Paper Postcards

One of our local newspapers is called The Royal City Record. The New Westminster paper runs a section called, "Paper Poscards" where personal pictures are published. In this section readers have taken along a copy when going on a vacation. The vacationers hold up a former edition and snap a photo in front of some famous site at the destination.


Jay in the ancient area of Bagan.


I am standing at the famous Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon.

We always try to remember to take along a copy of the newspaper for this purpose. Today I found several taken in Burma (Myanmar) that we will email to The Record. These photographs were taken at the end of January and the beginning of February. We were gone from November through early March on a vacation in Sri Lanka and SE Asia.

A Burmese Baby

I take at least one photo everyday. It's never a problem getting a single picture uploaded to Flickr.

It becomes much more of a problem, however, when getting back from a long vacation. Nowadays, it is relatively simple to get an image for use in my blog online during a trip. I generally include the one that best exemplifies the activities of the day. On a vacation though I may snap dozens of photographs. So, I arrive home with many which I promptly copy to the computer. Then, I procrastinate.



Some of my best shots may never see the light of day! For example, during the four months in Sri Lanka and SE Asia, I took close to two thousand photos. As of today just a small percentage are accessible. It is because of this, I quickly opened those folders this evening. I spotted this picture and decided to include it here today. This was taken in Mandalay, Burma on February 3rd of this year.

Day 45 - A Long Return!

We were at the airport outside Kuala Lumpur a little too early for our expected 1:55 am departure time. The train journey from Sentral station takes just 28 minutes.

The satellite terminal at KLIA is so cool, it is almost fun to spend extra time there. A large hub forms circular area between four corridors. It is a sloping glass enclosure. It has an open roof and contains a jungle walk, right in the middle of the airport. The design of the building is utter perfection with great attention to detail, as in the case of the lighting which appears as random as the stars on a moonlit night. What I'm trying to say is it was a better place to spend a few extra hours than our hotel lobby. We'd checked out of the hotel at noon and done some errands.

It was not pleasant to learn that the China Eastern flight to Shanghai would be about an hour and a half late departing though. In actuality, it didn't make much difference as the stopover at MUD was originally scheduled for about 6 hours. Wait here or wait there, what's the difference? We left at 3:30 in the morning today.

Both flights were full. The second flight into Vancouver was on a brand new Airbus. The plane still had a new-plane smell to it. Unfortunately there were seven babies onboard, most of whom were within earshot. Still, the food was rather good. The return YVR to KUL return for a thousand bucks made it all seem acceptable. I will fly them again I'm sure, especially since AirAisa can carry us around most places in Asia for a song.


Pudong in Shanghai was home for a four hour stopover.

We touched down in Vancouver at 8:30 am. One can make pretty good time, even with a stopover, when crossing the International Date line east to west.

The rest of the day involved errands and getting straightened around. For example, I had to re-register and insure my truck before we could go grocery shopping. Wow, it really doesn't seem that we've been gone for the entire duration of this year's standard time period. We didn't even need to re-set the clocks in the house as we left a day or so before Daylight Savings ended last fall!

It's great to be home!


It was a sunny day at YVR from the SkyTrain.

Day 44- Out and About in KL

We continued walking right until well after dark last night. It is interesting how it doesn't get dark until well after 7:00 pm here.



We needed to go to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport tonight. Still that has given us an entire, extra day in KL. We found Mydin Department Stores and spend time walking around every floor. We also retraced steps along Pataling Street, in the Chinatown. We ate lunch somewhere downtown and will spend part the afternoon at a sauna. As we checked out at noon, being able to take a late shower will be useful.

To the airport by express train later ...

Day 43 - The Kuala Lumpur Monorail

We got going after the breakfast buffet. We got on the monorail as starts right next to our place, Hotel Sentral. We were here in 2011 and I expected the construction around the Sentral to be completed for easy access to our hotel. The work continues. The work continues everywhere in the city by the look of the cranes and building sites.  I gush over this city but I can honestly say it is a real favourite. Today, we just went out walking. 

