While "random photos from around Asia" might not be the greatest blog title this is in essence what these are. I quite like the photo of the Beijing Bird's Nest Stadium and the tourist with the drone from Laos. Overall I think I am most happy with this set of photos. I guess with travel I saw new places so consequently the photos of those places are new. In Shanghai I often did just my daily life or saw the same things several times.
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I am a man who has a frequent problem with sunburn. Usually I prevent this by wearing a silly hat with a wide brim. My previous sun hat (a Panama hat I got in Puerto Rico) has been falling apart for some time now so I decided to switch to a new hat. Fortunately, hard plastic wide brimmed sun hats are a common in Vietnam and sign of your support for the global communist revolution in Laos. The Chinese though saw my new hat a bit differently. Instead of being a sign for my love of the united workers of the world losing their chains, my hat is a sign that my hypothetical wife is having hypothetical sex with other hypothetical men and was apparently quite funny to everyone in Changsha's airport. In Chinese 戴绿帽子, wearing a green hat, is a euphemism for a man's wife cheating on him. While this often doesn't come up it is this stigma around green hats is occasionally a problem for foreigners. Sometimes Boston Celtics, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, or weirdos who buy a hat because they saw a picture of Ho Chi Minh in the same hat will end up accidentally wearing a green hat in China, wondering why everyone thinks they are funny. I have also read stories online of foreign businessmen, and women, throwing Christmas parties in China or with Chinese getting in trouble because they tried to get everyone to wear green elf hats. I guess take my mistake as a lesson in what not to do in China or when throwing Christmas parties for Chinese. While it is not like sitting on my patio in Chiang Mai, enjoying the sunset in Luang Prabang, or drinking the unidentified fresh draft of Hanoi, it is nice to do beer and cookies back in my own room in Shanghai. The Thai had better cookies and the Lao had better bottled beer though (the Vietnamese beer was better on tap). Now that I am back in China and had some time to stew I now feel like it is time for a South East Asia (Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand in my case) retrospective. The first thing I would like to note is that Thailand, particularly Bangkok, is clearly more developed than ether Vietnam or Laos. While Vietnam is trying, and to a fair degree succeeding, in becoming a developed country Laos is simply not. Chiang Rai did feel more like Hanoi in terms of development, but both cities were clearly more developed than Luang Prabang. I would also like to note that I think Luang Prabang is Laos's "model city." The problems I heard about Laos, like starvation level poverty and corruption, are not visible in Luang Prabang; this dosn't mean that these aren't issues Laos faces, it is simply that the government has put there effort into saving face in Luang Prabang for the tourists. Hanoi and all the cities in Thailand felt like better representations of their respective countries than Luang Prabang did.
It is interesting to compare temples in the three countries, since I seemed to spent most of my time in Buddhist temples. Vietnam had temples but they seemed touristy. I did end up in one temple that was actually used by real Vietnamese Buddhists and many of the restaurants had little shrines but the Buddhism was not as visible. I think Luang Prabang gets tourists by marketing itself as a Buddhist temple city. The locals are apparently religious but all the temples did feel like they were set up to handle tourists. The Thai are a remarkable religious people. All of the temples, even the touristy ones, were all used by real Thai Buddhists and basically every public building had a spirt house that people would pray and make offerings to. Another interesting comparison is the attitudes toward their colonial past. Being colonized seems like it plays a big role in the Vietnamese national identity, at least historically. Vietnam is moving past that but it is still very evident in many of the historical sites in Vietnam and I would argue in some of modern Vietnamese foreign policy. While Vietnam and Laos had the same colonizers, the French, Laos seems way more accepting of the French then the Vietnamese. For instance, many young Lao can still speak French while most young Vietnamese can't. I believe that this is because Laos was granted more self government under French administration than Vietnam was. Thailand has a totally different colonial narrative. Thailand was never actually colonized and remained independent through the Age of Imperialism. In Thailand this