for $1.25. Ted crossed the road here and it's 1kilo for $1! (assuming we get it back...) Last time we  got a nice paid of fire engine red mens underwear too! But we gave them back...
  Ted has found the hotel's half day $100 trip to the Royal Tombs can be done from the StopNGo restaurant/agency across the road for $30 so you know which one we'll be doing. We don't need a guide, we have the book. So much for the really small costs that people remember from the past here.
  It's still pissing down out there. Today on the 3rd floor, we had two swimming pools, one on the deck and one in the outdoor dining room! It's all openair but fortunately the inside dining room is not affected. I am looking forward to eating outdoors later in the week. Also the top 16th floor bar overlooking the river should be nice.
  I got on the internet to look up beach hotels and resorts near Hue. Ted had found a listing for a  beautiful boutique resort in a village 3km out of Hue, a spa retreat sort of place, so we have booked to go there for 3 days before we leave here. It's pricey - over $100 a night - so I imagine the spa treatments will be too. No note of costs on the web site, but everyone who goes there loves it and the food is supposed to be marvellous. I think a better bet than the beach resort, where you are also a captive audience, but no sign that the food is good...They have a shuttle if Ted gets bored out there...

HUE, UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE NEAR DMZ

Friday morning we say a sad goodbye to all our new friends at Hoi An Trails resort an join or new best friends Wendy and Phil from Brisbane, who have hired a driver from Hue to drive us up the coast, over the mountains to imperial Hue.
  Sadly, it s drizzling and just gets worse for the whole 3 hour journey. They have been to Hue before so know the area. The driver wants to take us on a 5 hour tour to Hue, we tell him, just A to B mate and he obliges. We stop en route at a rest stop, plenty of trinkets and trash but clean toilets too.
  This drive is listed as spectacular, one of the most scenic in Vietam. But today it's one delue after another, low cloud which we are in. We have a choice of the 7km tunnel or the 24km twisty mountain drive and opt for the former. Too too bad. Camera stays in case.
  We briefly see hints of the beaches, bays, islands and verdant hills but it's lost in the mountain mist and cloud. We see the famed China Beach, it looks nice...
  We arrive in historic imperial Hue where we'll stay for 8 days, too much for what we have read, but we are now making up time not spent in Cambodia.
  The beach downtime we planned for half way through this trip didn't materialize in Hoi An and it doesn't look like it will at the nice waterlogged but garbage-strewn beach 12km from Hue city. The only resort has its own beach but once you leave it, watch for the garbage. The little seafood restaurants along the beach, typical of third world, just bury their garbage in the sand at the end of the day - much like parts of  Mexico.
  We book into the classy but dated Imperial Hotel, half price at $70 a night on Agoda.com (love that site) where Wendy stayed before. Our huge, lovely room high on the 14th floor overlooks the glitzy downtown, Perfume River(?) and we can see rice fields in the distance. Once the rain stops, we should have a nice view out to sea.
  We chose this hotel for the nice outdoor pool on the 3rd floor rooftop, I hope we get to use it after all!
  TripAdvisor where would we be without you! Unfortunately it's also very subjective,so you have to do the trial and error thing. The hotel suggests a restaurant and books us a table. We  look it up on TA and it's pretty but bad food. We politely cancel and head out to the Family House restaurant nearby, almost full at 6:30pm, overwhelmed by 7:30, and OK local food. The Hue specialties seem to be all deep fried...But dinner of three enorous appies and 4 beers is US$10! We can't finish our shrimp rolls, take pity on the table beside us with beers but no sign of food, and offer them nibbles with their beer. They are pleased.
  We have found the French patisseries a block away, it's looking up...
  Back a block or so in the rain, I fill up my bathtub with the blue bath crystals from their spa here - aaaah - by the time I finish, Ted has passed out an despite the loud party above us outdoors on the 16th floor. I try to write my log and also pass out pen in hand...

PARADISE LOST...

  We return each night to our peaceful room in this tropical garden to enjoy another lovely day here. However, we tune in to BBC world news from Singapore to the dreadful news that a German Lufthansa plane has gone down in the French Alps. It is looking like a strange accident with no SOS, warnings or anything. Gradually the terrible truth comes out that the second officer locked out the pilor and plunged the plane and all passengers into the mountain side!!
  It's inconceivable that anything like this could happen to a German company, normally so incredibly careful about safety, security, etc. There are many Germans traveling here, I am sure they are astounded as the news unfolds, as we are.
  Slowly facts creep out that in fact this young troubled man did just that! What a terrible thing for the passengers at the last minute to see it coming. All those young students, the two opera singers with their promising careers, everyone on board - and the anguish of the pilot to have left the cockpit and be competely unable to change the course of that plane.
 Yes, every day is a gift and I am glad we are so luky to be savouring them now. 

RUINS OF MY SON (ME SUN)

Our hotel room has a huge bath, I am loving it, soaking when I get home at night while Ted likes the rainfall shower (although we've got plenty of that outside now too...) We are sleeping like logs, maybe it's he heat and dehydration too, although we are drinking lots, me water, Ted beer...
  Wednesday we wake to cooler, cloudier conditions, unsettled too. Which is too bad as we have booked to take a tour to the Champa ruins of 10th century My Son, about an hour away through the lovely rural countryside. The first class tourist bus there and tourist boat part of the way back, no more than 20 people, of course isn't quite up to the billing, the 30 seater bus has to be augmented with a smaller bus too, but we all have a good day out, despite the recurrent deluges.
  Umbrellas and plastic capes to the fore today! Our guide Lee is barey comprehensiible but we know all the background from our wonderful guide Savuth in Siem Reap, as we have visitied a Champa tempe there. Ted wanders off - he can't understand a thing the guy says - and finds some neat things to photograph, but the ruins are in poor shape mostly.
  There were about 8 temples before our American friends bombed the hell out of them, 20 remain, some being rebuilt by the Unesco team. The pink brick construction is typically Champa and the temples Hindu. The famous male appendage or linga is revered so tourists line up beside the tallest for their photographs! The female equivalent yoni is not so popular...
  Rediscovered by the French in the 20th century, it sits in a gorgeous jungle setting which even the rain could not spoil.
  Generally, very disappointing for a whole heritage site. Worth a visit, if nothing better to do...
  It as nie to see the rural countryside. One guy cycling along with 4 pigs on a cart behind him, handsome big water buffalo grazing the gorgeous rice paddies.
  A requisite stop on an island to see the local woodcarvers, very skilled young men, but all the tinets and trash otherwise. Then the half hour boat trip on the Thu Bon river, with a nice little lunch all laid out (rice with chicken and veggies, and bananas, quite good for the $15 day trip cost.

RAIN RAIN AND MORE RAIN...BUT THE BEST SEAFOOD HOTPOT IN HOI AN

If you noticed I hadn't blogged for a while, I am on catchup. It's been deluging ot there today so I am watching it from our 14th floor window in Hue, and catching up on washing, my nails, my blog. etc.

  Back to Hoi An...

  We have small power cuts all the time but these places must all have generator backup because it doesn't last for long. 

  After our cooking class and the huge amount of food we consumed, we got back to a deluge. Not wanting to go far, we made it to the covered bar and did happy hour with two coktails for me and two beers for Ted, an that a supper! Raced home under the umbrella and went to sleep listening to the raindrops, or rather sheets of water falling out there. We were ready for breakfast next day for sure.

  The breakfast buffet is lovely, but we are working up for the famous Hoi An seafoot hotpot tonight at the famed Duc's restaurant Cau Mai or Mai Fish. It's on the river with a lovely patio, but it's still pissing with rain so we opt for a table by the window. We are the only diners in the room! The restaurant has been designed like a family home by Duc, a Vietname refugee who returned home after living in some great culinary places (New Orleans?) He has returned to mama's cooking roots. Our server prepares the whole thing for us on the adjacent table. First she arrives with a tray of red snapper, calamari and huge shrimps, then a tray of fresh veggies, herbs and greens, pineapple, tomatoes. 

  To while away the time, I have a passion mojito, a gorgeous glassful of greens and fresh passionfruit, which I am becoming addicted to on this trip. 

  The caldron contains chicken stock for the fish, odd. We tell her we like our fish moist and that's exactly how it all comes, Delicious! But too much food. After 3 bowls we have to tell her to stop, but there's no waste as it has not gone into the broth. Of course, we have eaten all the lovely fresh fish and seafood.

  I finish with tempura baby bananas sliced lengthwise, dippedin very light tempura batter with something green?? and roasted sesame seeds, and home made coconut icecream. More oink.

