Dvarapalas of Wat Phu

The best-preserved of the Dvarapala carvings at Wat Phu

Yesterday I brought you the Devatas of Wat Phu in southern Laos, today its the two Dvarapalas - door-keepers or guardians - that are carved on the front exterior eastern-facing wall of the main sanctuary on the upper level of the temple. They emphasize strength and power and protect the treasures within the sanctuary. In both carvings, the guardian is clasping a heavy mace as his weapon of choice and his hair is in the top-knot fashion with large earrings. There are other Dvarapala statues at Wat Phu but they are free-standing (or lying in the grass) compared to these fine examples.

Face and headdress detail of this Dvarapala at Wat Phu

Both hands clasp the heavy mace of the doorway guardians

A slightly damaged Dvarapala at Wat Phu's uppper level

Face and headdress in detailed close-up

Sovannahong

Sam Savin (in green) and the King (Sam Limsothea) receive a garland from Preahm Keth (Chen Chansoda)

Tonight saw the first-ever fully staged production of Sovannahong, a classical love story told in royal Cambodian court dance and music, at the Chaktomuk Conference Hall next to the river. The original dance was initiated in 1955 but never completed and was resurrected by HRH Princess Buppha Devi, herself a former leading dancer, with help from sponsors, Amrita Performing Arts and the dancers and musicians of the Secondary School of Fine Arts. Included amongst the dancers was my friend Sam Savin, one of the company's principal dancers and who played the part of Sovannahong's mother in tonight's performance. With a story that includes giants, magic spells, murder, betrayal and unrequited love, it had all the usual ingredients of a classical Cambodian dance, played out by the leading exponents of the art currently performing in Cambodia. The audience contained the great and the good of the performing arts including the Princess and everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy this rare revived slice of traditional Cambodia.

The cast take their bow for this team photo at the end of the performance

Sam Savin (in green) enjoys the comraderie of her fellow performers

Devatas of Wat Phu

Devata of Wat Phu

The devatas of Wat Phu number just two, that I could find. They are on the outer wall of the gopura entrance to the upper level sanctuary of this wonderful Khmer temple, built in the 10th and 11th centuries and which was a particular highlight of my recent trip to Laos. They vary greatly from each other, one wearing a fanciful headdress, the other holding her long-stranded hair. Both are very shapely in their body form and wear skirts of simple but effective design. They represent female beauty whilst male strength is highlighted by two dvarapala guardian figures close by. Wat Phu has much to surprise and delight the visitor and I will post more pictures from this gorgeous temple over the next few days.

Devata in profile revealing her shapely body

The skirt and feet of a devata at Wat Phu

A decorative devata at Wat Phu's upper level sanctuary

A devata in profile

The decorative headdress worn by this devata at Wat Phu

Pak Ou standard

Looking out onto the Mekong River from inside Pak Ou cave

As much as pictures of monks are an iconic vision from Laos, so is the standard shot of the thousands of Buddhas housed in the Pak Ou caves, a boat ride north of Luang Prabang. I will post more photos from the caves soon, but for now here's a couple of shots.

There are two caves to explore and thousands of Buddha images but its incredibly hot inside!

Footballers beware

Now that I'm back from Laos, I'm keen to resurrect my football career by getting in some practice with the local expat team Bayon Wanderers. I'm totally unfit and its going to be a strain to get my creaky bones working again after a few years on the sidelines. However, with the death of 3 players last weekend in a local match, I will need to be careful if any games take place during a thunderstorm, as that game did. A thunder bolt struck the players, and hospitalized three others, during a typical rainy season monsoon. The players were in their 20s and were part of a tournament organised to strengthen the national team squad. Nationwide, no less than 40 people have been killed by lightning strikes this year in Cambodia. It's a very real threat over here.
The end of the $25 departure tax for foreigners when you leave Cambodia is in sight. News media report that from 1 September, the tax - levied since 2003 and meant to improve airport infrastructure construction, as well as service and security - will be included in the ticket price. As usual, Cambodians pay a lower tax level at a still hefty $18.