Oh, and I vowed never ever to buy traveller's cheques again. We are old-school and can remember when they were indispensable. On this trip, even HSBC couldn't cash the ones we'd picked up in Canada. It simply seemed like a safer way to carry around extra cash. Now travel has to be completely via plastic and ATMs. Live and learn.

The sites of Kuala Lumpur were explored. Do you know how a trip to NYC can involve simply walking around? For us, it's the same here.

Day 42 - Now Everyone Can Fly

Getting to Malaysia for our eventual return went very smoothly today. We awoke at 6:30, had breakfast at 7:00, and were at the airport by 7:45. Our AirAsia flight from Vientiane to Kuala Lumpur was not quite full. I have to say, I have been quite impressed by the company during our flights to Colombo and around SE Asia.

We got to the Low Cost Carrier Terminal in Malaysia at around 1:30 due to the time difference. Getting downtown was easiest on the bus, so we had purchased the passes along with the baggage allowances, and meals directly from the AirAsia website. The airports are far from downtown KL, so it took more than an hour to get to the Sentral Station.

Ah, it's nice being back in Kuala Lumpur. I think this might be my favourite city of the area. It's smaller than Bangkok, cheaper than Singapore, and prettier than nearby cities. We didn't check in to the Sentral Hotel until almost 4:00 pm, but still found it easy to get around on the KL Monorail and Commuter trains.


The Petronas Towers were the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004.

Day 41 - Pha That Luang

The sun returned for our final day in Laos. It started off a little slowly but appeared quite nicely by noon.



We realized we'd not yet seen a sure symbol of this country. The iconic temple is on all the new banknotes in Laos. After a nice little buffet breakfast in the hotel we walked out to the corner to flag down a tuk-tuk. From downtown it cost us 50,000 Kip to get there. We walked around the famous one and several new temples of the area.



For our last evening we walked around the night market before getting dinner. We bought a spoon. If that seems like an odd choice for a souvenir, it's really not. There's a town in Laos which makes its livelihood by melting down bomb casings and old military parts. They form dinnerware and now bracelets from the aluminum. We now have a new item to squeeze into the curio cabinet.

Day 40 - Finding the Mekong and Dinner

The weather is still a little cool and misty.  It was our day to check out of The Hotel Laos.  We got up rather late, and also ate a final buffet breakfast near the courtyard fish pond there.  Our hotel for tonight and tomorrow is called The Win Hotel and only about a block north.  The two, rolling wheels on our large, cheap, red duffel bag haven't fallen off; therefore, moving was easy.



There is a very large berm with road and walkway protecting Vientiane from any possible river flooding. The thing is, as this is the dry season, the nearest water is close to a kilometer from it! So, one of the first walks included going out through the sand to get a closer look at the Mekong.  A lot of our time in SE Asia has been near it.  In fact, one blog entry highlights a day trip out in the delta. Interestingly, the water runs through five countries and over 4,800 kilometers.   Strangely, it has several different names in a number of these places.


Jay stands on the Lao side but Thailand is clearly seen on the other.

In the evening our main quest was again to discover a new place to eat. We have tried to sample many different restaurants rather than falling into the trap of having just one favourite. Tonight, we went to a little family-owned Laos place. The food was very nice.

I could not help but think of differences in the preparation in tonight's restaurant and those at a US chain, like Denny's. The food here is completely made by scratch. It must be personally gratifying seeing a customer made happy by the fruits of one's own efforts. At most chains at home the meal is readied by simply mixing and reheating. Earlier today on Facebook, I left the following status update:

"I lost 40 pounds in the first 10 months of 2012. Then, I went to South and South-east Asia for 4.5 months ..."

The implication is, of course, I've regained some of what I lost!

Day 39 - Quiet Day in a Quiet City

I've heard it said many times.  "Be careful of what you wish for," was probably sage advice from a grandmother.  Yesterday, it was very hot in Vientiane, Laos.  I recall wishing it were cooler.