SILK SHOPS GALORE - AND A NEW LITTLE SISTER

Apparently Hoi An has something like 200 silk shops, making custom clothes! It's quite astonishing that they can all stay in business. On this trip I've been looking for a white silk blouse at a resonable price, not so far. I was told, wait til Hoi An. One I can wear as an overblouse too.
  So I found a big store with several branches and ordered two silk blouses. I could not find a pattern anywhere close to what I want anywhere, but the young lady who took me in hand - Chau - just sat down and drew what I wanted. She then measured me and said - come back tomorrow afternoon for a fitting.
  I ordered a short sleeved, Vneck blouse, with 4 rows of stop stitching round collar and down front openings, plain buttons, unlined. They will make it in white and black for $30 each.
  At the fitting, the white one needs a few adjustments, the black is good. Come back later that day to collect them!
  When measuring me, I ask that the V be not too deep as I have all this scarring from my breast cancer radiation. Also the right sleeve must be loose to accommodate my arm with lyphedema. She is sypathetic. But she tentatively asks - can she ask me about my cancer, what kind, etc. As she measures and we talk, I discover she is single, 32, and has had a large cancer removed from her leg, has had 6 rounds of chemo, is tired, is wearing a wig, and devastated by it all. We have some tears and hugs. I give her my email and she can talk to me about it any time.
  Chau has a PET scan scheduled soon. She wonders if Western medicine has anything better to track the success of the chemo. I tell her it's the best, but lots of radiation, so you don't want many of those. She is somewhat relieved.
  When I return the second day, I have a card for her, also a little silver bracelet with a disk on it for long life. She will wear it and get well, and remember all the positive vibes I am sending to my new little sister. There is virtually no support for women here! I tell her to let her women friends help!
  When I return later, Chau has left, but her friend also wants to confide in me about breast surgery, cancer, etc. She has a 3 year old daughter and would like another child, but worries about the cancer returning. She also has had a breast lump removed. She tells me about Chau's eperience, not wanting to tell anyone, not wanting to see anyone, typical of Vietnamese women and devastating for an as yet unmarried young woman. My heart goes out to them both.
  But they are cheered and encouraged by my own story and strength and courage. They have both seen my scarred chest but my undaunted spirit, and this is important.
  Wellspring, where are you for these women! Their heath system is woefully lacking here.
  I pick up my blouses. They are lovely. A nice quality silk with a Chinese design that you can't see through. As I pay, a young Swedish man is collecting his two suits and shirts. He tell us custom suits like this would cost US$2000 in Sweden! No wonder he is smiling...

COOKING CLASS - FUN EXPRIENCE AND - OINK!

We're up early next day to attend our Advanced class at Miss Vy's Morning Glory Cooking School ($35 each.) There are ony 4 of us, Ted has volunteered to learn to cook (yeah), Ricardo is a chef from Italy and Janine is a German foodie.Our teacher Lu speaks good English but we have a prep sous chef with little English to help us.
  We walk to the end the road, get in the ferry boat, an arrive at the morning produce market in 5 minutes. Lu guides us through the fish, meat, produce, fruit market, and there's food stalls at the end where people are perched on stools eating breakfast of all the lovely fresh things. The fish is super fresh, shiny eyes. The meat is something else, every little bit gets eaten somehow.
  There are other groups here too, but we split up at the market so not a big group. We  each carry our shopping basket, we have a coolie hat (good for sun or rain sprinkles) but I've stuck with my big NineWest sun shade which I've been living in. I can take photos easily with it on. Sun here is very bright, midday especially difficult for photos.
  We each get catfish, tons of fresh herbs, a pomelo. The rest of the ingredients are already there, they bought the clams at 4am this morning to soak them before we start cooking!
  The cooking school is upstairs. Downstairs is Miss Vy's Market Restaurant, set out with cooking stations and a huge array of beautiful foods. Lu tours us arouond, lets us try our hand at making rice paper, noodles (I fail that one!), eating odd things (duck embryo anyone? silk worms, jelly fish. Beautiful little moutfuls of wondrous flavours abound. We are spellbound watching the very adept chefs turn them out. When Ricardo tries the tiny multi-strand noodle machine, it's like watching Charlie Chaplin on Modern Times...
  Absolutely everything is prepared from scratch! And it was either walking, swimming or growing yesterday.
  Then it's our turn. We prepare herbs, chop, cook, chop, skin/bone fish. It's great that I don't have to say "no chili for me" I just don't put them in. Ted makes the mistake when Lu says that green pepper is not hot, he bashes it with his mortar, throws it in his soup, and can't eat it afterwards! Our assistant is there to clean up, provide new clean implements, ingredients, I am liking this...but I would like a heavier knife...
  We cook fat juicy clam soup, BBQ fish with noodles, Shrimp/chicken/pomelo salad and (watch Lu prepare) frozen condensed milk yoghurt and fresh fruits with peanuts and coconut on top. It's enough for a family of 4 but we are expected to eat our own creations! We fail that test. But washed down with the local beer, it's all extremely good.
 There's a handsome cookbook from Miss Vy but not the weight to acquire. We do get our recipes to take home (not a nice book ike at Luang Prabang) and a typical Vietnames cooking implement that will certainly need to be checked! It's an oval flat tool with a super-sharp blade for slicing shallots, onions, lemon grass very finely - also fingers I suspect!
  At 2pm we are pretty tired and head home for the afternoon rest.

HOI AN'S HISTORIC SITES, AND FOOD, FOOD, FOOD...

Energy renewed, we are off on the shuttle to Old Town to visit 5/8 of the historic sites. You buy a ticket and they cut off a bit for each site. 5 of the 8 is enough. As a port, Hoi An has had a plethora of nations trading and Japanese and Chinese history (mainly Fujian) is everywhere. Superimposed on this is the French influence, but many of the old homes are preserved well and guides tell some fascinating stories. One home is still occupied upstairs by desendents of the original owners.
  We see markings on the ground floor from water leels during monsoon, above my head! They move upstairs in the home for that season. The hardwoods used for construction are amazing. The roofs are costructed in Vietnamese, Japanese and Chinese fashion and we learn the subtle differences.
  Ted finally finds a fresh beer, at fifty cents a pop, and it's really just watery draft.
  We find the Mermaid restaurant, also owned by famed Miss Vy. We compare the white rose dumplings, just as good. Back to shower, hit the pool, read under the trees, and at 5pm back into town for dinner at Miss Ly's. Not as good as Miss Vy, BUT we sit beside Wendy & Phil from Brisbane. They are taking a car to Hue Friday. We agree to go with them and split the cost. We are up for that. Add fortunately it works out OK with the driver, who will come down from Hue for us.
  We get on the Internet, oh joy, how would we have donw this in years gone by, just booking as we go? Wendy has stayed at the Imperial Hotel on the Perfume? River in Hue before, it's good, so we get 50% off our room there through Agoda.
  It starts to rain at bedtime. Is this a hint of things to come??

UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE CITY HOI AN - MAGICAL!!

Tired from all our temple visiting and touring in Cambodia, I spend the day at the pool, while Ted goes exploring. Comes back excited at what we are going to experience here. At 5pm we take one of the frequent hotel shuttles into town, 10 minutes. We are 3km from town and 2km from their private beach, which I never see on our week here! Ted reports - no big deal.

  Our many friends who visited here have told us about the renowned Morning Glory Restaurant. Morning Glory is a green herb sauteed here with garlic everywhere. It's questionable what sort of water it grows in but we eat it all the same with no adverse effects! Miss Vy is a legend in this town, now with 4 restaurants serving very traditional dishes. Eating early we get a table on the 2nd floor balcony overlooking the street action. It's fascinating. A wedding comes by. She is beautiful. I sneak a  photo from above as he kisses her hand. 

  But opposite, a man whose face has been mostly obliterated, sits on the siewalk selling Tiger Balm, but few stop to buy. A reminder of the terrible war and the toll it has taken on these lovely people. A juxtaposition of the affluence of the visitors and many residents doing well from the huge tourist trade.

  The food is great, we try the local specialty "white rose" round rice paper open dumplings filled with shrimp, much lighter than their Chinese counterpart, a symphony in the mouth. The local beer is very cheap, $0.5 a glass in the bars, more at most restaurants, we love it. Also the crispy filled wantons, which are actually flat, with a little stuffing inside and covered with shrimp and other goodies, yum. The fish dishes are good, especially Ted's fish in banana leaf. I stay safe with S/Sour port whihcis not spicy and without chilis.

  I also book us into Miss Vy's cooking class, also legend, at $35 each.

  The famous Neville's walking street food tour is now US$65 a pop so we give it a miss.

  Hoi An is magical at night. Lanterns big an small are strung along the river, over all the old town streets, and Sunday is a huge thing for the locals and the tourists alike. Entrepreneurs old and young are selling cardboard floating candle holders, paper cut with lovely patterns. You buy one, make a wish and float it down the river. People go out in boats to give them a good start. It's is like fairyland. Now I wonder if I ever got a nighttime photo?? Everyone is out strolling the streets and riverbank.

  Also sold here the most beautiful intricate pop up cards with papercut objects. I weaken and buy a few. I am sure when I get home I'll wish I bought more, but where to put them in the suitases.

