Jan. 4, 2014 Vang Vieng

Jan. 1, 2014. Luang Prabang, Lao P. D. R.

Go Oregon Ducks.

Would love to watch the game....the Ducks are 10 point favorites and have the Heisman Trophy winner as QB, but with game time at 5 AM local time and limited TV stations on the room TV, I doubt I will be able to watch.  I doubt there will be any bars  with satellite TV open at 5 AM.

Dec.29, 2014. And a few days earlier......

I am back in Luang Prabang in the Lao P. D..R.,  one of the most enjoyable places I have ever visited.

I loved it here last year and was afraid that a return visit would be a disappointment.  Not so.  Luang Prabang is even better this time.  It is a relaxing city with a French colonial charm and a European feel.   A clean, friendly, safe, beautiful city of about 40,000, on the banks of the Mekong.  It is also a World Heritage Site - like Bhaktapour in Nepal and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.  

I rented a bicycle and rode about 10 miles this morning.  Tomorrow morning I will do the same.

A tuk tuk.  I have taken many, many rides in the back of tuk tuks.......some are bigger, not many are smaller.

The Mekong, just 50 feet to the west of my hotel room.  The river bank is lined with restaurants and tables.   It is so relaxing spending the afternoons watching the slow boats ply the Mekong over a BeerLao.......

The Nam Khan River, which empties into the Mekong at Luang Prabang.

The food is fantastic.  From street stalls, to fresh fruit smoothies to $40.00 a plate French cuisine.....

Tonight I had an Australian ribeye steak.......

View from my hotel balcony, same guest house, same room as last year!!!

Pak Beng, 70 km above Luang Prabang on the Mekong.  The view was from my hotel room balcony.

Tomorrow I will tour an English language school here in Luang Prabang that is run by a Brit I met on the slow boat ride several days ago.  I will be exploring returning to Luang Prabang for several months next year to teach English.

Merry Christmas

On the Mekong in northern Lao.

Christmas Eve

All good.  Left Bamboo Nest and now on the way to Lao in 1 hour.  No inet last 3 days.

Will post more  later.

Dec. 16, 2014. The News on TV.

In Chiang Rai there are 2 English stations on the flat screen TV in my room - BBC and Aljazeera.

With the recent massacres of inocents in Sydney and Pakistan, I am favorably impressed by the objective, unbiased reporting on Aljazeera   The cynic in me says Algazeera might be less objective when broadcast in Farsi or Arabic.  

Aljazeera showed almost the entire speech made yesterday of Secty. of State John Kerry in London.  Then there were numerous interviews with the heads of state - from Australia, Pakistan, the UK - covering the barbaric nature of the attacks.  On what U.S. TV station would you see more than soundbites of Secty. Kerry?

Much of the coverage on both Aljazeera and BBC for the last 48 hours has been covering these two events, but there is also news about Russia's financial crisis, Jeb Bush's aspirations, Syria and ISIS, Palestine, the CIA and torture, and of course, football, as in soccer.

It was my perception that Algazeera was a pro Islamic spin machine, fomenting hatred of westerners and supporting Islamic beliefs.  I was wrong.  There are women on the anchor desks, in western clothing, speaking fluent English, along with male anchors. 

Aljazeera.com

Dec. 16, 2014 Chiang Rai, White Temple.

Took the motorbike out for a spin and visited The White Temple yesterday.

The White Temple

Name

Wat Rong Khun, “The White Temple”

Date

Completely rebuild late 20^th century onward

Location

Off Highway 1 (Phahonyothin road)
15 kilometers South West of Chiang Rai town

Wat Rong Khun, better known as “the White Temple” is one of the most recognizable temples in Thailand. The temple outside the town of Chiang Rai attracts a large number of visitors, both Thai and foreign, making it one of Chiang Rai’s most visited attractions.

Wat Rong Khun is a unique temple that stands out through the white color and the use of pieces of glass in the plaster, sparkling in the sun. The white color signifies the purity of the Buddha, while the glass symbolizes the Buddha’s wisdom and the Dhamma, the Buddhist teachings.

The Wat Rong Khun was designed by Chalermchai Kositpipat, a famous Thai visual artist. To date the temple is not finished. Eventually there will be nine buildings including an ubosot, a hall to enshrine Buddhist relics, a meditation hall, the monks living quarters and an art gallery.

History of the Wat Rong Khun

Towards the end of the 20^th century, the original Wat Rong Khun was in a very poor state of preservation. Restoration works on the temple started, but had to be halted due to a lack of funds.

Chalermchai Kositpipat, a artist born in Chiang Rai, decided to completely rebuild the temple and fund the project with his own money. The artist built the temple to be a center of learning and meditation and for people to gain benefit from the Buddhist teachings. Today the works are ongoing.

Structures and their symbolism

Every detail of the temple carries meaning and encourages the visitor to reflect on the Buddhist teachings that show the way to escape from the worldly temptations, desires and greed and focus on the mind instead.

The bridge of “the cycle of rebirth”

The ubosot, the main building of the white temple, is reached by crossing a bridge over a small lake. In front of the bridge is a circular area with hundreds of reaching hands that symbolize desire. This area represents human suffering and hell. The bridge towards the ubosot, called the bridge of “the cycle of rebirth” signifies the crossing over from the cycle of death and rebirth into a state free of suffering. It symbolizes the way to happiness by overcoming worldly things as temptations, greed and desire. Next to the lake stand two very elegant Kinnaree, a creature from Buddhist mythology, half human, half bird.

The “Gate of Heaven”

After crossing the bridge the visitor arrives at the “Gate of Heaven” guarded by two huge creatures that represent Death and Rahu, who decides over men’s fate. At the end of the bridge in front of the ubosot are several Buddha images in meditation.

The ubosot

The most important building of the Wat Rong Khun, the ubosot is an all white building with fragments of reflective glass in the plaster. The very ornate ubosot shows some design elements of classic Northern Thai temples like the three tiered roof and stylized Naga serpents on the bargeboards.

Whereas the murals of many old temples depict scenes from Buddhist stories, the walls of the white temple contain colorful murals that depict modern representations of good and evil, contemporary figures like Batman, Spiderman and Elvis, villains and superheroes from movies and comics and even spaceships. On the back wall of the ubosot is a golden mural of the Buddha, a few images of the Buddha in front of it.