is attributed to the wise leadership of the House of Chakri (the family of the current Thai monarch). The depictions of The House of Chakri, in particular the late Thai King HM Bhumibol Adulyadej, and Ho Chi Minh were remarkably similar. Both are show as wise leaders who are above criticism and are loved by all. Their images can be seen around, although I saw way more of HM Bhumibol Adulyadej and even the current King HM Maha Vajiralongkorn, who is far less popular than his father, in Thailand than I did Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam. Still, Ho Chi Minh is still on all the money and he is sitting in a glass box in Hanoi (while Bhumibol Adulyadej was also sitting in a glass box when I was in Bangkok the government had plans to cremate him soon). The reverence for Ho Chi Minh extended to Laos, who's current governement was put in place by Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese Communists during the Vietnam War. Ho Chi Minh seemed to pop up more randomly in Luang Prabang than he did in Hanoi actually. The relationship between Laos and Vietnam andros and Thailand is kind of odd. All three are ASEAN member states so Lao, Vietnamese, and Thai citizens can all easily travel to and work in any ASEAN member state. This seems to mean that Vietnamese and Lao citizens go to Thailand to work and not the other way around. Furthermore, while the Lao language is actually closely related to Thai (and are actually mutually intelligible) and Thailand (still called Siam thrn) even ruled over parts of Laos for a time, Laos is still closer to Vietnam. While I could go on, this post has to end somewhere and that might as well be here. If I end up feeling like I have more to say I will do a part two. The Walk of 100 Monks and the Cave of 4,000 Buddhas
I got an early start (5:00AM early) so I could see the famous Luang Prabang alms giving ceremony. In theory, the alms ceremony is a chance for the many monks of Luang Prabang to collect all their food for the day. What was really interesting was to see the different tourists’ reactions to the ceremony. Some participated and gave food to the monks, some stood in front of the monks and took pictures with professional DSLR cameras, and some (like me) stood to the side to watch & take photos. To be honest, the guys running out in front of the monks seemed a bit disrespectful. After the ceremony and breakfast at the hotel, I went to see the Pak Ou Buddha Caves by river boat on the Mekong. After a one broken down boat and a stop for gas I arrived at the fabric village… I think the village elder slipped my tour company a couple hundred thousand kip and a bottle of Lao Lao to have all their boat drivers take a starch break in his town. It was defiantly a worthwhile stop however. It is interesting to get out of Luang Prabang and I got to sample two varieties of the local whisky, Lao Lao. The clear version with 50% alcohol content tasted just like very drinkable moonshine while the purplish one with 15% alcohol content is the significantly more interesting drink. It is made out of the local black sticky rice and tastes very much like a sticky rice desert. I don’t know if I would drink it on a regular basis but it is very interesting drink none the less. After taking off for the second time, I arrived at the Pak Ou Caves. The Pak Ou caves are essentially two caves where the former kings paid the villagers to just pack with Buddha statues, according to the signage over 4,000 Buddha statues to be precise. While the lower cave was cool it had way too many tourists to be really enjoyable, which is why I far preferred the upper cave. The upper cave doesn’t feel too much different to what I imagine it felt like 100 years ago. There is very few people, no light, and a lot of Buddha statues. It is a bit hidden away but if, for whatever reason, you end up at the Pak Ou Caves you shouldn’t miss the upper cave. After I returned and had lunch I took a break until dinner because after dinner I had movie plans. The Victoria Xiengthong Palace Hotel in Luang Prabang shows the silent documentary, or what passed for a documentary at the time, Chang every night at 7:00PM. Chang tells the story of a family of “Lao Tribesmen” in the “Jungle of Norther Siam” (Laos) and their constant struggle against the unstoppable and unbeatable forces of the jungle. While some of the characters are named, it is really a movie about man vs. nature with nature as a whole playing the role of the antagonist. It was nominated in the First Academy Awards in 1929 for “Unique and Artistic Picture” and was directed by the guys who would go on to direct King Kong (because they apparently really like to make movies about man vs. nature). Chang felt a bit more like reality TV than anything we would describe as a documentary. Through clever editing, some preset scenes, and a whole lot of filming, the