BACK TO VIETNAM AND WORLD HERITAGE SITES

I've missed blogging or a week, where does the time go??
  We have breakfast in our hotel with Cynthia and Alan from Kelowna! They rent a house for 3 months of winter in South Africa and stop off at interesting places en route home!
  We head to famed Haven for lunch. Takes 2 days to get a reservation and it's worth it.  A swiss couple came here to work in an orphanage and stayed on to establish a restaurant to train those kids ejected from the orphanage once grown, but with no family or community support. Mango salad and fish for me and celebratory dish Amoy Fish for Ted does not disappoint. Presentation fusion and gorgeous. Our lunch guest at  next table is the digital editor for Elle Bankok, she's impressed as hell with the food, photos it all. We get her card. May be in Bankok some time. She spent 6 months in London so her English is great.
  Later we spend the afternoon at the lovely award-winning Angkor museum, well laid out with AV presentations along the route and a fine collection. The two hours flies, but we need to get back by 4pm (despite the lockdown around the museum and lots of police here for First Lady Obama's visit to Siem Reap today.) We take the evening flight, cool at the airport and comfortable with 4 seats for the 2 of us on the 1.5 hour flight to Danang, destination  Hoi An on the beautiful South China Sea.
  Our hotel sends a car for the 25km drive, but we don't see anything of the lovely coastline and islands offshore. Into the lovely resort Hoi An Trails (where both friends Gerdy/Jacques and Bruce/Tamara have stayed) we're assigned a room on the 3rd floor no elevator but promised a ground floor room tomorrow! A relief as Ted's knee is not up to this.
  Next morning breakfast in the lovely tropical garden, orchids over our heads and frangipani too, and by 9am, they have moved out stuff to a beautiful end room overlooking two streams with Japanese bridges over to the nice pool. Out our side window, we see the rice paddy beyond the hotel fence, and are woken by cockerels, dogs, the neighbours behind the hotel, very rural and a herd of lovely brown cows come by one day too. Booked with our flight, our room is $70 a night, expensive for this town.
  We sleep like logs from 11pm to 8am next morning.
  

HOW CHEAP IS IT REALLY TO TRAVEL HERE?

We are seemingly doing this at a fairly high level. And meeting others doing the same too. But there are many many young people (and maybe not so young) doing all this for dollars a day.

  We have not spent over $35 for dinner and drinks yet but have been to some classy sorts of places. The other evening we were tired and decided to eat in. Our hotel had $1 night, all tapas (little plates to share, Western, Chinese, local) $1, all beers $1. Last night we went to a Japanese retaurant for sushi, they have good fish offshore Cambodia apparently. Not the greatest sushi and not COLD enough, but the beer was 50C a glass. 

  There is a place here called Pub Street, a pickup joint sort of road, one restaurant after another. I put my feet in the Dr.Fish tank for a while for $2 and the wee fish nibbled all the dry skin off my feet and lower leg. Heavenly. Ted would have hated it, a bit prickly...

  You can get rooms for a song. But we have heard stories from fellow travelers who have had some awful experiences. We get lots of little power cuts here and if your hotel doesn't have a backup generator, you have no power, no AC, no water, etc. It was off in the city here for a whole evening this week. But we are OK.

  Which is to say, you get what you pay for and I think I'm past the really cheap travel time.

  We are also not eating on the street. Out with Savuth, he showed Ted what to try, fish cakes at the village yesterday, and it was fine. But we also talked to German people here over dinner the other night who had been quite ill in hospital here, lost a week of their 6 week trip, had to move in here as their homestay lost all power while they were sick, etc. etc. 

  I am reacting badly to chili right now - blisters in and around my mouth, so I have to just stay with fairly bland food. But it's all OK, and very tasty.

  Our hotel here is $60 a night and good value, good location, hotel set up by Norwegians but 51% owned by the staff. All the things for sale are from charitable orgaizations, mostly for women and kids. They train young people for hotel industry jobs, really nice to know we are contributing to that.

BONUS DAY FOR TED, BACK TO FAVOURITE SITES

Our 3-day pass has now expired but Ted would lke to return to his favourite spot at Bayon. He hires a tuktuk to take him out there at 8:30 Friday morning and will buy a one-day pass for $20. I take a leisurely crack at the day, and discover the people I meet over breakfast - and who are in the room at the end of our hall - are from Kelowna!

  Our hotel is suddenly full of students, and maybe Peace Corps volunteers. Michelle Obama is coming to town today to talk about Girls Education and to see Siem Reap. I'm glad we won't be fighting the CIA tomorrow to get to the site if that's when she plans to visit!! Hahaha

  I go off exploring into town on my own, a nice walk along the river, get in a bit of retail therapy, buying things for ridiculous prices. Textiles is a big export here so T shirts are $2 and $3, white cotton shirts $3 or $4. I am still in the market for a white silk shirt...it's hard to bargain much.

  The food market is something else - a few more photos of chickens cut in half showing you they still have all their guts in there - they eat everything here. Fish jumping about, lovely fresh fruit and veg, and lots of cooking going on. I stop at a nice cafe down a sideroad for passionfruit drink, and wander back in time for my (free) massage that came for both of us with our booking here at the hotel.

  Ted was due back at 3pm. By 5pm I am hoping he has not fallen off a temple, but he rolls back in, grinning like a 'bilt haddie' (boiled haddock for the non-Scots). He has not only returned to his favourite spot at Bayon, but also talked his tuktuk driver to take him out to Banteay Srei that he also loved. On the way back he stopped at Angkor Wat to get the definitive photo of the temple across the lily pond in afternoon light. Oh joy! Good thing he took my big camera today. One happy tuktuk driver today...alsohe student who sold him the book on Angkor for about 3 times the price. We are doing our bit for the economy, but everyone is trying to seel you something.

  The tuktuks are not just  motor driven carriages (of which there are lot) but they are carriages pulled by a motorbike, bigger, less unfortable. There are no txies in these cities, just private hired cars and drivers, or tuktuks on the street, and indeed a fair way out of town.

LAST TOUR DAY AT ROLUOS GROUP - AND A WATER BLESSING

Our afternoon jaunt it south to the Roluos group of temples, the earliest in the area, built in the late 9th century. There is still some lovely filigree carving, and stucco that has survived over the bricks, which we are seeing for the first time. It's a special time at the Lolei teple, largely under reconstruction. This is now a holy Buddhist temple especially valued by Buddhists. 

  Savuth arranges for a monk to perform a water blessing on us all. We kneel before the lama, being careful not to point the soles of our feet towards him or Buddha. After some paper money is placed in the copper bowl in front of him, he flicks water from another bowl with a floppy brush to gently land on us, while singing an incantation for our wellbeing and good health. We all need it!

  Two older ladies sit at the side, smiling and watching our ceremony.

  Afterwards the monk ties a red cotton bracelet around each of us, first spraying it with a fragrant floral spray. We must keep this on for at least a week for the blessing to be active. Such a lovely thought! As he ties Ted's (who had great difficulty trying to kneel on that new knee!) the young monk says a few kind words in Englsh, so he is obviously somewhat proficient in our language. 

 We also visit the small temple of Preah Ko, a lovely pink faced temple,  sacred to the bull, where three very well preserved bulls keep guard.  We finally get a photo of the 3 of us to send to Bruce. And to keep for a fond memory of our time with Savuth. 

  The village has a local weaving group and pottery group where we see simple local products. Then last we visit the impressive Bakong, dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, also reminiscent of Mount Meru, with 12 elephants at each corner of the 4 stage temple of brick towers and stucco again. Ted insists on climbing to the top despite the heat and we do it in stages, as the steps are also deep.

  We have certainly had full value from our $40 pass and also the additional passes for $15 to visit some of the farther sites.

BANKING WOES

No need to take much cash, just your credit card when you travel. Right, that's the theory. Ted visits the bank and finds his daily limit is dropping like a stone with the Canadian dollar. He keeps punching in smaller amounts until it spits out some US dollars, which is the currency here in Cambodia mostly. It's 4000 real to a dollar so hard doing it in that, but OK in the market and small booths.
  Since we need more than that, he returns next day to 2 bank ATMs where it is soundly refused. I try my bank card and it won't work at all! Maybe I was supposed to do something else before I left. My credit card is sure working well....
  Starting to panic, we try to find a place to make an international call to his bank without sucess. Our hotel is not set up, the local place says it's not possibe, we wondeer what's going on? Is North America cut off??
  Eventually Savuth lets us use his cell to contact CIBC. Ted is on the phone twice, trying to reason with these guys. He gives them every piece of info he can think of regarding our considerable deposit with these clowns, and is getting more and more frustrated all the time!! Eventually telling them the other signatory on the account is me and my birth date gets their attention. He sets a new password and they double his daily limit. Oh joy, we can eat again, and pay our wonderful guide!
  The probem may also have been the time lag, posting time of deposits, etc. that put them both on the same day according to the NA banking system. Who knows!!

