Ni Dieu Ni Maitre

The Going Itself is the Way

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  • LUANG PRABANG: TOURIST TRAP OR CULTURAL TREASURE ?

    Well, to put it briefly, a bit of both.

    The old city, once the seat of Laotian nobility, has plenty of history. The old section of the city, where my small hotel is located, is hemmed on in three sides by 2 rivers which join at the eastern end. The hotel is located just across the street from the Mekong river and half a dozen rather ordinary restaurants proclaiming sunset river views, although the sunsets have also been rather ordinary or nonexistent. Additionally, many firms offer sunset cruises.

    This woman rather brazenly asked for a dollar to shoot her pictures. Her grand daughters and I laughed as I handed over some cash, but they ran off as I took the picture.

    Most of the buildings in this part of town are from the French colonial period, including my hotel, where the rooms are small, but have all the amenities. The streets in this section of town are lined with tourist shops, bars and restaurants as well as many, many hotels. Looking to find a pharmacy and buy a small pair of scissors, It was necessary to walk about a mile to leave this part of town and find some actual shops selling non-tourist items.

    The Mekong with a lovely, but not colorful, sunset.

    Still, this is a pleasant place. The rainy season is ending and there has been very little of it. Temps are pretty high, going into the nineties when the sun is out, and the humidity stays high night and day. Aside from the colonial architecture, there are numerous temples along the main street and down the smaller side streets, but they are pretty much cookie cutter duplicates of each other. Hundreds of monks live in the temple compounds, and if I were able to get out of bed early, I could watch the procession of monks on the main street collecting alms, but that is unlikely.

    Small side street temple.

    In my travels over nearly a year now it seems that everywhere it has been the low season for tourists. This is really a good thing… no crowds, lower hotel prices, better service. But even here, hitting one or the other of the numerous ‘sunset view’ restaurants, I’m often the only customer. There is a community of international folks living here and I have met several, some employed here, some just relaxing and enjoying themselves. It’s Laos, but it is Laos served up for foreigners. One of the pictures at the top of this post shows the main street mid afternoon…

    The cones open up into flowers.

  • HOW NOT TO GET TO LUANG PRABANG




    “One of the most exciting travel developments in Laos in recent years is the Laos–China Railway. It has genuinely changed how travellers think about this route. By combining a private minivan from Huay Xai to Nateuy station with a train ride south to Luang Prabang, you cover the full journey in around five to six hours. Moreover, you do it in real comfort.” online guide.

    SAYING SO LONG TO MY 24 HOUR A DAY HOTEL KEEPER…

    This is what I read, and having seen the popular slow boats, made the decision to go the mini van to fast train route instead. The train and its railway construction was entirely done by the Chinese, raising the question of how much Chinese influence there is here in Laos from their massive northern neighbor.

    A SLOW BOAT… THE USUAL WAY TO THE ‘BIG CITY’

    Well, it was up at 6AM to get ready for a 7 o’clock pick up, and off for what turned out to be a long and extraordinarily uncomfortable van ride. Things started well as we went back to the Freedom Bridge border crossing to pick up more passengers and headed off on Route A3, a major road. At the border crossing it was impossible to miss the dozens and dozens of huge Chinese trucks all lined up to get through customs and cross over the bridge to Thailand.

    Surprisingly, we then headed dead northeast to Luang Namtha near the Chinese border to get the train… Luang Prabang, the second largest city in Laos is located southeast of our starting point, and we covered about two-thirds of the distance to LP heading off in the wrong direction, just to take the train south.

    LAST SUNSET IN HUAY XAI… THE ONE I DIDN’T BOTHER TO GO OUT TO WATCH.

    The road meandered up and down steep hills hour after hour as the road surface deteriorated, causing frequent slowdowns as we bumped across the bad spots. I felt motion sickness coming on from all the twisty-turny up and down riding but eventually things leveled out a bit. We hit Luang Namtha around noon, but this was not our destination. Turns out the railroad station was another hour and a half away on an unbelievably rutted and bumpy, dusty dirt road.

    We had been passed sporadically all day by Chinese semis heading south to the Freedom Bridge to Thailand, and there were loads of them slowly moving along this horrible dirt road, throwing up loads of dusty dirt as they lumbered along. At one point, we passengers were bounced out of our seats by a horrific bump, as we crawled along.

