Travels with Shelley and Muzzy

2011-05-07T18:08:00.000-07:00

I love the man washing the cooking pots on the left of this photo. This was taken on the trip from Ranong to Koh Phayam. I think this boat has everything I need.

The Khamu Jacket

2011-04-02T15:24:00.000-07:00

When we were in Luang Prabang, Laos this year, I paid not one but two visits to my favorite silk weaving establishment in the village of Xang Khong, Lao Textile Natural Dyes. I have been visiting this house since 2005; the original old teak house, the new air conditioned building across the dirt road that housed their collection of antique costumes and fabrics, again when the whole house was completely demolished, and this year. To my delight, the new house was built in the old style, new style concrete outside, but all wood interior. I was excited by the good supply of hand woven, naturally dyed silks in a variety of weaves. After amassing a large and expensive pile of new silks in solid colors, Veomanee reminded me that they had moved their collection of antique textiles upstairs and invited me to see them. Removing my shoes, I followed a young woman up cool smooth wooden stairs where she unlocked the doors to a large room that took up half the top of the shop house. It was very dark inside, and very cool, perfect for preserving fragile fabrics. I waited for my eyes to accustom to the gloom while she went from window to window, opening the exquisitely carved shutters to let in more light. The room was dominated by a large traditional bed frame hung with antique silk mosquito net borders. On top of the bed slats were piles of bedding and household textiles. Ranged around the walls were stacks and stacks of baby carriers, phasin (skirts), ceremonial shoulder cloths, jackets, shaman cloths, more bed sheets, curtains, blankets and wall hangings. She invited me by gesture to look at whatever I liked. When I sat down on the floor, she ran to get me a low stool and when she saw my interest in a certain item, she went around the room gathering more of that style. Things were arranged by use and tribal group. On another low pallet bed of wood were pieces of old textiles that had been removed from items that were too far gone to save. The embroidery or supplementary weaving examples were too precious to discard. Many would find their way into frames on walls, or as cartoons for young apprentice weavers to study. There were countless phasin borders, jacket trims, ribbons and ends of head wraps and shoulder cloths. Phasin borders are a specialty in Laos and are often removed when the body of the skirt has worn out. Lao skirts are made in 3 separate sections, waist or hip band, skirt body, and skirt border. I spent quite a bit of time looking through the beautiful hand work, asking about the identity of tribal groups they came from, and indulging a textile junkie's passion in all things made by hand. I didn't buy any old pieces that day. I left with 3 large hand made saa paper bags full of new fabric to use for my own designs back home.