Musical interlude

Ossie Gad (right), part of the songwriting team that made the Natural-Ites such a strong force in British and international reggae in the '80s and then forged a solo career that took him across the globe, will be performing in his home town of Nottingham on 9 August at the Hillside Club alongwith special guest crooner Peter Spence. Gad wrote Picture On The Wall, a classic reggae anthem known worldwide and released two solo albums, whilst working with the likes of Nucleus Roots and Misty In Roots in recent years.
One of my favourite bands on the planet, Gabbidon are gigging furiously at the moment and played 3 gigs in 18 hours last weekend; at Josephs Well, Leeds; The Brighouse Charity Gala and the Piece Hall Festival. This coming Saturday they will perform at The Riverside Festival, Stamford Meadows in Peterborough. Their new album, Reggae Rockz, is available on bootleg but I don't yet have a copy....hint, hint!
Finally, Roy Hill has posted a collection of his videos on youtube and will soon release three more CDs from his back catalogue, Cry No More Live At The Mulberry Tree, Cry No More (previously only available on vinyl and cassette) and the infamous Roy Hill album from 1978. You have been warned!

Brouwer on the booze

Drinking lao-lao rice whisky in Luang Namtha

This is a rare picture of yours truly drinking alcohol. And it was deadly stuff too, the local lao-lao rice whisky which burned through my throat and chest as it sank lower! I've never been much of a drinker and effectively quit alcohol (except for very occasional lapses) more than a decade ago. It was never something I particularly enjoyed, so wasn't a difficult choice to make. In these pictures Tim and I were on one of regular forays into the rice fields of Laos when a group of men sitting under umbrellas invited us over for a snifter. It would've been rude not to have joined in but boy, that stuff is strong. Tim, an experienced drinker, had no problem and downed a whole mug full of the fire-water under the watchful eye of our guide, Tid and our new friends. The paddy fields were in the shadow of a small hillock housing a large broken stupa by the name of That Phum Phuk, just a few kilometres west of Luang Namtha in northern Laos.

Tim found the ordeal much easier than me

Women in their conical hats planting rice stalks in the next door field

Getting the field ready to plant the rice stalks

Keeping music alive

The revival of traditional Cambodian music is taking place across the water in Long Beach, USA as well as here in Cambodia itself. Greg Mellen's article for the Press-Telegram in Long Beach keeps us up to date on one such musical family.

Musician keeps Cambodia tradition alive - by Greg Mellen (Press-Telegram, Los Angeles, USA)

For years, the silence was immense, the work torturous and the hunger unremitting. The experience of Ho Chhing Chan wasn't so different from that of millions of his countrymen. Chan was one of the lucky ones who survived the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge reign in Cambodia. His grandfather wasn't. Chan Chug was one of the 1.7 million or more who died in the four years Pol Pot was in power.

Ho Chan survived and so did his music, that last great gift of his grandfather. Today, Chan is a master of traditional Cambodian pin peat music and keeps the ancient form alive in his new country. "I wanted to keep the tradition alive and play like my grandfather," Chan says. Toward that end, Chan has taught his son, Dyna Chan, 26, to play, as well as other members of the family including his nephew and brother-in-law. On occasion he even presses his wife, Narith, into playing finger cymbals. Music seems to course throughout the family. Chan's son-in-law is Prach Ly, a Cambodian rapper who is well-known in Long Beach. The elder Chan also teaches weekly classes at the Cambodian Association of America in Long Beach. When not playing, Chan is a janitor on the graveyard shift at Long Beach City College. Master Chan and his pin peat ensemble will perform their music Saturday at Koos Art Center in Long Beach as part of the concert "Threads of a Tonal Dream Tapestry." The concert also will feature guitarist, KPFK (90.7 FM) Pacifica Radio host and microtonal composer John Schneider, who will perform microtonal compositions of Lou Harrison from a recently released album. The show will conclude with intercontinental music by local musician Sander Wolff's group, Ain Soph Aur and Friends.

The music traces its history back to the Angkor dynasty of the ninth century, and was performed in the royal palaces when Cambodia was the dominant force in Southeast Asia. Pin peat music, which generally consists of ensembles of six to nine pieces, uses Cambodian xylophones (roneat ek and roneat dek), drums (sampho and skor thomm), gongs (kong tauch, kong thomm and chhing) and oboes (sralai) to produce its unique sounds and rhythms. Representations of pin peat players and instruments can be found in the bas-reliefs of temples at the famed Angkor temple complex in Cambodia. The music remains an important part of life in the country, where it is played at festivals, funerals, weddings and in Buddhist temples. It is often used to accompany Apsara dances and other traditional entertainment. An integral part of the musical history of the country, pin peat exists primarily in the memories of masters who pass it to students. Only in recent years has the music begun to be written down for posterity. It is partially for this reason that Wolff said he was so excited to be able to get Chan to play. Wolff said pin peat is a remarkable and fragile form of music that he fears is slowly dying away and being relegated to the world of academia.