WEDNESDAY: SUNRISE AT ANGKOR WAT

Ted's dream is coming true! Our wakeup call coems 10 minutes before we are due out but we are anticipating the 5am start ad are dressed and ready to go, flashlights in hand. It's cool and quiet in the grounds, as usual Savuth has selected a parking place that is not busy and a perfect viewing spot with only 2 people there ahead of us. We perch on the temple stones,knowing only that Angkor Wat is  out there somewhere...
  A sliver of moon stares down at us. We hear the main tourist mob on the main causeway to our left at the lotus pond, but as dawn slowly creeps up, there are few others at our temple spot. The sun comes from behind the right tower, I guess I thought I was going to see the light hit Angkor Wat, not come from behind, so it's a surprise. It is beautful no doubt about that, but my camera is struggling to cope with that sort of light.
  Our group is quiet, awed, waiting quietly until 6:30 when the full glory of the sun emerges. Entrepreneurs have been touring the site with sheets of photos of their breakfast offerings - order and pick it up at their booth over left of the lotus pond. It's a lot more commerical than I expected.
  Everywhere you go here there is a drone from all the tiny people selling trinkets and trash "one dollar, one dollar." We just have to learn to ignore it.
  It is finally time to visit the famed temple, and the sheer enormity of the building is awesome. Collonades reminscent of Roman buildings cover vast distances.A frieze around the 2nd level tells the story of Ramayana, with wonderful depictions of Monkey King, Devil God and all the other important Hindu gods.  It's deservng of its Unesco rating!
  The macaques are out in droves. They sense the stupid tourists will be a good supply of food, and they are right. They are adept at grabbing for bags with breakfast remais, they deftly unscrew waterbottle tops, and one guy is surprised when the bag they got has his cell phone in it and they proceed to throw it around and get nasty when he tries to recover it! One woman with a 12-or-so kid tries to get closeups of the monkeys and one bears its teeth and dives for his leg. they arenot the friendly little guys they seem to be, and probaby rabid into the bargain.
  By 8:30 the sun is getting hot, so we retreat to the hotel for late breakfast and some time on the internet to plan our next sojourn - Hoi An on the east Vietnam coast. We consider the Cambodian riviera at Sihanoukville but air and a fancy hotel there will set us back about $1200 for 4 days, we can give that a miss.
  Isn't Internet a marvel? We chat back and forth with Bruce in Victoria. He found Savuth for us. Now we are picking his brain about Hoi An and book to stay at the same hotel booth he and our friends the Aarts stayed at too. 

SUNDAY: WATS AND MORE WATS

Angkor Wat area is a huge complex of many temples dating from the 10th century to aout 122, when for no single reason, the civilization failed and disappeared. Almost like the Maya.
  Our alarm failed but we were up at 6:16 first day to have a quick breakfast and off by 7:15am. I am going to have to work at this...
  We return to the glorious Angkor Tom complex with amazing bas relief friezes in the Bayon building of Cambodian life in those times. The incised carving is easy to discern, even after all this time being buried in jungle.  Epic tug of war between gods are depicted in many places and  causeways are often lined with these massive rope battles. Enormous smiling benign faces beam at us from atop many of the towers. Cheeky and scary gods also.
  On to Baphoun, where the pramid structure emulates Mt. Meru, sacred mountain, and former home to a massive reclining buddha, most of which has now disappeared into the jungle.
  We walk to the Temple of Elephants, signifying strength, a beautiful temple with an elephant frieze all around the first level and the three-headed elephant clearly towering over all.
  We also visit the Temple of the Leper King adn Sky Palace.
  From there a short drive takes us to Prah Khan, with overgrown trees and a delightful little two story building, ancient condo apartments...It's a Hinda/Buddhist fusion temple and after enjoying it we return for cool coconuts, a little retail therapy and return to town at 11am in our cool car to shoer, relax and plan.
  Am I repeating myself here....getting lost in these blogs...

FISHING VILLAGE OF KAMPONG KHLENG ON TONLE SAP LAKE

At 2pm Savuth is ready and waiting and we are off on a true adventure to the fishing village of  Kampong Khleng. This is an experience
  If we thought the houses perched on the road were precarious, you cannot believe driving into this village. Houses hang over the Mekong river and canalthat leads to Tonle Sap lake, largest lake in Cambodia.
  Stilts are about 50 ft high because this is all awash come monsoon season! Leftover red mud cakes everything, not dusty, and a truck that we can't pass is delivering fill to stop the road from disappearing. I guess in monsoon season, access is all by boat anyway. They have to recontruct a lot of these houses when the water subsides. The whole area is buried in water 3 months of the year.
  The smell of rotting fish is pervasive. People plying the riverboats are blackened by sun and covered except for eyes in the heat of the day. Here they supply fish, clams, snails to Siem Reap and the whole area. A family might collect 4 sacks in good times, 90kg each, sold for $6 each to a middle man.
  Savuth hires a boatman to take us up the canal, past all the houses which are larger than they seemed from the narrow road. There are a few larger tour boats with tourists, but few. Our smallboat would carry aout 6 passengers if the river was high, with a canopy which shades us some of the time from the bistering heat.
  You are low in the water, we get stuck a few times, Savuth becomes 2nd mate to pole us off the bottom a few times, and the boatman has to cut weed from the prop several times too. When we pass other boats, returning boats very low in the water with their day's catch, there's a spray of red water full of what we called E&C when we were writing the Nova Environmenta Protection policy - effluent and contaminant! We try to keep our mouths shut if some sprays our way. I've had HepA once!!
  It's a fertile plain so for miles we see green bean plantations, two huge commercial harvesters and clever crop spraying bamboo equipment which will be dragged by tractors. Corn is grown too.
  Swallows swoop everywhere, and we spot beautiful egrets, and three crane-like birds visit, probably storks.
  The fishing apparatus is simple, nets and smallbranches strewn in the shallow water to atract fish to your tiny piece of the river.
  Clams are scraped off the rocks with large racks that look like enormous tennis rackets, the rocks all along the edge of the river are green and slimy, I don't think our Western stomachs could handle that!
  On the main lake, house boats live out there all season, and move back in when monsoon comes. It's a virtual village out there, the fading sun gives good light, I've got some great photos today. The quiet sleepy village is now a hive of activity, families returning with their catch, including grandma, and buying and selling at the harbour. No ice or refrigeration here, keep them wet and get them on the trucks as fast as possible! Young men with good backs load sacks at a fast rate as they are weighed and recorded and paid for in cash.
  Kids are coming home, kicking a football around, playing together, it's just like any other small town.
  A very hard way to make a living. Every man has to be an engineer to keep these boats going and feed his family. Sustainability seems to be ensured because they are not fishing year-round this way.
  This is all entirely different from what I expected of this day trip!
  We are home at 7pm, all tired, a lot of driving for Savuth who was under the weather a bit from last night's wedding, and the Red Bull didn't seem to help a lot! It's a quick dinner along the road at Viroths again, and bed at 9pm.

RICH AGRICULTURE AND BANTEAY SREI: CITADEL OF BEAUTY

We are up and off by 7am today through different rural areas with rice paddies coming vivid green as the second crop (smaller) ripens. Yesterday we saw bananas, coconuts, rubber (latex), cassava, timber, rice, along with small green crops.
  At the market where we stop en route, we saw monks doing the rounds to garner food or contributions, in return for which they chant a blessing. It's a form of tithe everywhere here but people seem to accept it.
  There are shacks along the road for new Cambodian settlers from rural areas. They perch precariously on the edge of the road, often with a drop off to the riverbed (now fairly dry), you can't imagine how these people can survive.
  School here is half day, either morning or afternoon, every day except Sunday, but none of these kids will have that experience. Laos was certainly more developed than Cambodia. Annual earnings less than  US$400-500 a year.
  We pass through many small villages and markets and are fascinated by it all. Houses on stilts are one room with animals below in shade, and huge earthenware water pots outside. Dogs wander everywhere.
  Again, we return to the hotel for a shower and cool rest, we don't seem to be interested in lunch, just nibble onfruit and cookies.
  

MONDAY BUSTLING NEW WEEK AND CAMBODIA COUNTRYSIDE

We are up later today, with a long drive, almost 3 hours, ahead of us to Koh Ker. Again, a main 7-level tower that is reminscent of Mayan architecture. We stop en route for sticky rice, being cooked over a roadside fire in a piece of bamboo. You must eat it before it gets cold so Savuth shows us how it's done. There is a whole row of these stands, not seen anywhere else, they've cornered the market.

   At a small village, we stop at market to look for socks for me (I guess I forgot!) - and Ted gets to try the local speciality, deep fried crickets, and announces it's good. We buy bananas and rambutans to sustain us en route. 

  We see an amazing thing today A couple are riding their motorbike with two kids, little boy and small girl, and mother is holding an IV pole to which the baby is attached! I guess they can't afford to stay at the hospital any longer but the child's hand is securely fastened to the IV with bandages. It's sad to see such needy people in this country.

  We really get to see life in the rural agricultural countryside, rice predominant but fertile flat land, lots of people with a skinny cow grazing, a few water buffalo. Long axled tractors spread the load and we are amazed at the amount of stuff they haul, including the family on top. School is not an option for a lot of these kids.

  After our first temple/wat visit, we stop at the village where deer meat stew is (surreptitiously) on offer and the coconuts are cool and refreshing. 