Four days later I returned, bringing a new friend that I had infused (or should I say overwhelmed?) with my own passion and wonder. I met Ann Crittenden on our way up river to Nong Khiaw and I promised to take her to Xang Khong to help her buy some silk which she could have made into a blouse or two when she returned to the States. Veomanee was thrilled to see me again and even more excited that I brought a friend. I asked if Ann could see the treasures upstairs. Together we ascended the stairs to the almost mystical storeroom. Once again one of the girls scurried around, throwing open the shutters to let in the light. From one of the piles near the largest bed, Ann picked out an antique wall hanging from the far north. It was a classic black (actually dark dark indigo) and white geometric supplementary weave bordered by white cotton. I spent time with a pile of jackets against one wall, and revisited the distinctively woven antique silk phasin from the Sam Neua area. Veomanee told me his mother was the impetus for the collection. His mohter was from the Vietnamese border, near Sam Neua, and had traveled from one end of Laos to the other collecting old textiles and costumes. As we were getting ready to leave and go downstairs, I walked over to a rod hung from the ceiling where longer coats and jackets from the Hmong, Lienten, Khamu and Yao Mien hung. Among them was one odd, longish jacket. As I pulled it down and from the doorway, I looked up and saw Veomanee's mother watching me. Veomanee's mother was elegant. Her gray hair was pulled back neatly into bun at the nape of her neck. She wore an expensive cardigan over a traditional subtle striped silk Luang Prabang style phasin, complete with intricate, elaborate border. A very tasteful beautifully woven Lao shawl hung around her shoulders. She looked right at me, "Khamu". I turned to Veomanee with a questioning look. "It is Khamu jacket. From Khamu people, very very old." Indeed. I had been through Khamu villages further north, but I had never seen anything like this jacket, nor could I remember having seen it in any of my textile books. It was thick black polished cotton on the outside, lined with a coarser hand woven indigo hopsacking I had seen used for the long jackets worn by the Yao Mien. I looked more closely. Completely hand sewn, the two layers fitted together perfectly to make a heavy, warm jacket for the cold highlands where the Khamu used to live. Every seam was worked in such tiny stitches I didn't see most of them until I returned home to the US and saw them under the bright electric lights of my sewing room. They were worked in red thread. The side gussets were topped by a thin column of red satin stitch along the seam. The frog style fastenings were red cotton attached with green embroidery thread. Mother of pearl buttons were used as fasteners on one end of the loops. I fell in love with this jacket. I didn't pay a lot for it, not by Nordstrom standards, but for something I could not wear and something so unremarkable at first glance, it was an extravagance. Veomanee's mother motioned for the doors to the room across the hall to be opened, where even more wonders were arrayed, this time in more of a museum like setting. We ohhhed and ahhhed and were properly appreciative, but I had the Khamu jacket clutched under my arm, and Ann had already made her choices, so we went back downstairs to complete our purchases. As I walked into the main room, Veomanee moved toward me with a small folded piece of silk. "My mother thinks you may like this." I unfolded it carefully and held a piece of soft, aged mat mee in my hand. It was a gorgeous antique phasin. I knew immediately that it was very valuable. I had purchased one very similar on my first trip to Southeast Asia in 1990. I had paid $15 at the time and felt myself ill used. I brought it home and cut it into a loose overblouse. I knew that the $85 she was asking from me for this lovely antique skirt was a good deal. I could buy the exquisite phasin or the Khamu jacket. Not both. It was no contest. I would never find another Khamu jacket.

I have been working on a pattern from this jacket. It's a sweet jacket, very flattering, but very very tiny. I realized part way through the pattern process that the jacket was probably for a man. That made sizing for a woman a little tricky. I love ethnic clothes. I love their deceptive simplicty, their use of the maximum amount of fabric with the minimum of cutting, their economy in using what is to hand, and their surprising, sometimes whimsical details. It soothes my sense of purpose and attention to make things that are one of a kind. The pattern may be the same, the intent and materials, never. I have included photos of the original and the one I just finished. The new one is done in linen/rayon hopsacking lined with Kaufmann cotton sateen...a fabulous find. I used DMC Perle cotton for the embroidery. The frogs were purchased in Bangkok and attached with a herringbone embroidery stitch. I tried to show the red embroidery above the gusset, but it is a little tricky and didn't quite some out in the photo

I changed a few things. The collar is not quite as long as the original and I will remedy that on the next go round. I put darts in the back and used one large side gusset rather than the two smaller ones on the original. I may change that as well. It still needs a few adjustments, but it is quite wonderful, and can be tailor made to fit almost anyone!

Homage

2011-03-27T10:03:00.000-07:00

Because I like the word. I am working with a 7 inch foam ball, bright yellow, that I got for a pittance (another word I like) and I am learning to needle felt...as an "homage" to Linda Sue. I met her when she first started to needle felt. I remember distinctly that she told me anyone could do this and that I should try it. It has taken me about 7 years to try, but I am fascinated by her work. Since I am not a scluptural type, it is difficult for me but I have to admit, there is something satisfying about stabbing that needle into a ball of foam and making wool adhere to itself. Now I have a large yellow ball with patches of soft wool roving stuck to it...