    TOOK NO PICS ON THIS JOURNEY. THIS IS BIKE TOURING IN THE LAHAUL VALLEY, INSIDE THE FIRST RANGE OF THE HIMALAYAS, 2011. GOTTA HAVE PICS!

    Finally, exhausted, we made it to the train station after 7 hours. I had been wondering, as we vanned along, how it would be possible to get a train line across this incredibly mountainous country. This was quickly answered as the rudimentary, cramped and uncomfortable train entered into an interminable series of tunnels, sometimes passing from one into the next in a matter of seconds.

    Well, at least the train ride was short, just a few hours. Passed the time talking with a young Pakistani guy, now living in Laos. He tried and tried to convince me to visit Pakistan. ‘The people are really friendly there’, he said. I’m unconvinced as an American. In any event, on arrival I staggered out, totally exhausted and bunged up physically, grabbed the first robber taxi driver who had as much of a clue where my hotel was as I did, but eventually we found it using my phone map. Time for a few days recuperation.

  • EXTRA STUFF 2

    How does it feel to have a pistol pressed against your head by a racist threatening to kill you? It happened to me twice while hitchhiking through the American South at age 19. This was back in the early 1960’s. First time was in Virginia, when the driver who picked me up pulled a gun and held it to my temple and said, ‘You ain’t one of them ni…. lovers, is you boy.’ And I quickly used my wits to summon up the correct, but fallacious, answer, ‘No sir, I hate them ni…..s’. Gun put away, we travelled onward.

    That photo above is my campsite at 15,450 feet in a Himalayan pass in 2011. Rode up on my bicycle. Put it in here by mistake and evidently cannot remove it.

    The second time was in Alabama, on the same trip. A revolver, this time. pressed against my head ‘Is you one of them damn freedom riders?’ ‘Oh, no sir. I got nothin’ to do with that kind of stuff.’ And we rode on. These incidents, as well as the number of times I was dunned into being ‘Saved for our Lord and Savior’ by some insistent proselytizer at the side of the road in order to continue my ride, convinced me to never again visit this part of the country.

    Currently in Laos… this is the mighty Mekong River with Thailand on the opposite shore.

    Well, carrying on with that bygone trip, Lousiana was next up and a real breath of fresh air. Funny and friendly people in the countryside, speaking with a barely understandable patois. The tensions eased. However, I caught a ride with two large guys in suits who offered to get me to New Orleans if I didn’t mind a few stops along the way. And they did stop. Small town, storefront. They both got out, one standing guard while the other went in and collected the payoff. And over again. Down a dirt road to a black township, this time the guard had his gun in hand, but no trouble. Finally they pulled into a fancy private school and the three of us went in and met the very nervous headmaster, who handed over a packet and offered us a nice dinner as well. Arriving in New Orleans they dropped me at a ‘hotel’ and even paid for it. I got a room, but soon the raucous fun had begun in the other rooms and I realized where I actually was…

    This trip went on for over a month more as I circumnavigated the continental USA, did one more semester at college and dropped out and got drafted.

  • Funky, Funky Laos

    Light rain keeps it cool in the streets of Huay Xia.

    OK, it’s first impressions, but I was here 30 years ago and loved it then and so far not much seems to have changed. Relaxed, friendly, kids happy to say hi and fist bump, locals mainly open and chatty with little English. Prices? Yow, it is inexpensive. My hotel room… modern, clean, spacious, comfortable bed, A/C, hot shower, large room, small balcony looking out over the muddy and swiftly moving Mekong River… $11.

    The crossing from Thailand was not at all complicated, a bus from Chaing Rai to the Friendship Bridge and some Thai paperwork, a ride over the bridge, and the Mekong is one huge river, pay a little Thai money for the Laos visa… no bag inspection, no off with your shoes and pat down… no fingerprints and standing in line, nope. Welcome to Laos!

    View across to Thailand.

    Been here a couple of days now, in this small border town, just relaxing. Ate a banana which looked normal, but had seeds! And unlike most of SE Asia, they drive on the right! Got a Lao sim card and discovered that I cannot make international calls… got to call my bank soon!

    Up in a restaurant with a view at twilight. The backpackers stop in for a night in this town and move on immediately. Many take a 2 day cruise down the river to Luang Prabang, one of the 2 large cities in this small and landlocked country, but this has no appeal for me. I will get there, but no rush.