  Savuth knows all the best viewpoints, parking spots away from the main entrances, and time to arrive before the crowd. So we are off to Beng Melea, which was high on Ted's list of places to see. It's a small site, very overgrown withe enormous tree roots, very atmospheric and photogenic too. It's a high spots for statues of lingas, the important fertility symbol of the male organ! They are everywhere, it's important in Hindu temples I guess.

  We are back tired at 5pm and I hit the shower then the cool bed for a rest, but Ted is off again, exploring in town, which is a 5 minute walk across the river. He has found a retaurant just up our road. It's nicely set up, seems to host tour buses, but has an airy, garden like setting with a reflecting pool and very good food, a mix of Khmer and Western, plenty of choice of non spicy for me. Ted's Amoy Fish Curry comes nicely presented in its own little square banana leaf box. With dessert and 2 or 3 half litres of beer, the bill is $35. Everything here, of course, I quote is US dollars....and our poor wee dollar is shrinking every day we are away...

  We have been taking malaria meds most of this trip. Haven't seen any but the restaurant had pic coils burning under every table, and we have rain forecast as a maybe some days now, so the season is approaching. Savuth says they don't have malaria here.

FAMED TEMPLES OF ANGKOR WAT - AT LAST!

We are up at 6am - yup, folks, that's me! - and leave at 7:15am with our guide Savuth. First to Angkor Tom, where we see amazing bas reliefs all aroound the Bayou temple of Cambodian life in the 12th century. The detail is amazing. considering the temples fell into disuse after the 12th century, their zenith, and were not rediscovered until the late 1800's. By 8am the massive bus tours are arriving. We take a leisurely pace but still sweating in this heat and humidity.
  I've decided to feeze my small portable water bottles each day and this is a godsend. Also the tie which I soak and leave in fridge overnght freezes and cools me round my  head or neck as we walk. Interestingly, contrary to what we were told, there is plenty of water and supplies at all the sites, little cafes, shops, everywhere at the entrances. And good Western (read not squats) toilets too. So the portable water/hose container I bought to ski and bring with me has not been needed.
  Epic tugs of war are depicted in stone and on walls, gods and men, men supported by their special gods, all part of the Hindu religious history. Detailed faces grin down on us from the gates and lintels are beautifully carved and deeply incised even now. At Bayou 215 enormous smiling faces greet us.
  We walk a long causeway to Baphoun, a pyramid reminiscent of the Mayan pyramids, where there was once also a massive reclining Buddha, now largely gone. Everywhere we are greeted  by beauitufl Apsaras, celestial dancers, in various sinuus poses, with very deailedcostumes, headdresses, belts, etc. Some of the filigree patterns are still fine and strong.
  Later we drive to the secluded Prah Khan temple, overgrown with beautiful trees, where we discover a two-story building, almost Romanesque, which has been wrestledfrom the fast growing jungle. Thhis is a fusion temple, part Hindu, later Buddhist.
  We hear birds calling, sometimes we are on our own enough to video and catch the loud cicada chorus and birds.
  We stop for cooling cold coconuts (cocos frios in Mexico) so refreshing and if you are lucky, they cut it open after you've drunk the milk and you can spoon out the young coconut fruit which I love. I buy a white cotton long sleeved shirt ($3) and long wrap skirt ($4) as my North jAmerican summer gear is not cutting it in this 100 degree environment!
  At 11am we return to our cool AC car and return to the hotel for the afternoon to shower, relax, plan. We have loaded our fridge with the great local tropical fruit juices (guava, mangosteen, lychees) and bananas, and cookies from the local upscale supermarket here.
  At 4pm as the day begins to cool somewhat we head back to Ta Prohm, famous for Raiders of the Lost Ark, where many Japanese tourists are having their photos taken in the exact same place as Angelina Jolie!

FIRST NIGHT IN CAMBODIA

We are over the river from the main downtown area so first night, we walk over the bridge to a recommended fusion restaurat. All very classy, people have dressed to the nines, smart sandals, long skirt and white jacket. I have put on my new $3 cotton pants and black shell, but I feel good enough in the dark. They love to have it all dark and bring you folding flashlights to read the menu. I still need my iphone flashlight. We order nice typical local food, but mine comes - not a piece of honey roasted chicken, but a chicken salad with way too much chili for my poor we sore mouth, which is proving a problem here. I nibble away on the salad, rice and some of Ted's fish stew in coconut and spices, cooked in a banana leaf. Polished service, garden location, very nice for $35 with 3 half liters of beer!
  We stumble back over the bridge and hit the bed at 9pm in our cool, quiet room and sleep for a long time.

SUNSET AT ANGKOR TOM

 We've been told if you buy your $40 3-day pass for Angkor Wat after about 4:30pm, you can see the sun go down that night for free. We are up for that bonus. So Savuth comes back around 5pm and we join a mass of humanity at Angkor Tom, climbing the wooden stairs which now cover a lot of the original stone steps, now being loved to death by too many tourists.
  The sunset is gorgeous and gives us a taste of what is to come. It's hot and hzy here but the sun is blistering once it comes out. It's been 99 degrees most days I think. We all jostle for a place on the ramparts to see the sun go down behind the temple, somehow I thought we were going to see the reflection of the sun on the temples...My camera does not like shotting into the bright light, a bit different from Hawaii  sunsets.
  There are hundreds of hotels here, lots of high end ones and plenty of home says and little hostel type places too, something for every budget. There are many backpackers in this part of the world who know how to eat cheaply on the street and sleep for $10 a night. So there are buses and buses of tour groups. This seems daunting until we realize that Savuth is the savviest guide, avoiding all the crowds, entering through different gateways, parking our AC car close to where we start to walk and explore. Ted is using his walking pole, so Savuth is very attentive to make sure he finds the best walking and climbing positions. Ted copes well but the new knee is definitely talking  back some of the time! He walks carefully so we are not nervous that he will take a dive on the rocks!
  Walking around these cities is something else, very dangerous, the sidealks are under construction or filled with cars and motorbikes so you have to walk in the road, with lights blinding you from the potholes! Definitely not something to be done in your walking-out shoes! I've just about worn out a pair of walking shoes in just over 3 weeks! Hope they last a bit longer.
  

THE IDES OF MARCH, BEWARE CAMBODIA ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

The day has finally come when Ted will realize his ambition to visit Agkor Wat!
  Saturday we were up early to pack and off to the little airport at Vientiane, on to a full, rickey old turboprop airplane, just over an hour to the southern city of Pakse. We are labeled "In transit" so quickly pass through this little airport and  about 10 of us board a spanking new Lao Airlines plane to Siem Reap, home to the famed ruined Angkor Wat temple group, the largest in the world. We have visited Borubador and Parambanan on Java, but never India, so have high expectations.
  On the plane, we fill up three forms wanting also the telephone number of where we will stay in Cambodia!! But we can't enter the arrivel hall until we fill in a health questionnaire too.
  We then find the visa applications, more of same info, line up to present it with photos (the cheap cinema booth pics were fine) and hand over our passports and $40 US each! Further along the line of about 12 government personnal, we line up to get our passports back with a handsome visa attached. Now we line up at another booth to hand in our entry form, now with the visa number to be inserted. There are about 4 booths and about 12 of us, including one wee family from UK wih 2 kids getting their edcuation on the road for 6 months! We are directed way down the line where a smiling officer deals with our papers and seems to be asking Ted for more dollars. I look him in the eye and say we have paid. He indicates eating, money for food. I tell him, we've paid. He shrugs, hands us our papers, our first shake-down in Cambodia, which I'd been told about. Just  like Central America in the 70s! But this time no moola changed hands.
  We are out into the sun and sweltering heat, and there is the broad grin of our guide for the next 5 days, Savuth, a welcome sight. He drops us to our modest hotel in the centre of town. I find Siem Reap is not a sleepy town attached to the famous ruins, but a bustling city of one million people!! First surprise.

MOST VENERATED SHRINE

Wednesday we head out to Wat  Muang,  where we are intrigued by the rituals here. As you approach, many small stores sell beautiful floral garlands, candles, birds in tiny cages to free in the temple grounds, etc. AFter the Burmese razed the original temple the Buddha statue melted to a 1 foot pyramid of metal. A supplicant pays a lama to chant, and burn their candle.
  The supplicant first measures the length of his arm and circumference of his head with thin beeswax candles and plaits the candle for the lama to burn over a brass pot. One young mother had brought her baby who was mesmerized watching this, then they all had  white sik threads tied around their wrists. She then tried to lift the melted Buddha over her head 3 times, then shook a case of incense strands, making a loud noise presambly to chase away bad spirits.
  Of course, paper money changes hands or goes in boxes all along this ritual. Finally she takes the baby to a huge gong, gets him to hold the hammer and gives it a mghty bash. Other people knelt before another gong and rubbed the hemisphere in the middle until it reverberated (like rubbing wine glasses with a wet finger) - quite fascinating.
  We saw other families arriving, clearly mother had in mind for them to all perform the ritual and the youngsters were guffawing at the mere thought, measuring your head with a candle, etc.
  A small inner shrine seemed to attract more devout supplicants and the size of the flower arrangements was amazing, two foot high, always orange flowers, crysanthemums especially.