Travels at Home

2011-03-26T15:08:00.000-07:00

As I have discovered since returning from SE Asia, travels can take many forms. I am traveling through all sorts of new arenas...retirement, although I don't think I am really retired or ever will be since I didn't really have a job career...aging, my own and most pertinently, my mother's...creativity, and that is a huge journey that keeps unfolding in great massive swathes of cloth and wire. I now have two nice cigar boxes with glass lids that I had made up almost a year ago. I love their shapes and the fact that the glass slides so tidily on and off. I also found some wonderful "hopsack" linen/rayon that makes my heart beat fast, especially when I think of cutting it from the new pattern I made of the Khamu jacket from Laos. I also found lovely cotton sateen at a local quilt store. The colors fill my head with rainbows of linings...the linings are the best part of a subtle ethnic jacket since we in the northwest like to hide our sunshine. And I have discovered a whole new dimension in wire wrapping that has driven me to rip apart old earrings and whip up new ones, lighter, better, more outrageous...and I don't even care if anybody sees them! Hurrah for time on my hands!

Picture Plethora

2011-03-03T18:32:00.000-08:00

It has been a shock to be home. I find myself a bit more political than when I left, a bit less patient with all the nonsense of the US. We are rich and spoiled and very silly, not to mention wasteful and ungrateful. However, I am grateful for the water pressure in my shower, for the fact that I don't have to worry about drinking the water, and for my very decadent bed among many other things. I have been working on getting photos of the trip posted for family and friends and anyone else curious because I happen to think Mr. Muzzy is an extra-fine photographer, able to express the beauty and wonder of the world he sees with a camera. This is something amazing to me, something I cannot do, a little like needle felting for me. I admire his eye and applaud his company. I'm glad we found one another, both 36 years ago and on the bridge in Nong Khiaw. If you choose to look at the blog again to see the photos, be sure to check the archives because I started posting with our earliest blog from this trip and it doesn't show up on the first page. I still have 2 or 3 blogs to go. I am learning, learning, learning. Enjoy and if you have any questions, I haven't quite gotten the knack of putting captions with the pics, so just drop me a note and I can explain...

Muay Thai, Fish Pan and Bangkok Farewell

2011-02-15T00:49:00.000-08:00

Yup, headin' home in the morning. Spent 4 days in Bangkok and enjoyed every minute of it this time. Muz spent two days photographing the Muay Thai training gym just down some seedy alleys on the way to Kao San. On the third he asked me to join him "for something to do". Okay...off we went and I was pleasantly surprised to find a row of benches along on side of the alley just made for spectators like me. And what a trip! You can pay to train in traditional Thai boxing with real professionals. It's quite a site. While I was there the 10 time WORLD champ was working out...no pictures please as he glowered at Muzzy. Muz put up his hands and retreated to the other side of the gym. But I think he got some shots anyway. I have to say, it was impressive and I did enjoy these guys. It's almost like dancing, but a lot faster and much more lethal.

We spent our last day in pursuit of the fish pan. If you are unfamiliar with my quest, I saw a young man in Chiang Mai at the Walking Market making small fun fish-shaped waffles filled with luscious things and have been searching for one of his cast iron waffle makers ever since. Yesterday sitting in traffic, I looked out and there was a fish waffle maker...not the round one I wanted, but still...so today we retraced our steps in Chinatown at the edge of Pahurat, and found the store. There it was. It is a row of 5 fish shaped impressions to make waffles but it is attached to a box to which is attached a hose hook up for butane or whatever. It's not heavy, but awkward. Not expensive, and totally do-able...but...we are leaving tomorrow and I didn't want to spend today boxing it up and sending it to myself at great expense. I have the card for the store, the price, the location and I am hoping that Sarah and Don will decide to come to Thailand SOON. I will give them the money and they can send it to me...or is anyone else coming this way??? So near and yet so far...

Regretfully we left the fish pan and took a metered taxi to Wat Pho...41 baht...wandered my favorite wat, Mr. Muz took more photos, and we each had an hour and a half massage, 550 baht. Heaven...and a great way to end the trip. Took the river taxi back to the New Siam, Jok Pochana for dinner tonight...Leo beers, more duck, glass noodle salad with woodear mushrooms and minced pork, some pak boong and we're done...