Chan first learned the music as a 16-year-old in his village outside of Battambang city. He later studied under Master Nith Chaou, whose picture hangs in a place of honor in Chan's house, and Tan Im. In the U.S., Chan met Ngek Chum, with whom he has continued collaboration and friendship. When the Khmer Rouge rose to power, it sought to create an agrarian utopia unburdened by tradition. As a result, many of the cultural arts were forbidden and artists and performers were regularly targeted for death and persecution. Although Chan was spared, the music that had become a part of him began to disappear. "In four years I didn't touch an instrument," Chan says. And during that time, he says, he forgot some of the traditional music. Chan remembers vividly, though, the first time he was able to play music after the Khmer Rouge were driven out by the Vietnamese army in 1979. Chan's old master gathered musicians from across the countryside to play in a temple. "We were so happy," Chan recalls. "For four years there was nothing. It was like you were born again."

Under the spotlight

A guardian figure from Banteay Srei at the Angkor National Museum

Robert Turnbull turns his attentions to the Angkor National Museum in yesterday's International Herald Tribune. Definitely worth a read as a background to your visit to the museum when you are in Siem Reap. The museum is still finding its feet but it remains an important depository for more of the free-standing Khmer sculpture that has been hidden from view for too long.

A new museum puts a Thai imprint on Angkor - by Robert Turnbull (IHT)

A common disappointment for visitors to Angkor today is the paucity of sculptural artifacts offered by the site. Without the "furniture" that once graced its magnificent temples, it can be hard to imagine the customs and rituals that animated Cambodia's formidable empire in its heyday. Of the religious icons that survived looting or appropriation to French museums, many were relocated over decades to Cambodia's National Museum, created in the 1920s by the architect and curator George Groslier. The snag for Angkor-bound tourists in Siem Reap is that the museum is in the capital, more than 300 kilometers, or 185 miles, away.

Now Vilailuck International Holdings, based in Bangkok, has opened what it has opted to call the 'Angkor National Museum' only a few kilometers from the Angkor park. Constructed over three years from a Thai design, it is currently displaying objects borrowed from the National Museum in Phnom Penh. The other source of artifacts is the Conservation d'Angkor, a storage facility of some 6,000 pieces created by the Ecole Française d'Extrème Orient (French School of Asian Studies) in 1908 and currently in the hands of the Cambodian Ministry of Culture. Previously inaccessible, the collection has functioned as a hospital for broken pieces but also contains important Buddhas from several periods, as well as stone steles with invaluable inscriptions.

Thai interest dates to 2001. For 16 years Vilailuck's parent company, the Samart Corporation, has been a major investor in Cambodia in the telecommunications and air traffic control sectors. Charoenrath Vilailuck, the company's CEO, has an acquisitive interest in Cambodia's patrimony as evidenced by his own large collection. But the new museum has picked up powerful detractors, especially among the tight-knit international restoration community that casts a hypercritical eye over what happens at Angkor. The name has drawn the most controversy. The vast majority of offerings come either from pre-Angkorian times or from centuries after. Then, as the Siem Reap-based historian Darryl Collins pointed out, an enterprise that is foreign-owned and "primarily interested in turning a profit" can hardly be called national, especially when Cambodia already has a National Museum. Collins is among those concerned that the new venture will deter tourists from visiting the National Museum in Phnom Penh, with its profusion of Khmer treasures spanning several centuries. For the Cambodian cognoscenti, too, the Angkor National Museum's appearance on the scene seems ominous, especially given centuries-old sensitivities concerning Thai designs on Cambodian patrimony.

Until 1908 Thailand had control not only of Angkor but of large swathes of northern Cambodia. In spite of a 1962 International Court of Justice ruling in Cambodia's favor, its neighbor still disputes the "ownership" of land surrounding the 10th century Preah Vihear temple at Cambodia's northern border and once threatened to veto Unesco's plans to honor the mountain temple with World Heritage Site status, which is still pending. Anti-Thai riots, which claimed the Thai Embassy and several Thai businesses, broke out in Phnom Penh in 2003 after a Thai actress allegedly said Angkor Wat still belonged to Thailand. The most serious incident occurred in 1999. Large sections of walls with superb bas-relief images of the multi-armed Lokeshvara were looted from the 12th-century Banteay Chhma temple near the Thai border on what was generally assumed to be on the orders of a Thai collector. the stolen art was intercepted by the Thai police and returned to Cambodia, but suspicions linger.