VIENTIANE - LESS THAN STELLAR EXPERIENCE

It's a dirty, smelly, polluted city with little to commend it as a city. On the web people hate the way you can't walk around without almost being run down most of the time. Sidewalks are for parking in this part of the world, and often building sites too so walking at night is really hazrdous.
  Our boutique hotel was a haven of peace and beautiful things, mostly made from bamboo, beautiful art pieces, so skilfully crafted. Staff so caring and friendly, but once you went out the door, well, a different story.
  We found the tuktuk drivers good once you reached an agreement with them. Take you where you want to go and willing to wait any amouont of time til you return.
  We found one or two really nice retaurants close by, some with AC, hard to get enthused about food when you are really sweltering. The evenings cooled off later but even walking along the Mekong riverbak after dinner was steamy.
  One thing here is excellent French bakeries, pattisseries, with tropical fruit sorbets too!
  Friday we were almost home after an exhausting trip getting lost in a less than attractive end of town, when we look down the road, and there are Linda and Bob from Calgary, our friends from the cooking class in Luang Prabang! They have had some adventures in between, local buses, supposed to be VIP, everyone throwing up, Not going there! They have oodles of moxie these two, and are off on a home stay next, which they do all the time and enjoy.
  After a cool drink, we arrange to meet for dinner and take them to the nice Lao Kitchen, authentic food, really friendly service, good prices and T on the menu for Tourist versions of dishes that may be too hot or spicy for some of us! Amen to that. My mouth has been playing up and chil really sets it going, which is frusrating for Ted trying to eat dinner with me. He has to finish everything! While I nibble on rice, veggies and salad. On the topic of which you can ignore all you read about Hepatitis and avoiding salads, they are marvellous here.

LAO MASSAGE - A NEW EXPERIENCE

After my weaving class last Saturday, my back had tightened right up. So today I headed for the spa on the 2nd floor of our hotel to book in for a massage at 2pm today. I picked the cheapest, baic Lao, $22 for an hour.  As a hotel guest, I get a 10% discount.
  There are massage rooms etc everywhere here and I know you can get an hour on the street for 45,000 ($60) but I am sceptical about that. In LP, if you gave a donation to the Red Cross, you got a free one!  With lymphedema in my right arm, I have to explain to people what not to do. Also we are sweating like pigs so the thought of a non AC room, towels that may have been used before, etc. makes me nervous. Hence, head to the spa in your hotel, I say.
  Like the Hanoi hotel spa, it is a lovely little haven down there on the 2nd floor. One room has mats on the floor, the other 2 beds. For a Lao massage you take off your clothes and don a pair of rough silk pajamas, a V-necked slip-on top and baggy shorts that tie at the waist. You lie on the mat on the floor, face down, and this sweet young thing does all sorts of magic first on your back, then your front. They concentrate on the legs and feet, but also back and shoulders. Let me tell you, Paw found knots in there I didn't know about yet. I am sure I'll be sore tomorrow but hopefully loosened up after that. She wants me to come every day while I am here. It's certaily tempting.
   I'm the only one in the spa til I am ready to leave, when an English lady arrives. She had the works yesterday and now wants a facial later today. As she says, it's too hot out there to do anything else. I'm with her on that. Paw serves me a lovely cup of ginger tea and I'm on my way, feeling like a butterfly.
  Back to the room for coconut water, the rest of my almond tarte, and the delicous home-made cookies from our huge hotel breakfast buffet. Don't want to be into that Laobeer on an empty stomach again today.  Juices here from Thailand are lovely,  so we clear our fridge of all the pop and crap, and fill it with cold water and fruit juices. I particularly like the guava and lychee.
  This room has 75cl of both Smirnoff and gin, and 35cl of Jack Danials. Who drinks this stuff? Must be the Japanese, of whom there are certaily lots as there are sushi bars around here too.
  It is good to be in an upscale hotel, the staff are super friendly to do everything for you, dining room staff  little short on English but big smiles all the time. We're in the boutique Salana Hotel at US$130 a night not cheap. Coming back to your cool, quiet room after the mayhem on the street is good.
  Meanwhile Ted is off on one of his walks, ever the Boy Scout, he is checking out where we will eat next and how far I can make it before we have to take a tuktuk. We haven't figured out what to pay but when ou walk out of this hotel within sight of a tuktuk, you kow you are going to pay double, even when you bargain them down. It's supposed to be 20,000  (US$2.5) for 1-2k but they try to double it for two people - hello?? - yesterday we got quoted 40, I said 30, and off we went.

VIENTIANE - CAPITAL OF LAOS

We are tucked into the busy downtown area on the Mekong River in this dusty capital. So far we are underwhelmed and a bit sorry we have booked to stay here 5 nights. However, so far we've found countless super French pastry shops, the Banneton which we loved in LP, and where we holed up in the AC this afternoon with iced teas and tarte aux abricot...
  We walked through the dustry, traffic clogged sreets to the Presidential Palace - view from the gates only, not public, used only on state ceremonial occasions.  The Mekong has a recaimed land park all along the river, the other bank is Thailand and you could walk across the Friendship Bridge without presenting any papers!
  Last night we also went throug the Evening market along that road, but it's ony Chinee knockoffs and cheap goods for the locals, or the backpackers who are here in droves.
  It seems many Europeans have gone native here, dreadlocks, etc. We sat in a lovely French cafe today and 3 of them (age about 25) performed. One joined the others with what looked like a bag of french fries from outside, and proceeded to eat them under the table. The other two seemed to be sharing a cup of coffee and glasses of water.. One girl  sniffed the other's armpits, pulled out the deodorant and proceeded to apply it. Ugh....I think they are Dutch from the language, or maybe mid-European.
  One other Brit at our hotel commented at the total ignorance of almost naked people touring the temples, where you are supposed to cover shoulders and lower legs. In LP, the main temple rented wraps and one young man's shorts were considered too short - so he had to wrap too.
  Had dinner last night at a restaurant that employs young peoople from poor backgrounds. Unfortuately nobody spoke English when we arrived so my order for no chili didn't make it to the plate.
  A starter of their version of crudities (boiled soggy cold cabbage, green beans and some sort of river weed veggie) was served with a dip of baby bamboo shoots, ginger and chili (even though on the menu it indicated no chili!) Ted loved it. They had tied the green beans in little bows and boiled them quite sweet. I wonder if they tied them after they were cooked, I expect so or they would have broken...
  I odered crispy shrimp salad with a chili lime dressing. Tried to get the dressing on the side. The dish came with more chili than I could handle chopped into the salad. On the side a bowl of lime juice! OK....Even Ted found it hot! He was mopping down all evening. The redeeming part of my dish was tempura bass leaves - could that have been basil?? Delicious, along with the tomatoes and cucumber which had not been in the chili too much. The fresh vegetables here are wonderful, but when they cook them, that's another story. The head waiter explained that all Lao food is hot despite what the menu says...that is not the case in LP where it was usually on the side.
  Ted's pumpkin curry was good but full of tofu which had not appeared as an ingredient in the menu. Oh well...It was stinking hot in the restaurant, but we had missed the 6pm deadline to get a table outside, or book in advance. It is pretty quiet here now, but restuarants seem to get busy all the same.
  Lots of French people here I guess owing to its history as a French country. As we left I asked the table next to us in my best French if there were any good patisseries nearby, and got some directions, but the guy then said in English, "Are you Canadian? We're from Montreal" Hahaha

WELCOME TO VIENTIANE.. AN OVEN! BUT A $10 DENTIST....

We arrive in the capital of Laos about 2pm, drive about half an hour to our lovely Salana hotel where we are greeted by yet another goreous Lao lady, a cool fruit drink, check in and decide we don't (well, I don't) like our room by the elevator and stairs on the road side. I am taken to a room on the 45th flooor at the end of the corridor overlooking the lovely temple next door, what's not to like!
  I've lost a crown so ask to be directed to an emergency dentist. They work all day at the hospital, not much demand for dentists, so they start work at 5pm.
  We corral a tuktuk (probaby overpaying by twice) as I don't fancy walking 15-20 minutes to a place I don't know. We show the map to tuktuk driver and he gets us there toute suite, in about 5 minutes. I get straight in to see a nice young dentist, who tells me to go see my dentist as soon as I get home to get it replaced. It's actually on the list, but it's more urget now. n half an hour, I am fixed upl don't eat more sticky rice! And don' chew anything for an hour. Cost US$10, but paid in kip.
  While I settled into our lovely AC room, Ted has been out reconnoitering, his forte! We get back to read a bit then off to the recommended restaurant, best in town, bu we are already too late for a table outdoors. Inside it is stinking hot, there are fans but not much use. We order food. I order NO chili but it comes imposible for me to eat. But I eat the crudities they serve with the hot (not on the menu) bamboo/ginger dip and Ted enjoys it. My crispy shrimp and tempura bass? (is that basil?) leaves are nice, but the salad with it again too hot for me. Ted's red pumpkin curry is full of tofu, but good enough for him to be wiping of the sweat running down behind his ears. In LP we were told Lao food is not hot, just what you add personally, doesn't seem to be the case here. Maybe I'll have to esort to western food, I hope not...
  After we chat to the French people at the next table asking about French patisseries. They are from Montreal! We are close. We follow their French directions, but get off track as we end up in the evening market along the Mekong,  local market, crap from China, nothing of interest to us.Backtracking to our hotel, we see one couple in the nice AC hotel restaurant, and the staff on duty tell us how we missed the bakeries. We'll find them tomorrow.
  Its stinking hot here, I am sure over 100. I have soaked my clothes this evening and head home for a shower and early bed. We obviously have to get up early now to miss the hot part of the day. David said get out by 5am (yerks, I didnt even know it existed) come back around 10am,  snooze read, etc. to 4pm then go out again. Still too hot here I'm sure.