Pahurat, Chinatown and the Chao Phraya

2011-02-14T00:47:00.000-08:00

The Chao Phraya runs through Bangkok like a giant ribbon of not quite set jello. We stepped onto a yellow flagged river express to get to Chinatown and the water bubbles and burps and laps in big sloppy waves all over the place. The determined river ferries are like those flat water bugs that sort of sit on top of the water, moving back and forth and side to side with amazing speed. They shoot up and down the river and dart from one side to the other rapidly taking on and discharging passengers, at this time of day, just before noon, lots of white farangs taking in the sites...Wat Po, The Royal Palace, and Chinatown. Our mission was Pahurat, on the edge of Chinatown. It is the Indian district complete with spiffy new Sikh temple and the India Emporium which contains "everything Indian" in air-conditioned luxury. This is the cloth section of Bangkok and the wonders of Sanphan Lane...with various spellings.

Unfortunately the Express boat didn't stop at the Memorial Bridge pier and let us off at the official pier for Chinatown, whose name escapes me right at the moment. It is quite a hike in the heat, confusion and uncertain street names from the pier to Pahurat, so we hired a convenient tuk tuk for a paltry fee and were dropped off right across the street from the India Emporium. Hurrah! We headed down the block for the walkover bridge and I was silently thanking god not to have to play dodgem' cars to get to the other side. I had a Chinese frog button in my pocket, determined to find the Frog Mecca I remembered from lo those 20+ years ago. After showing the frog to several stores full of Thai formal wear and dance accessories, they all seemed to be mumbling something that sounded vaguely familiar...samphaeng lane? And they pointed in the direction of a vast covered alley between two tall buildings...yes, it was familiar. We headed in, and I mean headed in, for it is an interminable warren of haphazardly covered stalls down an alley full of Valentine's merchandise, fabric, toys, more alleys leading off in spokes of stalls and I kept showing my frog and they kept pointing me further on and we kept walking and it was hot and every once in a while we stood in front of a fan or a store would be air-conditioned and then vendors started setting up for lunch...mee krob with red bows, cherries from the US, strawberries in little cones and finally...a store so full of "notions" that I thought my eyes would explode. A young woman led me to a center post around which were drawers and drawers of frogs every size, shape and most colors! And trim! Trim! Trim! Woo hooooooo!!!! We even found a bank, icily air conditioned, and cashed the last of our money. Only two days to go and we are counting down.

Leaving Samphaeng Lane, we headed to the India Emporium where we had an unusual dim sum lunch and numerous glasses of iced weak tea, perfect for the heat...then grabbed the nearest tuk tuk back to the pier. it was while sitting in the tuk tuk trying not to inhale the exhaust of the delivery truck in front of us and listening to Rod Stewart in concert on the blown tuk tuk speakers that I happened to glance over at the side walk, noting the shiny new kanom krok pan in front of a shop that was selling waffle irons and other industrial cookware and .... THERE IT WAS! THE FISH PAN! Now, it's not EXACTLY the fish pan I was looking for, but....IT WILL DO! So, now we have to figure out a way to get this fish pan back to the US....and tomorrow is our last day here...