The museum's design has also provoked some derision. The hint of Angkor Wat's honeycomb towers and its surrounding moats tends to be overshadowed by pink sandstone walls, which clash with its glazed orange corbel-vaulted roofing. It doesn't help that the lion's share of the 20,000-square-meter, or 215,000-square-foot, interior takes the form of retail space or a Cultural Mall. "This seems to have been foremost in the mind of the designers, while the collection came second," said Azedine Beschaouch, a special adviser to Unesco's assistant director general for culture and an expert on Angkor. Anxious to promote the museum as a "learning cultural institute," the Thais are easily stung by such criticism. "We want to educate Cambodian people about their own history," said the museum's managing director, Sunaree Wongpiyabovorn. There are those "who know little about its monuments, and even less of the progress of Buddhism and what led up to it," she added. Wongpiyabovorn insists there is no fortune to be made from the Angkor National Museum. Given that Vilailuck had to triple its original investment of $5 million due to the cost overruns, the company said it didn't expect to see a profit until at least a third of the 30-year lease has expired; under its "build, cooperate and transfer" contract, the management and financial control of the collection will then revert to the Cambodian authorities and the Ministry of Culture.

Moreover, several complications seem to have left the Thais frustrated, especially with regard to the terms and conditions of the loans. Under the original plan, the Phnom Penh museum's former director, Khun Samen, agreed to hand over as many as 1,000 artifacts - more than 950 of them small 20th century Buddhas - for the 30-year term, as well as 31 major pieces for a six-month loan. His successor Hab Touch immediately reduced the 31 pieces to 23. "I am not going to surrender important pieces that should be permanently displayed here for the integrity of the collection" he said.

Another deal signed with the government in 2003 that gave Vilailuck extensive rights to a Conservation d'Angkor collection was threatened when, to the dismay of the Thais, the Cambodian government granted control to a South Korean company calling itself Angkor Treasure. Vilailuck requested that Deputy Prime Minister Sok An "release" the Koreans from the contract. He did, but only on the condition that the Thais agree to compensate the Koreans for an undisclosed sum. According to Wongpiyabovorn, Unesco "maintains a strong sense of ownership of Cambodia's patrimony." Beschaouch supports the Thai initiative but is impatient about what he called "presentation that cannot claim to reflect international standards in museology." The majority of the wood, stone and silver Buddhas in the gallery of "1,000 Buddha Images," he said, "allude in design to later Ayutthaya-era temples in Thailand and have no aesthetic link with Angkor." Unesco is engaged with the Angkor museum in improving the situation. But it didn't help that by the time of the grand opening last fall, months behind schedule, not only had most of the Angkor National Museum's artifacts still not been captioned but some copyrighted images had been lifted without permission for display. In the museum's defense, Wongpiyabovorn said that the Conservation d'Angkor's outdated card system of documentation was lost during Pol Pot's reign, leaving many artifacts with few historical records.

Will the museum have been worth the trouble? As it stands today, it will have negligible interest for the connoisseur or serious student of Angkorian art. At $12 compared to $3 for the National Museum in the capital, the price of admission for foreigners is high - the result of high fuel costs for air-conditioning, said the management. But the museum has its uses. It should be commended for facilitating the display of objects long out of view. And, for a first time, the equinox sunrise simulations over Angkor Wat, the documentary-style videos in seven languages and the like go some way in explaining to visitors the temples' significance. As for content, the "apsaras" and architectural features like decorated lintels replicate a lot of what is already copiously displayed on site. Yet sculptures from the pre-Angkorian capitals of Sambor Pre Kuk and Phnom Kulen merit attention. The 7th-century Phnom Da Standing Vishnu and the blue-tinted 9th-century Standing Shiva from Prasat Trapeang Phong reveal Cambodia's Hindu and Brahmanist legacy, and there are further galleries devoted entirely to Buddhist Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom and to the devaraja, or god-kings, who built these temples.