SHEILA - WANNABE WEAVER...

I've booked in for a very expensive half day of weaving classes to make the most expensive table mat on the planet...actually probably not.
  Ock Pop Tok means "East meets West". It's a hugely popular and successful Fair Trade outfit that supports master craftswomen in remote parts of Laos, so my fee actually goes to a lot of these wonderfully worth-while projects.  There are two shops in Luang Prabang, and an estate outside town with 4 beautifully decorated rooms overlooking the scenic Mekong river, a lovely restaurant and the weaving and basketry centre. About 3 women come in for intensive courses  to improve their village-level crafts and output. It has replaced opium growing a a  better income source.
  I am taken by tuktuk from the shop in town to the estate, allocated an English speaking teacher (who went to teacher training college here and speaks excellent English)  and a master weaver too. After a cool welcome drink, I'm given a choice of patterns and colours.  All the silk (two kinds, one from China, one from India) is dyed before use with natural dyes, from plants mostly grown right on the estate. I choose indigo blue (which is the basic dye used by many hill tribes both this side of the border and north in China, where I have traveled widely and seen he women at market wearing all these colorful outfits. To contrast I choose a golden yellow from turmeric.
  The naga is a mythical creature which mostly looks after humans but can wreak havoc if it gets angry! I know it's very typical, but the pattern is crazy-involved and difficult and I doubt I can do it. Yup they assure me, you can do it. Later I realize why - all the hard work of setting up the loom and the pattern threads has been done ahead by my master weaver, a middle-aged lady called Pa.  We simply have to rethread certain wefts, sometimes insert a paddle to keep it apart, before I send the double bobbin through the weave threads. I don't know a thing about weaving but I catch on to my stuff OK. Working the bamboo foot controls i hard
  First I am assigned to the spinning wheel to load my bobbins. Pa makes it look easy, it isn't, you get winding and then something catches.  I find afterwards that smooth bobbins makes the weaving go better, but that's for later...
  The looms are made by the village men to fit the weaver's body, so I've got a small loom. I'm told the class if 12:30-3pm but at 4:45 I'm till plugging away, and Pa finally does the last few centimeters for me! My back is killing me! I've only taken one short pee break, and my teaches has called home a few times on her cell to tell mother (I'm sure) she has a super slow learner and to watch the kids for a bit longer...Various other staff wander by probably to ask what's keeping you so long...
  I asked soon after I started if someone can make me a second placemat, same as mine, for my husband, so we have matching pair. Yup, Pa can do this in an hour! She's finished ahead of me and finishes the mat with beautiful tassels. When I finally get done, she does my tassels  quickly, not quite the same.
  But I'm SO PROUD of my work. I would never have thought it possible for me to create such a beautiful piece. I now understand a tiny bit what motivates these wonderful artists. I have taken photos of the work or sale here, it is absolutely the most intricate weaving I have ever laid eyes on and we thought the work in Guatemala 40 years ago was outstanding.  These women create pieces to prove what great wives they will make, it's a salable skill in the marriage market back in those villages.
  There are many superstitions about the weaving, dying, etc. quite fascinating really. I got a book to take home, explaining the amazing work Ock Pop Tok does and what they do at the centre, good reading for later on the trip.
  Next day, I bring Ted back to the centre. Although it's Women's Day and the weavers are taking the day off, we have a tour, including meeting the silk worms, chomping away,see the dye  works, all the plant  from which the dyes come, and of course, a trip to the gift shop where a few bucks are happily left behind. 

MONEY..

Having got the hang of Vietnamese dong, we are now into millions of kip in Laos!
The value of one US $ is:(don't even go where the Canaian doar is now...)
Vietnam: 20,000 dong
Lao: 8,000 kip
Cambodia:  4,000 reil.
  However, we understand US dollars are used everywhere in Cambodia, also the Cambodians all seem to speak English, which is interesting.
  Everything is in huge numbers. Why don't they cross off three zeros? They readily accept US$ but often do some exchange other than what the bank seems to do, and give you change in many little ery usd bills.
  I tried to pay for the laundry (10,000 kip - $1.50 for 1kg of clothes.) Ted gave me a 5000 note and a 500 note, so easy to get confused! Ridiculous cost really. You see people advertising all around that they do laundry, so you can see your undies hanging on their fence next day...We got somebody's fancy red knickers back with ours but we did give them back!
 

SLOW BOAT UP THE MEKONG TOWARDS CHINA...

We get our hotel to hire a boatman to take us up the Mekong for an afternoon. It's US$50. We leave at 10:30 when it's already getting hot but on the water it's quite comfortable in our 8 seater 'blue' boat, a glorified fishing boat with a sun shade - nails stick out, careful where you put your hands. Our boatman doesn't speak much English but we don't need a guide. It's a laconic, easy paced meander upriver for 2 hours. People go about their usual chores, tending the crops on the river bank, fishing, mending nets, a huge cargo area we pass is loading huge lumber from a truck, so there's obviously a road parallel to the river. Dotted here and there are poor looking wats, and a few monks strolling along the river bank.
  We stop, clamber up the eroding bank and a rickety bamboo staircase to the "whisky" village where Mr Mou? has a still in what looks like an old oil drum. Whisky LaoLao will probably make you go blind if you drink any amount of it!! Ted tries a sip, "like slivovitz". But there are bottles for sale nicely covered in rattan, but also stuff that is definitely going to improve your health with snakes, scorpions, bees clearly floating in it! We politely decline.
  The village is also home to some basic weavers. It's lunch time and there are no tour groups here, they came earlier or will come later.  Many small shopkeepers offer all sorts of weaving, some simple, which they have done, and others obviously from China and India or somewhere else. They are keen to bargain but there is nothing I need or want.
  Up the hill they have a Disney type temple, all glitz and glory.
  I pay my 25c, 2000 kip,  to use the toilet, it's a squat with a barrel of water and dipper. I manage OK. Wear shorts when you venture out far...

PAYING HOMAGE TO THE ANCESTORS

We have had the most amazing experience in the road next to our hotel for 3 days. A large family has gathered to pay homage to their ancestors. They have requested their road be closed, a large marquee has been erected, they have rented masses of catering, equipment, the women are cooking their hearts out. They have amassed piles of household goods to send to the deceased family members to make their time in "heaven" more comfortable. There are about a dozen chairs with a big quilt and pillow, a basket of goods, a fruit basket with knife and spoon, a basket full of (fake) money, and ceremonial food on many tables. There are also feasts from time to time when the family also eat.
  This lasts 3 days. The first day we are woken with the drum at 4am and the music continues on and off, day an night for the duration of the occasion. We get used to it. 
  The first day, women kneel inside the house with monks in white robes, who chant and pray. Somehow the men aren't involved in this ritual. Next day the monks are outside eating with the family at the many tables, the men seem to be on the sidelines drinking beer....
  The music is provided by a drummer, a sort of xylophone/marimba and a circular instrument surrounded by bells which the player sits inside an plays. The sound is very appealing, just as well when it goes on into the night. I am up early on the 3rd morning to video the music, I am still trying to figure out how to upload photos and video from iphoto to Googles' blogspot!! 
  We are out on the 3rd day, returning to find everything has gone, except the huge pile of garbage which the cats and dogs are now examining.
  In the meantime, the goods have been given to the monks to take back to their wat or temple. some they will use, the money they will burn (there is the odd bit of real money in there...), they will keep the handsome rice collection bowls for new monks and their Bat, and distribute the rest to hospitals, elderly, etc. They will continue to pray for the departed souls. It's a bit like North American Indian potlach - the community shares in a formal way.
  We are told the Buddhist monks and wats are often very powerful. People are constantly being asked to donate to the wats, many of which are quite wealthy, although I'm not sure if that's true for Laos.
 If you perform this ritual for your ancestors, they continue to progress up the ladder to the ultimate point of heaven, or is that nirvana?