The Overnight Bus

2011-02-11T15:53:00.000-08:00

The only way to get to the island of Koh Phayam is to take the overnight bus from Bangkok to Ranong, a funky little place perched at the point where Myanmar and Thailand meet. We took the deluxe 24 passenger VIP overnight down and the deluxe 36 passenger VIP back. These were both booked BEFORE we realized there is now a plane that flies to Ranong...why is this a surprise? It was only a matter of time.
Let me tell you about the VIP buses, if you don't already know. These are massive, double decker behemoth road sailing vehicles complete with toilet, attendant and goodies when you get on board. The seats (when they are working) recline to nearly horizontal and are equipped with footrests (when working), blankets of assorted fabrics and pillows. It seems to be a rule in Thailand that when something breaks, it stays broken...except for motorbikes...so the glamour of the bus is somewhat of an illusion. From the outside, the buses are quite festive in the evening. Fuchsia and lime lights twinkle gaily, festoons of curtains line the windows, green and pink scallops with little balls bouncing from the edges, and the headliners seem to have stepped straight from the 1970s...sort of disco meets psychedelic. The overall effect is a rolling party, or the Cash Cab on steroids. It is rather disconcerting to be herded in a large group of farangs, mini-vanned to the Northern or Southern bus station, and then try to figure out which of these giant vehicles will be your home for the night. The stations are massive and the buses loom over you like automated elephants, slowly lumbering back and forth in a comfortable swaying motion. Inside the air conditioning never stops and your only hope is to close off as much of it as possible with the little adjustable vent over your head (when it works). My first attempt at this was met with some rough German guttural swearing from the passenger in front of me and the statement "zat is too much!". It was okay, I had my blanket, and I just did like the Thais do, I tossed it over my head and made the best of it. As we embarked, the attendant, clad in a snappy little uniform, pointed out our seats and handed us bottles of water and juice, as well as a small brightly colored package of something very puffy...perhaps an extra pillow? No...a treat...something spongy rolled up. I had come supplied with my own snacks from the 7 Eleven at the bus station; chips, oreos, and rolled up coconut things that come in two flavors, coconut and a snazzy garlic chili. 7 Eleven is everywhere in Thailand now and sells appropriately Thai snacks that look like the snacks in the 7 Elevens at home.
Once you are under way, there is at least an hour of adjustments to your seat, the air conditioning, your blanket, your neighbors, and then all the lights and the TV go out and its time to sleep. That is, unless the old man and young woman in the back seat decide to take a couple of cell phone calls. The woman politely covers her mouth and then speaks louder, but the old man makes no attempt to exclude you from his call and they go on and on and on...cell phones are annoying in any language. On the bus going down, the handle that made my seat recline was broken and if I moved just right, it dug relentlessly into my thigh until I woke up and readjusted. Fortunately on the way back it was only the cell phone capers that interrupted my sleep. By the trip back to Bangkok I was an old hand and knew what to expect.

There is a stop 3 hours in to the trip to change drivers, no matter which direction you go. These way stations are quite a wonder. You have a chance to use a larger, less odoriferous bathroom with actual sinks, and stock up on more snacks. On the way back from Ranong the stop is in Champhoun...it is a southern transportation hub...trains, planes, buses...and the bus rest stop is worth a visit all on its own. It was sort of a cross between a rest stop and an amusement park. There were lines of facilities, a restaurant, fried snacks of every kind in puffy bags, and long rows of colorful Muslim women at carts making roti...all kinds of roti...savory, sweet, breakfast, dinner, whatever you wanted. Even though the price list stated 20, 25 and 30 baht, Muzzy's savory curry roti was an aggressive "40 baht!" Oh well, I consider the buck and a half the price of admission.

Luang Prabang to Chiang Rai

2011-02-05T23:46:00.000-08:00

In our ever changing travel plans, we tried to cancel our flight from Laos to Bangkok on the 5th and opted to take the luxury liner UP the Mekong to Houayxai and across the border back into Thailand. The flight cancellation process was a little dodgy, language being what it is, but we did our best and were told by the Lao Air representative to take it up with the original booking agent in Chiang Mai. He assured us we could get our money back, so on the strength of that, we booked passage on the Luang Say, a two day journey including one night in Pak Beng at the Luang Say Lodge. It was half the cost of taking the trip the other direction so we considered ourselves lucky. It was indeed, a lovely trip and the lodge quite magnificent, even if the hike from the river to the steps leading to the reception area was quite a hike. You see, the river rises and falls quite dramatically throughout the year and it is useless to try to build a permanent docking area. At certain times of the year, I'm sure you disembark right at the bottom of the steps...but not this time of year. Now we have done the Mekong, at least that stretch of it up and down and in pieces. Suffice it to say, this was a really luxurious treat.

