The Books we read and liked

Anatomy of Hatha Yoga H. David Coulter

The Art of Happiness: a Handbook for Living (1998) HH Dalai Lama & Howard C. Cutler

Lost in Tibet: The Untold Story of Five American Airmen, a Doomed Plane and the Will to Survive(2005) Richard Starks & Miriam Murrcutt

Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World (1997) Lama Surya Das

The Dance of 17 Lives: The Incredible True Story of Tibet's 17th Karmapa (2004) Mick Brown

The changing faces of the Mekong

An unexpected day out to Vientiane

We said good bye to Christian and Laura, friendly German cyclists with whom we shared possible itineraries for our cycling round the world. They were on their way to China (via Laos) and going to cycle through Tibet to Nepal!! How adventurous!
As our Thai visa expired on 27th January, we had to go out to Laos via the Friendship Bridge in order to get back into Thailand and get another 15 days visa. After waiting for an hour at the Lao border for our passports to be stamped, John suggested we cycle to Vientiane to visit Wat Sisaket again as it had so enthralled us 4 years ago. He also proposed to have lunch at Le Vendome, a slightly faded atmospheric French restaurant where we had enjoyed a delicious supper 4 years ago too. John, remarkably, remembered exactly where the restaurant was and we were savouring an asparagus and vegetable gratin (mmh!) when a Chinese New Year Dragon and noisy procession danced past the restaurant...

As the restaurant closed at 2, we decided to cycle for dessert to the "Healthy & Fresh Bakery", only a few roads away. Arriving there, we were hailed by an athletic looking lady sitting on the terrace. We sat at her table and ordered a Mango Crumble and a Cinnamon Apple Pie - they were delicious :) ...you can see how we are getting obsessed with food...
We spent the next hour sharing cycling experiences. Bernadette, from Holland, had been cycling for 18 months in Asia and her enthusiasm was infectious. She had done many long cycle trips on her own and gave us several pointers for our possible global trip, one being that the Karakoram wasn't as dangerous as anticipated. Her website (unfortunately) is in Dutch (www.escaper.info) (www.bernadette.reisprofiel.nl)

Wat Sisaket was as we remembered: magically beautiful. It had been built by Chao Anou, a Lao prince educated in Bangkok, who encouraged a renaissance of Lao fine arts and literature, and is perhaps the oldst temple in Vientiane. Its ochre and warm yellow painted cloister exuded peace with its small niches containing over 2000 silver and ceramic Buddha images and the 300 or so seated and standing Buddas resting on long shelves below the niches.









We also admired the haang song nam pha (image watering rail), a 5m long wooden trough carved to resemble a serpent, used during Lao New Year to pour water over Buddha images for
ceremonial cleansing.

The faded but exquisite murals in the sim(ceremonial hall) and flowered ceiling were so lovely, John decided to have a peep in the monks quarters where he remembered beautiful murals there too. A young friendly monk, Anzig, came out and chatted with us, happy to be able to practice his English. He came from Savannakhet, had 10 brothers and sisters and had been studying in the temple for 4 years.


We rode back to the Friendship Bridge at flying speed, Wat Sisaket etched in our memory, bathed in the late afternoon glow, with palm trees swaying in the background and pots of bougainvillea, of banana, coconut and mango trees scattered around the cloister.

Nong Khai

We have finally arrived at lovely Mutmee Guesthouse (www.mutmee.net), where we have checked in the loveliest room of this holiday (a hut with an outside shower screened by palms and growing plants) and indulged in tropical muesli, potato gratins and salads. Must say that Nicole came out of the shower in a hurry the other day... a rat was scampering just above the towel rail!!
It has been wonderful to see old friends there and particularly to do our early morning meditation and yoga practice with Pancho (www.pantrix.net). We now feel on holiday (that is we just eat, endlessly discuss life, sleep and read books - bliss! John even watched TV! - to encourage Obama on his being sworn in, well, that was his excuse....
Bought our train ticket to Bangkok for the 29th where we will spend a couple of days sightseeing/shopping before spending the 1st Feb cycling through the traffic nightmare to the airport (will probably have to spend the night there)

Last cycling day

This is our last cycling day and we had a leisurely start. More of the same except that we saw 2 elephants lumbering along the road, unphased by the passing traffic. We also stopped at the extraordinary "Sculpture Park, Salakaewkoo", 2km east of Nong Khai and we were fascinated. I can't believe that we have been in Nong Khai 4 times and we have never visited it!
As we walked in, huge statues in concrete (rising more than 7 storeys high) were towering above us and more than a hundred figures from Buddhist and Hindu mythology and animals, warlords and ancient and modern allegorical scenes were scaterred amongs potted plants and trees. It was an amazing sight.
The sculpture park was built by a Laotian shaman/artist/mystic named Boon Leua Sourirat who, allegedly, had fallen in his youth into a hole whilst walking in the forest and had met Kaewkoo. Kaewkoo, a kindly hermit, taught him about Buddha and the underworld and inspired him to pass on this knowledge. Devoteed volunteers, men and women, lived in the grounds and worked on the many scultpures under his guidance. Boon Leua died in 1996 (he fell from a ladder up one of his sculptures) and his mummified body can be seen on the 3rd floor of the main building.
Nicole is counting the days until we get back to England and she can have a cream tea... she fantasized about Liz's scones just as much as when we were in Australia but can only look at Liz's website at the moment... (www.farmhousecreamteas.co.uk)

Phon Phisai

John woke up early, full of cold and grumpy. He heard some noise outside the hotel at 5 o'clock and decided to go for a little walk in his cycle shorts. People from Laos had crossed the Mekong and were setting up a large market. They did however throw funny looks at him: what was a "farang" dong at this time of day, loitering in his (what it would seem to them) underpants? He retreated back to our room and Nicole eventually rose from her sleep We packed and had a lavish breakfast before setting off (too late again for John's liking...)
Our side of the road was shaded by trees, the fields looked very fertile (in fact we saw people planting rice - everywhere else the fields had been dry) and we even met 2 (Dutch of course!) cyclists, Hank and Rit cycling down the Mekong. Gradually, the traffic increased and we started being overtaken by bus loads overflowing with young boys. It's only at the next village we realised they were all playing football and a lot of festive activities were going on. Another public holiday? Anything seems to be an excuse to celebrate...

After 43km we arrived in Phon Phisai, a sleepy little town for most of the year except for October, when thousands of people come from all over the place to see the mysterious Naga fireballs (methane gas rising up from the Mekong and looking like fireworks). We were very pleased we were not in October, found a squeaky clean guesthouse and walked along th promenade beside the river, enjoying watching people go about their daily lives. Early bed with the hope that John's cold is getting better.

Pak Khat

When we left Ban Ahong the roads were quiet and cool. Stopped for a noodle soup early lunch -so early the stall lady was trying to explain "noodle soup no have" but she started making her stock so we waited and were eventually served the usual delicious but unvaried fare... As Pak Khat was only 26km away, we arrived around 12 o'clock and decided to stop there as John's cold wasn't getting better. Lovely hotel by the Mekong but we chose a cheap grubby room (4 pounds) in order to save up for the unplanned visa extension... The dining terrace though was lovely and we indulged in bread and salads. Mmh!:)