The museum insists it needs more time to develop its identity. Although its strength may not yet lie in a permanent collection, it aims to create exhibitions that inform and illuminate. The museum's curator, Chann Charouen, who is Cambodian and a former employee of the World Monument Fund, plans to rotate artifacts in a series of exhibitions from the aforementioned collections and from other Cambodian provincial museums such as those at Battambong and Kompong Cham. It remains to be seen if the museum will embrace the growing scholarship and broad debates that currently characterize Angkorian studies, or be content to target tourists making an obligatory stop and bound inevitably for the inflated knick-knacks of the Cultural Mall.

The peaceful Mekong

The peaceful Mekong River at sunrise from the eastern bank of Khong Island

I have a few pictures to share with you from my Mekong River adventures in the southern tip of Laos over the next few days from tranquil sunrise scenes to the wild aggression of the Khone Phapheng and Li Phi waterfalls. First off, its the Mekong River in its more peaceful moments, both at sunrise and sunset taken from the shore of Don Khong, or Khong Island.

A solitary fishing boat at sunrise on the Mekong River

The same stretch of the Mekong River after sunset

The monks of Laos

A monk at Wat Sisaket in Vientiane listening to music on his mobile phone

Orange-robed monks are a common feature of any visitors' selection of photographs from a trip to Laos and Tim's and my own photo album is no different. Here are a selection of photos that we both took during our recent 2-week trip. About 60% of the people of Laos are Theravada Buddhists - compared to 90%+ in Cambodia - and all men are expected to become a khu-ba (monk) for a period of their life, usually for a three-month stint, according to Olay, a monk we chatted to at Wat Xieng Mouane in Luang Prabang. One of the features of daily Lao life is the early-morning processions you see in most towns and villages, where a group of monks will walk the streets and collect alms (food) offered by the residents. It's called tak-bat. In Luang Prabang this has become a tourist attraction but its important that travelers treat the tradition with respect. We found the monks of Laos a very friendly bunch throughout the country and we often stopped at wats en route to chat in English.

The tradition of tak-bat being observed in Pakse

The friendly monks of Wat Nam Kaew Luang in Muang Sing

We met these young monks on the steps leading to Tham Jang cave in Vang Vieng

These monks were repairing their living quarters at Wat Pha Baht Phonsan near Vientiane

The head monk at That Ing Hang, the second holiest religious site in Southern Laos, near Savannakhet

Two novice monks at Wat Pa Phon Phao, the site of the popular Santy Chedi (stupa) just outside Luang Prabang

Most of my knowledge of the monkhood in Laos came from Olay, a monk at Wat Xieng Mouane in Luang Prabang

Fun in the rice fields

Laughter abounds in the rice fields of Muang Sing

Having fun in the rice fields was our motto during our trip throughout Laos. Everywhere we went, people were out in the fields planting rice stalks in small teams or larger groups such as this thirty-strong all-female team we located on the edge of the town of Muang Sing in northern Laos. Whenever we could, we stopped the van and joined them for some banter and our inept attempts at flirting in Lao, which went down particularly well with this group. Numerous proposals of marriage and more bounced back between Tim and myself and the girls, up to their knees in mud, but never without a smile on their lips as they worked themselves into a sweat under the hot sun. After they completed their day's work, chasing them across the rice paddies accompanied by shrieks loud enough to pierce your eardrum will be a memory that will remain for a long while.

The girls put their backs into planting the rice stalks

Its all about attention to detail and spacing between the stalks

More smiles in the rice fields

The final field is just about to be completed in time for dusk

We gave the girls a chance to negotiate the ponds before we gave chase

Golden Bones revealed

Today marks the publication date for Ambassador Sichan Siv's memoir Golden Bones - An Extraordinary Journey from Hell in Cambodia to a New Life in America. It promises to be an uplifting triumph over adversity account of a man who escaped the genocide in Cambodia to become a United States citizen and go onto serve in two White House administrations, latterly as a US Ambassador to the United Nations. Published by HarperCollins, I haven't got a copy of the book yet but in the interim, here's a review from Publishers Weekly [Copyright © Reed Business Information]:

Slave labor. Death marches. Refugee camps. Not the path most diplomats follow to the corridors of power. But that's just the road Siv traveled in this mostly gripping firsthand account of pain, perseverance and survival. In 1975, Siv, scion of a middle-class Cambodian family, got caught up in the murderous campaign of social re-engineering unleashed on that Southeast Asian country in the wake of the Vietnam War. "We saw decomposing bodies with arms tied behind their backs. One had the throat slit open. One had a big black mark on the back of the neck. A woman had a baby still at her breast," Siv writes of the scene following the Khmer Rouge takeover of Phnom Penh. Later, forced to leave his beloved family behind in a labor camp, he sets out to find freedom. "I was the loneliest person on earth," Siv writes. "Not knowing what had happened to Mae [his mother], my sister, and my brother was torturing me. But I had to move onward." Siv survives countless brushes with death, but makes it to Thailand and eventually the U.S. At times, incidents, people and places pile on top of each other without much space for the reader to reflect on or make sense of them. Still, the story is always compelling, and Siv moves the narrative forward by raw force of will.