As soon as we awoke, we noticed there was no sun this mornng.  At breakfast it started to sprinkle a little.  The lack of sun and gray mist has brought down the temperatures immensely.  In fact, the hotel room's a/c is off and I'm a little cool right now.

We did little, except decide to spend our last two nights in this city in a different hotel.  We only paid for three nights here and decided to move to the slightly cheaper, Win Hotel about a block away.  We have just two more nights in Laos.  We probably left a little too much time in the capital here, but a day to kick back, like today, seems welcomed. 


Between sprinkles near the waterfront in Vientiane.

I don't even know if we will be able to find a day trip to take from Vientiane.  I do know that we'll be on a plane on Wednesday heading back to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  Next weekend, we will be boarding the China Eastern flights which will get us home.  It really doesnt seem possible that we have been away since October 28th of last year!

Day 38 - Hot Footing It

We spent a lot of time walking around Vientiane in the daytime heat.  Things started off nicely with breakfast beside the hotel garden area.  An enormous fish pool dominates the area.  As the huge number of guests left yesterday, we were offered any breakfast from the menu rather than a buffet.  I sent an Instagram photo to Facebook and Twitter.



We walked out to the riverfront and down to a park with an enormous statue of King Anouvong facing the river.  Then, we sneaked past the side of the Presidential Palace and ended up at That Dam, or the black stupa.  We went from there past the US Embassy to visit the Vat Sisaket, one of the oldest temples here.  When looking up the boulevard, we could see the Patuxai, or a huge war memorial that looks like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.  We walked towards it and found the Morning Market and two nearby malls.  When we finally got to the Patuxai, we bought water and then each paid 3000 Kip for the honour of walking up to the top.  (The funding for the monument is interesting.  I encourage you to search the Net for it.). The weather was close to 100 Fahrenheit and the nights cool down to a more comfortable 80 Fahrenheit.  Staying hydrated is a major task!

In the evening we found a touristy place for dinner on the road closest to the river.  On the way back to the hotel we went to the temple where yesterday we'd seen monks setting up for some sort of celebration.  In the dark with candles and religious materials, hundreds or perhaps thousands of devotees were listening to prayers seated around every corner of the temple grounds.

Day 37 - The Lao Capital

We made it to Vientiane as the roosters were crowing.  Our bus pulled into the Northern Station almost exactly at 7:00 am, although the sky appeared to be more of a sunset.



Last night's bus was a little more comfortable then our previous night one.  Berths were stacked two high and we were nearly able to recline completely.  Still, the road was curvy and rough.  Several times I think I nearly ended up in the aisle and from the top bunk it would've been quite the fall.

So after paying 40,000 Kip (almost $3 each) we were happy to get downtown to Hotel Lao.  It was a bit before 8:00 and the day staff hadn't arrived yet.  There was apparently also a full house as we later saw delegates of some sort running around with ID badges.  So it we nice when we were offered a temporary room to get some sleep until our room would be ready at noon.  We had to pay for the buffet breakfast but will get it for free fro tomorrow morning.   It seems as if room 401 had an air conditioner that functioned for only about an hour.  We woke up sweaty at around 11:30.  We moved into room 204 at about quarter past twelve.

This city is hot.  This city is very, very hot.

We walked out towards the river.  In the part of town the Mekong is wide and shallow.  In fact, as it is the dry season, we can nearly see the water from the riverfront esplanade.  We ate at an Authentic Indian restaurant.  After we walked a bit around our area of the city and it seems as if it holds a great many Buddhist temples.



We caught up on or sleep deficit in the afternoon.  After sunset it was marginally cooler.  We walked around past an enormous cultural center.  We found the night market stalls near the river.  This is quite a sophisticated little city.

Day 36 - A Final Sunset in Luang Prabang

I could make a habit out of staying here.  Several meals a day from terraces above the river, walks in town, and checking out the night market are all pleasurable pursuits.  We have enjoyed three sunsets over the Mekong from this city.  Alas, our bus tickets on the VIP sleeper bus are from 8:00 pm.  Unlike the grueling journey from Hanoi, our trip south will be less than 12 hours.