We arrived in Houayxai the afternoon of the second day. What a change from our last crossing! There are two piers, one for large boats and one for small, no organization to speak of, boats and loads of freight and trucks and tuk tuks and cars all competing for space on the steep ramp. We had greased the wheels with the guide on the boat, a young Hmong man who was patience and perseverance itself, and he somehow got us through all of the horrendous confusion, into a songthaew, through town to the other dock and Lao immigration, back down another ramp and into a tiny boat full of our luggage (including two giant rice bowls we decided to buy...wooden, hand-hewn...only a little heavy) and off we went across the Mekong and into Thailand...at the beginning of Chinese New Year, into the chaos of the que for passport control, up another ramp and into a car which sped us into Chiang Rai and a newish hotel with incredible water pressure...though it was decidedly lacking in charm...and there we were. Of course there is more to this...but maybe later.

So we ended up in Chiang Rai after all. And since we ended up with 2 days in Chiang Rai...

3 countries, 3 border crossings, 3 lengthy river passages, countless kilometers, several Lao anti-massages and a handful of Thai REAL massages, river boomtown boat landings, intestinal fortitude breakdowns, Chinese New Year celebrations with artillery-sized fire crackers rendering us deaf for half a day, we found ourselves at the doorstep to the Pie Lady's pie case on the Mae Suai river about an hour southwest of Chiang Rai...and voila! We ate pie!!! One for Shelley, one for our French American ex-pat friend Denny, one for Sun, the hired driver and one for me. Mmmmmmmm....nothin' like a piece of $6000 pie to brighten our day. We found her, photographed her, spoke with her..."No photo!" She was kind of like the Pie Nazi at first...Muzzy said, "I traveled a long way to have your pie..." "What pie you have???" "Uhhh...I had the Choco-mud, Madam had the mulberry, our driver had the mulberry and our friend had the choco-mud..."No photo for you!" "But, I read about you!" "What magazine?" "Sauveur..." "Oh?" "Please, I traveled all the way from America." "Oh, okay." She's a toothless 88 year old spirited woman well in charge of her pie domain and keenly aware of her pie-rock-star status. Her gray-haired son works the counter with her, she has an army of pie-cutters and servers and she oversees the whole operation with an iron fist. It is an extremely popular place filled that day with 2 tour buses full of Chinese and Thai tourists because of the long weekend, Lunar New Year (of the Rabbit)...so...mission accomplished!

We returned to Bangkok yesterday and ate at the delicious Jok Pochana, spent the night listening to revelers downstairs because we got the bad room over the deck. It was like siting above a soccer match. Today was our second assault on Chatuchak, and a successful one it was! We got out of there before the temperature climbed too far above 89...the humidity had wilted us to mere replicas of our former selves...I know, poor us. Now we sit awaiting the all-night bus to Ranong followed by the 2 hour boat out into the Andaman Sea to Koh Phayam.

Food Glorious Food...Khao Niaw and Aw-Lam

2011-01-29T18:46:00.000-08:00

Mr. Muzzy and I spent "one of those days" yesterday...in our room, on a forced fast...which gave us pause to think about food.