Catching up with Cambodia

I just saw a truck festooned with banners, placards and a booming loudspeaker that reminded me that electioneering has just begun ahead of this month's general election here in Cambodia. If anyone manages to beat CPP into second place, I'll eat my hat, if I had one. For those wishing to visit the mountaintop temple of Preah Vihear from the Thai side, don't bother. The border is closed and access is only possible from the Cambodian side until further notice. The border closed on 23 June as the Thais continue to throw their teddy out of the cot over Cambodia's request for World Heritage status. The Khmer Rouge Tribunal rolls on with former KR Foreign Minister Ieng Sary making a brief debut appearance in the dock yesterday. It didn't last long, he asked to be excused due to dizziness. Funding for the tribunal remains an on-going conundrum.
On the arts front, Sovannahong, a newly revived work of classical Cambodian dance, will be premiered at the Chaktomuk Conference Hall this coming Friday at 6pm. Its choreographed by HRH Princess Buppha Devi no less. Vann Nath, the painter made famous by his stark torture portraits at Tuol Sleng, is opening his own Gallery and exhibition room today on Street 169 in Phnom Penh. It's intended to be an artist's work place and where individuals and groups can meet with the artist himself to learn about his unique experiences as a survivor of S-21. This coming Saturday (5 July), Meta House will re-run Kampuchea - Death & Rebirth, the famous East German documentary shot just after the liberation of the country from the Pol Pot regime.
On a personal friends-front, Heang and his wife are expecting their first baby, a girl, sometime in July. To make things easier all round, they've moved from Siem Reap to Sisophon to be close to family. However, Heang and his car are still available for hire in both towns. Another of my best friends, Sokhom, has also become the proud owner of his own car. He's not giving up his trusty motos just yet, but a car will be more comfortable for those long trips into northern Cambodia. Find out more about Sokhom and Heang here.

Faces of Laos

Here's a few faces from our trip to Laos snapped by my brother Tim, who I think has a really good eye for capturing the moment, but for goodness sake don't tell him, his head can't get any bigger!

Market seller in Muang Sing

Pipe smoker at Namdee waterfall, Luang Namtha

Householder in Yao village of Jongka, Muang Sing

Hungry baby in village of Nammdaet Mai, Muang SingChatty monk by the name of Olay at Wat Xieng Mouane in Luang Prabang

Pee-bah, a crazy Lao girl we met in Wat Sisaket in Vientiane - she was completely bonkers!

Border Crossing warning

The empty highway, except for a family of goats, leading to the Laos-Cambodia border crossing at Dong Kralor

The Laos immigration post - laid-back is an understatement

Don't do what I did! That's the first warning when crossing the land border at Dong Kralor between southern Laos and northern Cambodia. Sort your onward transport before you turn up at the border crossing or else you could be stuck there for a long while or have to pay silly money for taxi fees, like we did on Saturday. And expect both the Lao and Cambodian border/immigration police to ask for 'overtime (as it was a Saturday) or processing or stamp fees' of a dollar or two. It was the first-time I have ever made a land crossing into Cambodia and I naively thought there would be at least a few taxis, vans or motodops waiting to shuttle me from the border point to Stung Treng, along the nicely paved Highway 7 and over the brand new bridge that welcomes you into this almost-forgotten northern outpost. The land crossing is relatively new - travelers previously crossed by boat at Voen Kham in Laos - and as such, it's in a wilderness with no inhabitants apart from the shirtless police and officials playing cards and drinking beer. They refused to allow our Lao driver to whizz us onto Stung Treng, an hour and half away - especially as we refused to pay their overtime fees - so we had to wait until someone turned up and the taxi that did, refused to budge from the ridiculous price he wanted - he knew we had no other choice! Most travelers will use the tourist mini-vans that are available on the islands for their border crossing, especially with the easy availability of the Cambodian visas at the border post, or you can contact someone like Richie (Tel. 012 302 017) to arrange a taxi from Stung Treng to pick you up. Don't make the same mistake as me - you have been warned.