    Very brown and very swiftly moving.

    Thirty years ago, I bicycled up here from Chiang Mai, camping all the way along dirt roads and entered Laos without even knowing it. Set up my tent in a little school yard in a tribal village to the amusement and entertainment if the villagers and shared a meal with the headman and his family. I certainly must have gotten a visa eventually.

  • Farewell to Thailand

    Two months, most of it spent in Pai. The hotel was ‘basic’ but quite cheap so that I could eat quite well and stay on budget, and the daily cycling trips to town and back provided good exercise (plus a nagging cramp in one thigh). The weather? Treacherously rainy enough to carry a raincoat everywhere at all times. As I have mentioned, the Thais are very polite and businesslike, but not friendly or cheerful, and the backpackers… they are doing their own thing, which I am not.

    My only friend, Papa, and a nice fellow. When I first arrived in his shop he was with another customer, but he looked at me and put up 6 and then 5 fingers and pointed to himself. I put up 8 and then 1, and we became friends. Pai is in a very nice countryside location nestled in the hills and it’s certainly a relief after the bustle of the cities. Sunny days came along once or twice a week in ‘green season’ and made for some sweaty cycling.

    Packing it in we made the descent down the windy roads, this time without a reckless driver accelerating into the hairpins… and on to Chiang Rai, a smaller city and more relaxed than Chiang Mai, further north toward Laos. Stayed a day there, and might return someday. Met a fellow American in a coffee shop and had a long chat. He is a permanent resident. And of course has a much younger girlfriend… I do find this disgraceful, but it is what it is and is pretty prevalent among the older western males here.

    Sidewalks of Thailand… not as treacherous as in India, but equally useless. My first time here in the ’90’s, it seemed to me that Thais never walked anywhere, but rode their motorbikes constantly, thus the ‘decorative’ sidewalks everywhere. It’s clean, prosperous, easy to navigate and with lots to see, mainly temples. Speaking of which…

    Chaing Rai clock tower.

    Decorative Chariot at the Chaing Rai bus station, waiting for the bus to Laos.

  • The Square Root of Pai

    Should have doctored this photo, which clearly showed the rainbow on my phone… here it looks like a barely visible double rainbow. Nearly everyone is a petrochemical junkie here, most all the backpackers have scooters.

    Anyway, Pai is suiting my needs quite well. Sleeping a lot every night, bicyclong 10 to 12 km on my 2 daily trips to town, breakfast and evening meal with some beer. This is hilly enough on my not many gears, too small bike… but the exercise is priceless. The restaurants offer good variety, Indian, Mexican, of course lots of Thai, which is quite good. Loads of bars, mostly vacant… it’s the rainy season.

    Again, the photographer in me was thwarted… couldn’t wait to dig in to this whole fish covered in cashews and fruit chunks, mushrooms and vegetables. Ordered shrimp Tom Yum soup the other night and got a tureen full, more than I could eat of a really delicious stew. The backpacker crowd eats while walking down the ‘walking street’, grabbing bites from street vendors. I’d rather sit with a good meal and a beer.

    And the festival… diverting, drew a good crowd for three nights, paid lip service to jazz and featured mainly guitar bands of varying relationships to the blues. And was free. Why have this in rainy season?

    These festival princesses are heading to parts unknown in a light drizzle.

    Just one day so far it was drizzling on the morning bike into Pai, and raining on the way back. In the evening, rain, and so it was beer and potato chips from the nearby 7/11 for supper. Otherwise, the rain is very sporadic and unpredictable, often just a matter of waiting a few minutes for it to stop.

    Japanese crooner doing standard material to a large crowd.

    The contrast between Thailand and Sri Lanka is pretty stark. The Lankans are a smiling and friendly bunch for the most part, and this rubs off on the tourists (not all, of course) who are also generally happy and friendly. Here in Thailand, let’s just say it is a polite place, reserved and businesslike. And the tourists? Not one in 20 will even respond to a friendly nod. I have made not a single friend here, with the exception of the ‘old’ man (65), who rents me my bicycle.