Luang Prabang seems a little expensive.  It might be the currency exchange to the Kip.  Presently, that is about 8,000 to a dollar.  Meals here are some of the most expensive we have paid in Indochina.  Okay, five bucks per person is not much for us, but I wonder about the high cost of food for the local folks.  This city is quaint and alluring but we passed many poor villages on our way here.  I cannot help but be extremely grateful for our lot in life. 



Where one is born is a roll of the dice.  I can imagine myself in many situations due to our travels.  There is so much to learn from this earth.  Spending time out on it has been one best expenses I've made in my own education.  I take heart in seeing many other dedicated travellers in every corner and country we've ever roamed.  Although I have to say, it is a little sad seeing so few Americans out of the States.  The world doesn't really end in Florida or the Nevada desert. The final result of this self-infatuation is a great and almost unfathomable ignorance.

Day 35 - Adventure Tourists?

Several circumstances have conspired today to make me aware that we're getting a little old.

First and foremost, we decided to use most of our day here to walk around the ancient, UNESCO-noted area of Luang Prabang.  We had been eyeing the tours offered by the numerous agencies in town.  We could have chosen to go to waterfalls, ride elephants, or kayak upriver to some caves.  The white water tubing is not currently offered as this is the dry season and the rivers are too lazy for adventure.  All this, but we chose to walk around town and look at the ancient and colonial architecture and just see how the locals live.  Really?





It dawned on me that the tours were manufactured to give tourists a sense of doing something, not to mention to make money from those willing to part with it.  For us, on most of our journeys, we find the being there the important thing.  To traverse the surface of the earth far from our usual routine provides us with the necessary something.  So today we tried to soak up the sights and sounds of a place we will probably never witness again in this life.

Perhaps the second point is stronger evidence that we are maturing.  We rub shoulders with the backpacker crowd on most all trips.  There are many positive reasons for travelling like this.  Perhaps, the most important is one is to be closer to the reality of the place and its people.  Another factor is the financial advantages of affordable longer trips.  Really, though, what is the sense of staying in a chain or upscale hotel when on the road?  It just puts one more artificial barrier between the foreign traveller and the real life on the streets.  (Many of the cities on this trip may not even have had available, big-name chain hotels.). Backpacker's fare often contains a much higher percentage of indigenous, local dishes too.  One final advantage for backpacking is the fact it's a hell of a lot easier toting around a smaller amount of luggage.  Toothpaste is available everywhere, why pack it?  If you really need a sweater, wouldn't it be best to buy at the source?  Even little tricks like packing the tatty underwear to throw away after use can help to offset the weight of any new souvenirs.

The one parameter of backpacking we are missing now is the being juvenile part.  Many of these baby-faces with whom we've been on buses are barely of legal age.  This young rat pack running around without supervision could get out of hand.  Yet, the harsh realities of the road (or trail) do tend to keep all in check.  It just seems we are of that certain age and no longer need to discover ourselves.  We had sort of planned on visiting Vang Vieng on our way south to the capital.  We started researching a little bit more about it though.  It is significant only because it is a backpacker's hangout.  We decided to forgo the non-stop party, adrenaline, and flirtation to buy night bus tickets directly to Vientiane.

Both avoiding youth-oriented tours and the hangout of the young and adventurous may mean that we are maturing.  Yet we will never be too old to travel.

Day 34 - Luang Prabang

We woke up late in Laos.  I thought we might have had sufficient sleep on the bus, but it wasn't really restful slumber, I guess.

We woke up without much in the way of money as well.  The change of $20 from the tuk-tuk driver amounted to only 100,000 Kip.  So as well as finding breakfast, we needed to use an ATM or money exchange.  Right off the bat, this was obviously a tourist town, and for all the right reasons.  Little hotels and home-stays line the tree-laden streets near the Philaylack Villa.  We are in the ancient part of town between two rivers.  The Makong, the larger of the two, has pleasant restaurants overlooking the ferry boats from road level.  The flow of tourists has ensured an adequate mix of travel agencies, mid-scale places to eat, and a thriving night market.  I'm very happy we "landed" here.