HONOR THE 'BAT'

Here in this devout city, they cling to the concept of feeding the 200 mostly young monks in the wats (temples) here. Two days ago at 4am, first day of the full moon, the gongs were rung to summon the monks. They shave their heads on the full moon every month. The drumming was repeated at 4pm again. It looks ike hard work!
  Each day they parade single file from their wats to beg alms/food from the local poulation. This is called the Bat. Tourists can participate if they wish. Locals, mostly elderly ladies, sit on the side of the road with their large sticky rice pots. They dip their fingers in water and roll a ball of rice (must be fresh) to put in each monk's bowl. People can also give wrapped candies, etc. It is an act of contrition for the giver, a solemn procession, the monks eyes looking down, you are not to communicate with them, nor they to anyone. No thanks are given. It is a blessing going both ways. Such a lovely custom.
  Unfortunately tour buses bring people from all over town in droves and they act totally rudely on the main road, taking flash photos in monks' faces, turning it into a total zoo. Ted went yeterday and was disgusted. Today I simply went outside our own hotel, on the backroad between two wats, and enjoyed watching the Bat. The local ladies, our neighbors, waited patiently to contribute to this kind gesture. One of our fellow hotel guests, from Jordan, participated with candy provided by the staff.
  This is the advantage of a hotel right in the middle of the Old Town, we can walk to everything and enjoy being part of it.
  Trees are in bloom making for nice photos. Other than tour buses, there is no vehicular traffic. Only the occasional stray dog fight breaks out to shatter the silence! And a cock crowing in the distance somewhere.

A FEAST IN EVERY SENSE

This is an amzing city of contrasts of the old and new, ancient and modern.

  There are some 37 wats or temples here, with about 200 monks, so a significant religious centre and the population is quite devout too. 

  It has now become stinking hot, about 40 every afternoon, still, smoky from people cooking on open fires and also smoke starting to come in from the rice fields being cleared. There is also a lot of clearcut that we saw flying in, a major ecological problem, along with the dams being built to supply power but cutting off water supplies to small scale farmers.

  Yesterday we spent a day with the Tamarind Restaurant Cooking School, an amazing experience. We meet at 9am and go to the huge market with everything from dry goods to produce fresh from the fields. Farmers come in early with huge baskets of freshly picked herbs and greens, vegetables and fruit. Everything we eat here has been growing yeterday! Coffee is also grown in Laos but Ted says it's not particularly good. I've found lovely green and ginger teas and the local honey with it is good.

  Our guide Joy (who is what he's named) is a mine of Lao information, not just about food. 

  We visit stalls with packaged candied treats, one called cat poo, because it looks like it, but it's like popcorn wth sugar. Ted picks up dried bamboo for snacking with his Lao beer, which is cheap and good, both light and dark. About $1 for 20oz bottle, a serious size. They also make lao lao whisky here, often with a scorpion or so in it, but we haven't tried it - yet!

  Apparently in the countryside the consumption of sticky rice (the staple here) has led to a 50% incidence of diabetes and health care is not good to combat it!

  There are no supermarkets here so everyone shops at market daily to eat fresh. After market, we take a 15 minute drive into the country to a gorgeous estate on two lily pods, herb gardens, etc. and the comfortable cooking school. All the serious chopping has been done for us already but we stand for almost 4 hours - a long time for Ted's new artificial knee! We were the oldest in the international group, but ran into a couple from Calgary!

  We chopped, wrapped, decorated, listened, tasted, compared with helpful hints all the time from Joy. We stuffed lemon grass!! with a minced chicken stuffing, dipped in egg, deep fried, great along with our home made salsa, either tomato or eggplant. Before that we prepared fish (farmed tilapia as Laos is land-locked) wrapped in banana leaf packages and steamed. Lao food is not hot, you add chiles to taste afterwards. I used very little, Ted went overboard and could not eat his sauce!

  The staff are constantly washing our bowls, knives, saucepans, I'm loving this.

  Then minced buffalo made into a warm salad, hardly cooked, delicous. In fact, many people here eat raw buffalo, the meat inspectors come through market 3 times a week so you can do that safely. Served with a nicely decorated salad, wrapped in fresh lettuce, it was delicious.

  Here everyone lives on sticky rice which is so solid you could build walls with it. It is served in individual rattan baskets with lid attached, so classy, but too much for us.  But you roll it in balls and dip it in the food, which is not very liquid. 

   Afterwards we sit down family style to consume only our own food, or taste other people's to see how different it is. Then we are back up to  the kithen area and the individual open wood fires, hot hot hot. Now we prepare coconut milk with palm sugar and add purple rice, which is dessert. Salt goes in everything. Top with fresh fruits - dragon fruit, mango, tamarind nuts, grated fresh coconut, lychees. We are now full to the brim and not inteested in dinner tonight!

  Fortunately there's a supply of cold beer to wash this all down.

  Back to the hotel, I shower and die on the bed in A/C for an hour or so, read the guide books and the nice little cookbook that came with the course, write my log. Wifi is slow in the late afternoons and I can't get in to write my blog.

  At 7pm we think a stroll is in order so off to the French patisseris (you would swear we are in Paris, lots of people from Paris here too) for a magnificent mini tarte tatin with passion fruit sorbet and coconut ice cream, which is dinner for me, and a beer and nibbles from my dishes for Ted. He can gnaw on his bamboo later! They also deep fry kaffir lime leaves in it, but we don't care for that.

  It's peaceful and quiet here in our hotel up the hill on the peninsula between the Mekong and Khan rivers. I spend some time downloaeding photos every evening then we pass out early, beofre 10pm for sure.

  

March - no winds blowing here..no snow in the forecast...

Our first day in this little paradise of Luang Prabang.  We are here for 9 days.  My not be enough! We didn't rise at 6am to watch the procession of monks past our hotel, seeking alms and food. We can participate in this ritual later, just ask the staff for some rice to donate and we too will be blessed!

  It's peaeful and quiet here, a very international clientele but seasoned travelers by the look of it, many returning once they are hooked...few North Americans. Maybe the Americans go to Vietnam.

  After breakfast we venture out to explore the lovely little town. Quite touristy main street, some very classy residences, restaurants and shops. The weaving rom this country is exquisite, better than anything we've ever seen anywhere. Reminds me of Guatemala in the 60s with more tourists.

  There's a weaving school I might try my hand at. Also cooking schools where I will definitely go later this week. You do a market tour first.

  The tapestries are finished back and front, the work quite asounding, but prices to match. The wall hangng we love is US$500! You can haggle where there is no price advertized but seems the price is set if it's marked, esp. next door to the most expensive hotel in town! 

    Yesterday we were pretty exhausted but today we were out exploring. So much to see and do here. Those who were not going to shop...have already acquired a number of lovely things, but small or edible! - silver necklace (ECF)  and earrings (SF), green and ginger tea - and have my eye on some of the gorgeous silk scarves which won't take up any space at all!

  I am now looking for a Lao flute as I've heard the music and it's lovely...but it will need to be travel size, but good for my collection.

  Tomorrow before it gets too hot we will cimb the hill overlooking the whole city to see the magnificent temples and National Palace complex from the royal era, before communism took over.

  I think my iPad has caught up with the time now, I'm not writing this in themiddle of the night.

Feb 28 - Amazing Day!!

Time to move on to Laos. An amzing thing happened today. We were lining up at Hanoi international airport terminal for the plane to Laos. Someone from another lineup called "Sheila!". We turned round and it was Julie and Scott, our neighburs across the road in Oakridge for the last 5 years or so, now living in Beijing! 9For once, he was not wearing his kilt!)They were there wtih 10 year old Aiden, who has grown like topsy, and the 5 year old twins! We hugged and visited, then they continued to Beijing ia Guangzhou and we to Luang Prabang! What are the chance that our paths would cross at that exact time in Vietnam! They will be back in mCalgary in May and we will see them again,  as they have sold the house opposite us now.
  Hanoi airport is new, modern and very efficient. Although we were slow to board, they left right on time, a 1hr 20min flight to Laos old capital LP. It as nice to see the farmland on the outskirts of the city as we had arrived in the dark on Wednesday.
  A haze covered the whole area but we could barely define rocky hilltops as we dropped into LP. It's another communist cuntry, so much officialdom as we applied for entry visas ($43 each) then pass through immigration where they wanted to check our Vietnam visas too! Odd.
  We were immediately in another third world country. Bags were waiting when we finished with immigration, and and A/C car to pick us up for the half hour or so drive to Lotus Villas, a charming butique hotel n the middle of the LP peninsula between the mighty Mekong and the other Kham river.
  A warm greeting from the friendly Lao staff and NZ manager Tania,  with tamarind juice and local tips, but we could not wait to get into our room and peel off. I am now glad I brought a sweater as it's cold on the planes, and now cold here in the evenings and mornings even more so.
  We are in the upstairs corner room in one of the villas, overlooking a magnificent temple roof and lovely shaded garden. The birds greet us  the orning and friendly staff take our breakfast order, eaten in the garden, all beautifully served with the local fresh fruits...aaaaah
  After a refreshing rest, we ventured out in the blistering sun, about 35 here and  bit humid by the rivers. Restaurants line the riverbank overlokhng the busy river with riverboats plying their trade everywhere, and farmers growing crops anywhere not to vertical on the Medkong shores.
  Sorry about typos, google blog doesn't spellcheck! or I haven't found it...