    The money is problematic… all the bills are identical, front and back, and the amount is only visible on one side. All the bills are pastel, and in dim light, the 100, 500 and 1000 are almost indistinguishable. As for the coins, fortunately they aren’t worth much as there are 2 or 3 sets in circulation, with 10’s and 20’S the same size.

    Mostly, things are dry, generally cloudy. I read 3 hours or so a day, watch a movie and get high in the evenings… pot runs a mild 24% THC, but that’s what they got. And the beer is really not worth mentioning, all run of the mill lagers. Still, I cannot think of a reason to travel at the moment, everything necessary for contentment is here.

  • Welcome to the ‘GREEN SEASON’!

    Much like the ‘Smoke Season’ which obscures the very real transformation of the Northern Thai Air Quality from excellent to unhealthy for two months of agricultural burning, the euphemistic ‘Green Season’ attempts to disguise the rainy season as something you might actually enjoy…

    And, in fact, it just rains sporadically and quite unpredictably, occasionally becoming a downpour… In 10 days here, I got caught out only once, on the first evening as I attempted to walk to town and got caught (with raincoat) in a real soaker. This is big sky country, a valley surrounded by hills, where blue skies in one direction are regularly matched by storm clouds here there and everywhere else.

    Sun shining on the main road into town,dark clouds threatening elsewhere.

    Eating a great breakfast at the Lemon Thyme Cafe, I noticed that many of the patrons looked somehow Israeli .Later, I found that the cafe featured a rear entrance a bit further along and a back patio and dining room… full of the supposed Israeli’s. This brought back memories of 2 previous 3 month bicycle tours in India in 2011 or so, where I visited a backpacker haven on both trips, Hampi in Southern Central India and Leh, Capital of Ladakh in the far north of India on the former Tibetan border.

    In both of these places there was a large, and separate, Israeli presence, mostly young people who had completed their mandatory military service and were rewarded with a vacation in a country where the were not outwardly unpopular. In Hampi, the Israeli’s lived across the river from everyone else, and in Leh, a further journey up the main road brought you into the Israeli enclave.

    But of course they were, keeping to themselves, ‘guarded’ by orthodox rebs all in black with long curls hanging down. And all former military or police… most of the backpackers kept away from them and the Indians were full of complaints. But that was then. The behavior of Israelis in those years was bad and frowned upon, but it wasn’t genocide. One young Israeli tried to explain to me that “Indians are just like Palestinians. They are children, and it is our job to care of these children”.

    And now we have the Genocide, the wanton killing and destruction, land theft, cold blooded murders and on and on. And here are the Israeli’s getting their R&R on the ‘Banana Pancake Trail.’ Same as it always was. And we have the Chabad House in Pai to see to their religious needs. They’ve taken care of ‘the children’.

    A strange article:

    https://www.khaosodenglish.com/featured/2025/02/23/why-some-thais-fear-israelis-turning-pai-into-an-occupied-land

  • More Pai, Please Sir.

    Rainy season so far means a little rain at one or two random times every day, and almost always threatening skies. This is an off-season for tourists, and I go nowhere without a rain jacket, but we’re looking at 90% no rain. Stayed ’til after 9PM last night and the truth was, things got even quieter after 8:30. My restaurant shut down.

    Drizzle, as a sparse crowd visits the ‘walking street’ food push carts. The bars are empty, restaurants with few or no customers. The 7/11 packs them in at all times, however. My recovery is looking good, getting daily exercise on the bicycle on 2 runs into town for lunch and the evening meal, eating quite well and doing a little exploring down the many side streets of town.

    Rickety, but safe, bamboo bridge over the town’s river.

    There seem to be a lot of minor diversions to see around the area, a large cave system, waterfalls, a Chinese village inhabited by refugees many years ago, the white temple, and of course, something I first encountered in the 90’s in Laos, Tipsy Tubing!

    Didn’t really see the point back then, and am still missing it. At mid-day, you commence drinking and pot smoking, lay in a large rubber tube and slowly float down river, stopping for yet more alcohol along the way… well, it’s what’s done on the famous ‘Banana Pancake Trail’ which I have inadvertently followed out of Chaing Mai. The river, quite brown though it is and certainly of questionable cleanliness as it runs through a moderately large town, is quite lovely in spots.