The Cambodian visa application post; $20 plus visa processing fee

Avoid these taxi drivers at all costs! The hut on the right is the Cambodian immigration post and the road behind the car is devoid of any life for many kilometres

Back home

I'm back home, just arrived after 8.5 hours on the bus from Stung Treng. Internet access has been sporadic over the past week in Southern Laos, so my posts have been few & far between. I'll rectify that over the next few days with a stack of photos as well. Tim and myself had a great time in Laos, the people are genuine and welcoming and the country itself was a pleasant change from what I'm used to in Cambodia. I won't be swapping it anytime soon for my life in Cambodia but I'm very pleased I finally made it across the border. And I got to visit Wat Phu, a temple built at the height of the great Khmer Empire that I've been itching to visit for years. I wasn't disappointed. More later. Glad to be back.

The view from the summit of Wat Phu in Laos

Rice paddy interlude

Our rice paddy dozen, with Tim (wearing hat) and myself at the back

We found these giggling girls in a rice paddy between Paksan and Pak Kading in fields sandwiched between the Nam Kap and Mekong Rivers. They were great sports, enjoying the banter we exchanged with our very limited Lao and the help of our driver (who speaks very little English). I pushed a few rice seeds into the flooded field but wasn't keen to get my feet wet despite a splashing by one of the group. Another of the girls, Chan, was clearly the leader or mouthpiece of the group and her laughter and infectious smile was indicative of the interaction we've had whenever we've stopped on the roadside to mingle with the locals. It's planting season here right now, so there are lots of opportunities. After the girls finished planting their field, they lined up for a team photo (above).

Keeping my feet dry whilst planting rice seedlings with Noye

More rice stalks arrive for planting

This is the ever-smiling Chan, leader of the group

Chan exchanges her Vietnamese-style hat for a white cap

Chan and her team work hard in the hot sun of 10.30am

Chan looks less confident when she's on dry land and accosted by me

Update from Pakse

It's 11.37pm, I'm in bed at the Pakse Hotel - where Jerome and his wife Noy have afforded me the best hospitality during the whole of my adventure - and it's been raining this evening for really the first time on the trip. We've had some brief showers but for the majority of my 12 days on the roads of Laos, the weather has been hot and sunny. I haven't seen anything of Pakse yet as we arrived at 7pm tonight. Last night we stayed in Savannakhet and visited 3 waterfalls on the Bolevan Plateau on our way south earlier today. We were due to stay the night at Sala Savan but when we arrived at 8pm last night, everything was locked up and the renovated French colonial house looked deserted. So we booked into another hotel. We stopped by this morning to find out that the guy in charge had popped out at 8pm for his dinner and returned half an hour later, waiting for us to arrive. We chose that half-hour window to turn up and turn away! Oh well, better luck next time.
I'm travelling through Laos with my brother Tim in tow. We've both had a great time, met lots of interesting and extremely friendly people and been very impressed with the country and its people in equal measure. Its beautifully green, heavily forested on its mountainous slopes and populated by gracious hosts throughout. It's also a haven for eco-tourism style adventures with a river around every corner and provinces teeming with national parks. We've been fortunate to stay at some gorgeous hotels en route such as the Apsara, La Residence Phou Vao and Maison Souvannaphoum in Luang Prabang, and Settha Palace and Beau Rivage Mekong in Vientiane. As I said earlier, Jerome at Hotel Pakse has gone out of his way to make our stay tonight a pleasant one and tomorrow its an early start for one of the highlights of my trip, an early-morning visit to Wat Phu, a relic of the once-great Khmer empire that stretched throughout the region. More soon.

Transportation

The main roads throughout Laos have been variable, ranging from pretty good to pot-holed. Mr Now was the driver for our first leg to Luang Prabang and Son just completed the task in getting us to Vientiane this afternoon. Now was the most fashion-conscious driver I've ever met, he was coolness personified, despite the humid conditions whilst Son took some of those mountain bends a little too fast for my liking, but always with a smile and a refreshing bottle of cold water! There are more than enough rivers intersecting the mountainous countryside to keep boat enthusiasts busy, while various contraptions can be seen in the villages and rice-fields that have been cobbled together by the locals to get around.