directors were able to tell a story that I don’t think ever actually happened. While it was technically free, you were strongly advised to buy a drink. While the drinks were a bit pricy, it still ended up being 6.50USD for a movie, chips, and a well-made cocktail. The Lao Lao returns in my cocktail, a Luang Prabang Sunrise (consisting of Lao Lao, lemon juice, and I think a drip of red food dye) and quite successfully I might add. I will enjoy getting more than 5 hours of sleep tonight. Like yesterday, today I basically walked around Luang Prabang seeing what I could see, an activity that took up basically my day. It started with the National Museum of Luang Prabang on the site of the former royal palace. As strange as it might seem from my pictures, Luang Prabang was once the capital of Laos, an independent, albeit weak, city state, and the capital of the powerful Kingdom of Lan Xang Hom Khao or the Kingdom of "Million Elephants and White Parasols". The Royal Palace was actually a very livable building, the King still had a gold throne in a room covered in mirrored mosaics depicting Lao life (that I couldn’t take a picture of) true, but most of the building while very comfortable was a place I could actually see raising a family. I then walked around and visited several different temples, or wats (hence the pun). While some were more impressive than others all were pretty cool. What is nice is that most were functional religious sites. They had real monks who did real rituals for real worshippers. While this is something most Americans take for granted, China in particular is famous for having tourist trap temples with fake (not ordained) monks preaching to people who don’t believe any of the theology but want to look cool. The smart people in Luang Prabang, tourists and locals, wear slip on sandals because Lao tradition dictates that you can’t wear shoes anywhere respectful, like wats or people’s homes. I spent a good bit of my day tying and uniting my shoes. I also didn’t relize how hard it is to walk barefoot until I had to do a lot. I basically hobbled around the temples thanks to my flat feet. Finally I crossed the bamboo bridge by my hotel (since Luang Prabang actually has two bamboo bridges). While there is really nothing on the other side of much interest crossing the bridge itself was a cool experience. I think across the bridge is where the actual Lao people live, the little bit I saw looked like a developing nation not a weird tourist destination. Consequently, the bridge is actually used by real Lao people during the six months a year it is standing (the current are too strong in the rainy season to support the bridge). While the Lao residents cross for free the tourists pay to support the bridge, though the toll is about 5,000 Lao Kip or about 0.61USD at time of writing. I also got to try more of the Lao food, curry for lunch and beef larb for dinner. I really like the curry, it was that kind of coconuty Thai curry taste but a bit more watery. Larb is a beef based meat salad, though it can be made with other meats or fish, which is considered the unofficial official national dish of Laos. Basically it is heavily spiced hamburger with bean sprouts and mint. I kind of like it but I don’t think it is a dish I would eat regularly. The Lao people apparently agree with me on because, according to the Official Lao Airlines Magazine, is eaten on mostly special occasions. If I was a body builder or a hard core believer in the Atkins diet I would love larb, it is basically all meat with just enough vegetables to stay healthy. The restraunts here continue to amaze me. They all serve basically the same massive Western/pan-Asian/Lao menu; in one of two locations, the main drag or by the Mekong River; with one of two price points, more expensive main drag and cheaper Mekong River; and one of two opening hours, main drag actually open hours or Mekong Lao almost never open. I like the ones by the River a bit more since I can watch the sun set over the Mekong with my dinner, which is nice.
I forgot, today is Christmas and the anniversary of my Torah portion (Vayeshev). The most Christmas here is some decorations at the super touristy places, and a “Marry Christmas” from a person I met in Vietnam, a Luxemburgish guy who I had a conversation with because my hat, and a friend from ECNU. There must be another Jew in this city but I would be surprised if there is more than that. While Chabad has gone far Luang Prabang, Laos is still a bit out of their reach. Just for the record, the year I am studying abroad in China is the first year in some time I haven’t had Chinese food on Christmas. |
AuthorI am a junior at Juniata College spending a year studying abroad at East China Normal University. Please feel free to join my on my journey to China and beyond. Archives
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