We keep running into the foreigners from our previous bus trip while walking around.  We have even seen a few from other segments of our time in Indochina.  It seems as if the itineraries all include the same spots; people just decide on their own unique order.  I like to see there are many, many true travellers.  Most are from various parts of Europe, Australia, and Canada.  It takes less time to get first-hand knowledge from these folks than looking something up in a Lonely Planet guidebook.

This town is small, so we walked about a great deal of it easily on foot.  We also hit 'the hill' in time to see the sunset, we and three fourths of the tourists in town that is. We are deciding if and which tours from here we might try tomorrow.  Of course we might end up getting up late again ...

Day 33 - Twenty Seven Hours on a Bus!

Considering we were cocooned in the reclining bus seats for the entire day, this entry has been added after the fact.  Perhaps the delay has been useful. In retrospect, hard edges are always a little smoother and the difficult parts a little softer. Here are just some of the highlights from our bus trip from Hanoi, Vietnam to Laung Prabang, Laos. We started on January 24th and arrived on January 25th.

16:45 - Collected from the hotel and walked to pick-up spot
17:30 - Van came to bring to the station
17:45 - Tourists separated into groups by destination at station
18:00 - Boarded bus.
18:10 - Cargo loaded into, in, and on bus.
18:30 - Bus departed station
20:00 - Stopped for dinner
23:00 - Unloaded some cargo / took on passengers
01:30 - Stopped or more passengers
06:00 - Arrived at Vietnam-Lao border
07:00 - Vietnamese border opened / stamped out
08:30 - Processed Lao visa
09:00 - Continued into Laos
13:00 - Had Lunch break.


15:20 - Bus had mechanical problem in a small village

21:00 - Arrived in Laung Prabang

We had a booking at the Philaylack Villa, so we knew where the tuk-tuk driver should take us. It was so nice getting checked into a room simply to brush our teeth and have showers!

Day 32 - Goodbye, Hanoi.

How wonderful to be able to sleep in a little today.  The only restriction was to be able to go the the hotel dining area at around 9:30 for breakfast.  We had to pack too as we needed to check out before noon.  (We left the bags.)



Later, we walked about the lake area here.  Lot of folks were out as it is Sunday.  For some reason we have seen many newly, or soon to be married, couples being photographed.  Perhaps it is a tradition to be photographed in this area.  We slowly wandered through the busy, narrow streets looking for a place to eat dinner.  We found a German-Turkish-Cambodian place that served donairs, or what we call shwarmas. Just seeing Hanoi street life is an interesting adventure. Being Sunday, loads of people were out and about. Did I mention the motorcycles?



We ate a little too quickly it seems as we were back to the hotel by two in the afternoon.  A van will come to the hotel here between 5:00 to 5:30 to pick us up.  So we are sitting sipping on free tea waiting to get set up for a 24 hour bus trip into Laos.

Day 31 - Halong Bay for the Day

We knew we wanted to see Halong Bay as long as were this close.  There are about million travel agents for about a half million tourists and they all offer tours to Halng Bay.  Many are one or two nights, but we viewed the itineraries and didn't see a whole lot more for the extra days.  So we bought a one day visit knowing it would be quite a long day.

We were waiting in the hotel lobby at 8:00 am and the smallish van picked us up at around quarter past.  It was packed with the other 16 seats people full of tourists from Poland, Germany, Sweden, Holland, and Vietnam.  Getting to the bay took a little more than 3.5 hours.  We then said goodbye to our tour guide who'd be spending the night and were introduced to those in a day tour inside a new port side terminal.