Am I trying to fly or kayak, no-one was quite sure. This is at the end of our 3-hour kayak session in Luang Namtha

In one of the many ethnic villages near Muang Sing, I tried out this local motorized transporter of people and goods for size. There was a serious deficiency in leg room.

Making my way back across the Mekong River after visiting the Pak Ou caves near Luang Prabang

LtoR: Tim, Mr Now and Mr Tid, and the author on the final day of the first leg of our trip after a long drive from Muang Sing to Luang Prabang. Mr Now was the driver and Mr Tid was our guide, courtesy of Tiger Trails.

Today's photos from Laos

A young novice monk gives alms rather than receiving in one of Luang Prabang's early-morning sunrise processions

The view from my bedroom window at Elephant Crossing of Vang Vieng's beautiful limestone karst formations

A sunset view of the Nam Song river at Vang Vieng

Making friends

Some new rice-planting friends in Nam Nyan village near Luang Namtha

Making new friends in Laos has been easy. The people are ultra-friendly and very accommodating, a smile goes a long way here and despite the well-trodden tourist track, its easy to step off the main route and wander into the timeless scenes that you find in villages, pagodas and rice paddies around the region.

This is one of 7 monks, his name is Olay, at Wat Xieng Mouane in Luang Prabang

Photos in Laos

Tim (left) and I pose for a picture outside a small wat in Luang Namtha

These novice monks are from a wat in Muang Sing and were happy to pose for a photo. At least ten other novices walked away from us when we mentioned taking their photo!

I'm in Luang Prabang

I've been having serious internet problems and haven't been able to get online for a few days, hence the absence of any posts. I've had two nights in Luang Prabang already, though at both overnight stops, the Apsara Hotel and La Residence Phou Vao, the internet failed to work! However, the welcome and hospitality at both more than compensated. During the day I've been busy seeing the sights - we visited a dozen wats, the Royal Palaace Museum and Henri Mouhot's gravesite this morning alone - the sun is out, the sky is blue and last night, Tim and I were invited for dinner with some new Lao friends and ended the night at the bowling center at 1am! Yesterday we visited the Pak Ou caves and the multi-level waterfalls at Tat Sae on our first day in LP, having arrived at 8pm the previous evening following a day-long drive from Muang Sing.
We spent 1 night in Muang Sing after a couple of night's in Luang Namtha. Less tourists and even less people on the main street, Muang Sing has a tribal museum and little else, so we spent our time in the nearby villages, the two wats in town and the morning market and another stint in the ricefields, planting rice with a group of thirty women - which was great fun. The drive to Luang Prabang was long but certainly not boring. The surrounding hills covered in lush greenery and ethnic villages around every corner made the trip an interesting one and was in almost complete contrast to my travels around much of flatland Cambodia. We have another night in Luang Prabang at the Maison Souvannaphoum hotel tonight before a stop-over in Vang Vieng on our way south to Vientiane. More soon.

Update from Luang Namtha

Just a quick update...I flew from Vientiane to Luang Namtha, in the north of Laos, yesterday morning without a hitch. Vientiane was as quiet as a mouse compared to the frenetic lifestyle of Phnom Penh. Collected by Tid, our guide and Now, our driver, we checked into the Zuela guesthouse and nosed around town before lunch at the breezy Panda restaurant. In the afternoon we saw some of the nearby sights like the broken That Phum Phuk stupa, which gave us some lovely views over the surrounding countryside, joined in with some Black Thai minority villagers who were rice-planting, sampled the lao lao whisky of the men tilling the water-filled fields and spent some time in an Akha minority village called Namyang, high in the surrounding mountains. In the drizzle, we stopped off at a couple of pagodas near the airport, Wat Luang Phone Rattanaram and Wat Ban Vieng Tai, before ending the day at the under-construction stupa of Tad Luang, sitting high above the town. This morning we climbed aboard a couple of mountain bikes and rode out a few kilometres to the Namdee waterfall (my first cycling experience since the infamous Mondulkiri forest trip) and crossed the Nam Tha river via a rickety bamboo bridge. After lunch I enjoyed my first-ever taste of kayaking, with a 3-hour trip along the same Nam Tha river, in a double inflatable kayak with my brother Tim. Great scenery, a few rapids (fast-running shallower water) to contend with, and a great guide in Yai. I've never enjoyed getting so wet before. Great fun. I'm off for a massage now and we leave for Muang Sing early tomorrow morning. Photos to follow once I get to Luang Prabang in a couple of day's time.