    Taken from a bridge

    I am in Thailand on a 60 day visa, just by luck, as they have quickly switched the length of stay to 30 days. Get in and get out, and leave lots of money. It is true that the backpackers individually don’t spend much money and like to hang out, but these types of changes are poison for places like Pai. This type of change, combined with the general air pollution problem in many places has greatly affected my overall plans. Still, there’s Laos, Vietnam and if I can stomach it, Scambodia.

  • Pai, a town with a bad rep.

    On the hill is the White Temple, featuring 750 steps… it’s on the list.

    Well, upon arrival after the twisty road, I was so weak that I had to sit on a bench for over an hour just to be able to take a taxi to my hotel, 2km out of town. Got to rebuild my gut microbiome in a hurry to regain some energy. Pai, on first glance, seems harmless enough. Lots of 20 somethings wandering about, almost all of them on scooters. They live in cheap dormitories and supposedly are drunk, stoned and rowdy in the evenings.

    The town in daytime. Not much happening, quite a few pot shops… had to dabble and got really rather stoned, but back at the hotel where I had a very enjoyable evening. Rented a way too small bicycle, which makes the 2km to town quite easy. Got caught in a large rainstorm attempting a night time walk into town and didn’t quite make it.

    This being Thailand, there are temples everywhere.

    Got to town in the evening after several days, located the Indian restaurant and had Channa Masala, beans in a good very spicy sauce, and garlic naan… this sort of meal is just what is needed to straighten out my digestion, back toward normal. Ate too much and couldn’t do much more than people watching. Yes, some obviously middle aged westerners with young Thai ‘girlfriends’. Otherwise, the twenty somethings being very well behaved.

    Went home early, 8:30, so maybe I missed a riot but it did not seem so. No heavy boozing, no pot smells… nothing much but the night market food stalls.

    One note: I was perplexed by the clean air here in Northern Thailand becoming quite polluted in the spring and now back to very fine air quality. They have what is called ‘Smoke Season’ when the farmers burn their fields, and this closes a lot of things down due to unhealthy air. And it goes on for quite a while.

  • Welcome to Thailand!

    Arrived at 6AM after 3 flights, searches, baggage lines… and why is my Gate always the one on the far other side of the enormous airport? Does this happen to everyone? Miles of walking. In Guwahati, they would not let me board until I produced proof of a ticket out of Thailand, which they claimed was necessary to board my flight to Delhi… hmmm. So I bought a train ticket from Chaing Rai to Vientiane, Laos while in India. In Bangkok, they never asked about my onward plans… By the way, I got a 60 day visa shortly before Thailand changed the rules to a 30 day visa, citing unruly visitors. Let’s all shut the doors! Get in, spend lots of money in a hurry and get the fuck out of here. Friendly, aren’t they?

    View from my hotel balcony, with everything flattened out by my phone camera… these hills are quite steep. Shillong and Kohima are two of the places I have been with the steepest roads of anywhere, but the camera flattened most of those out as well.

    Onward. Arriving around 6AM, check in time 2PM, I slept on a sofa in the lobby, and in my room until dark, when I visited the next door Noor restaurant. Had a small fish entree and one beer and immediately didn’t feel well.

    Sign in the Noor bathroom, a portent of things to come.

    Yes, I got severe diarrhea from my first Thai meal. Went to the doctor, took the antibiotics, got weaker and weaker, but finally it stopped. Took almost a week and my gut microbiome has been completely destroyed. I am not myself. I am weak, and for once in my 81 years, I feel old and vulnerable… and I sure don’t like it.

    I did get to walk around a little bit during the ordeal, and Thailand is quite a pleasant place. It is the rainy season, and there is a bit of rain, or a lot, for short spells every day. Ate packaged nuts and bananas from the ubiquitous 7/11 stores, which are everywhere here.

    Didn’t see a lot of Chiang Mai, just from cabs, but it is just another megalopolis now. I bicycled through here in the late ’90’s, when it was quite charming. I was on my way north from Bangkok to Laos, where I spent a month cycling, mainly in the mountains on dirt roads. Still weak, I decided to travel by van into the northern hills and the ‘hippie’ town of Pai. As if I don’t know ‘hippie towns’ for god’s sake. This ride featured the road of 172 sharp turns, often on switchbacks at high speeds…

    The road to Pai, as seen while levitating… or not. I felt like I was levitating, and wasn’t the only passenger to puke on this ride.