We didn't try to skimp on the price as our travel agent explained that the very cheap tours get very cheap extras.  As it was getting on towards one o'clock we were ready for lunch.  We were seated with a Vietnamese family with two small girls and what I guessed to be an uncle.  The food was copious and frankly much better than I expected,  The variety of the food was large and the huge fish a nice addition.  We headed out towards the rocky outcrops as we ate.



Getting to the area of the floating village was quite awe inspiring.  One disadvantage of travelling a great deal as it raises one's bar for expectations.  I didn't know the scenery would be THIS captivating.  We paid extra for an add-on and a slight Thai lady rowed us around to see the caves and through a rock formation.  My life-vest didn't fit correctly yet I did not worry in the least.

The big boat continued along to some limestone caves and these were big ones!  Our new tour guide took a shining to us and two other ladies and we also sprinted though a more ancient well-known cave.  It was famous for a 13th century admiral who used it to store stakes which helped destroy Chinese boats in a ruse.

In Hanoi the weather has been cold during the last few days.  Today, though, was sunny and I was again able to run around in short sleeves.  By the time 4 o'clock came, everybody seemed ready to go back to shore and the 4 hour trip back to Hanoi.  I am absolutely glad we chose to spend the day this way.

The bus let us off in the crowded Old Section of the city so we could get some dinner.  He didn't get back to the hotel until well after 10:00 pm.

Day 30 - The Ba Dinh District

Our hotel map is good but it's not exactly to scale.  We saw the location of the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and reckoned we could easily get there on foot.  We were right.  We took most of the morning after a late breakfast to see that section of the city.  Being winter hours, all buildings closed at 11:30 am for the day.   Neither of us were too interested in the mausoleum, his house, nor the museum anyway.  We did like the One Pillar Pagoda in the area.



We kept walking towards West Lake and Truck Bach Lake.  It was time for lunch.  We stopped at a little place facing one of the lakes.  It took a while as they "outsourced" our fried rice.  The hot ginger tea came quickly and was welcomed due to the cool temperature outside.  We found a sauna that we'd seen mention of online.  It was nice to get warm!

We took a taxi back to the hotel for about $2.

Day 29 - It's Not Hot in Hanoi

We knew as soon as we landed last night: Hanoi would be cold. To be more accurate, Hanoi is a lot cooler than we're used to. As soon as our big bag came off the luggage carousel, we opened it to get our up-til-now-unused sweatshirts. Today seemed wintry as well. There was a very light mist. You know, it was not wet enough to open our umbrellas, but after a while one's clothes become damp. We explored the entire Hogan Kiem area on foot, first heading to the lake and historical French quarter.

Notice my heavy clothes near the Hanoi Opera Theatre.

Later we wandered the Old Quarter for lunch and again for a late dinner. Dinner at the Gecko is memorable for it's cool vibe and eclectic music selection. It reminded me of something in Vancouver's Yaletown, although we seldom eat there.

This city seems quite unlike Saigon.

Day 28 - On an Airbus North

We were on an Airbus rather than one for the road.



On Monday, I bought the tickets on JetStar Pacific for the domestic flight. Yesterday, I got an email marked important saying that our flight would be delayed from its scheduled time. So, rather than going to the airport around 10:00 am we were able to hang around the 'backpacker area' for lunch. It was an easy flight but we didn't get to Hanoi until after six in the evening and it was dark. We neglected to by a $2 ticket on JetStar bus to downtown. Yet we did buy them right from the curbside. It was over 45 minutes to downtown Hanoi.

A much too friendly taxi driver grabbed us. He was a scam as his meter was rigged. We had asked at a large hotel, near the location where the bus stopped, how much a taxi should cost to our hotel area. We knew it should be around $2 for the six minute ride; not over $20. We refused to pay and as he had no picture and license in the cab, we knew we were right. We paid him the standard fare which he had to accept. Welcome to Northern Vietnam!

Our hotel is quite fancy for $21 a night. We are on the 7th floor at the Rising Dragon Estate. We are in the Old Quarter and near the Hogan Kiem Lake and not for from the Historic French district.