One of the things I noticed right away upon arrival in Luang Prabang was the plethora of traditional Lao food available at all the restaurants, even the ones along the notorious Sisavangvong strip that has been laden with pizza joints, American breakfasts and European fare. It is really nice to see. Those who claim Laos has no cuisine, I beg to differ. It is not like Thai food. It is simpler, sort of sampling fare and quite tasty. Usually there are two or three main dishes, a soup (aw-lam is a soup/stew with beef, flavored with the bark of a particular tree that lends a pungent, slightly spicy, sour flavor...don't eat the chunks of wood, please), a vegetable dish (stir fried) and perhaps a salad (the ubiquitous laarb...minced meat mixed with cilantro, rau ram, mint, sometimes bean sprouts, chilis and lime juice...yummmmmm) or a shredded bamboo shoot mixture with various additions. To this is added the jeow...pastes of various flavors and origins...our particular favorite is jeow bawng (various spellings but essentially a sweet paste, very spicy, with a dried buffalo meat base...mmmmmmm). There is an eggplant jeow, a thin sweet spicy dip, a tomato based jeow and several more. The jeow are set on the table with the main dishes and the typical small baskets of khao niaw...sticky rice. You take a small ball of sticky rice, dip it in a jeow and add a bit of a main dish...the stir fry or salads, and pop it into your mouth. The soup is served in small bowls. It's a communal kind of meal...everyone eating from the same bowls with the rice as the conveyance. And then there is the Mekong seaweed. This is gathered when the rivers are low...great veils of bright green algae, similar to nori, it is sun-dried in flat sheets dusted with sesame seeds and served fried very quickly in oil as an appetizer with a jeow...usually jeow bawng.

Have we lost you yet? We ate at Dyen Sabai the other night across the river. It is a Lao French collaboration and they serve up nice sample platters with a little bit of everything and explanations and good beer and a decent happy hour, all while lounging on pillows in a teak sala under stands of artfully lit timber bamboo. We have enjoyed the Lao food...especially the seaweed and laarb, but foreign water being what it is, we spent last night eating pizza...and damned good pizza too! BREAD! They do that well in LP...hot crusty French baguettes that are pure heaven. And we found a place that makes delicious lemon and chocolate tarts (each, not together). So we are back on the mend...coffee and sweet milk for me, cafe dam (black) for Muz. Other gastronomic pleasures include freshly picked som (oranges), sweet little delights with an easy peel, tiny bananas and papaya. Unfortunately it is not mango season and the cashews that Muzzy so dearly loves fried as an appetizer tend to come from the fridge and are a bit chewy..but...we had excellent fried peanuts with lemongrass the other night...and Beer Lao tends to make it all more jolly.

The morning market still serves up a veritable zoo of delights....dozens of tiny frogs tied together at the ankles...the larger frogs are in an enamel basin all fighting to escape...the highly colorful crab baskets...this is hard to explain, but a handwoven bamboo circle at the bottom of which are woven in 5-count 'em- 5 freshwater crabs each about the size of a French piastre (silver dollar)...a box of small furry rodents that are too adorable to think about much...pre-cooked bats ready for re-heating, small rats, the occasional civet cat, and the other day a small pig (live and unhappy) in a poke...trussed up in a loosely woven bamboo carrying basket just the size of the pig, about 50 pounds. I didn't wait to see the man carry him off. We like to think he was on his way to be a stud pig in some village. There are good smells of herbs and lemongrass and cilantro and mustard and wonderful long beans and dozens of types of eggplants in different shapes and sizes, piles of wondrous mushrooms, some familiar most not, and pans of eels, tiny tiny fish that you see in aquariums at home and mountains of greenish snails that go into the local version of somtam (not-delicious local papaya salad) (much better in Thailand!) and on and on.
However...we have reached the halfway point of our wanderings and yesterday woke up chanting "NO MORE RICE!" Thus the reference earlier to the great pizza.

We are off to photograph the oldest Wat on the peninsula...it is a beautiful place with artful mosaics recounting the journey of the Lao peoples to this magical peninsula as well as tales from Buddha's life.
Bon appetite

The Adventure Continues...

2011-01-27T20:46:00.000-08:00

So we found one another in the middle of the Nam Ou on a bridge to the rice paddies. Accommodation and the mood of the villagers being what it was, we chose to travel back to Luang Prabang the next morning by slow boat. Not a big boat, mind you, but small worn cushions on small straight backed stools. I couldn't see the pilot because the luggage of dozens of French people was piled in the front space. Fortunately my bag was on an outside edge and I had kept my toilet paper in my purse...always a good policy when traveling in Laos. The boat beached itself twice...once for a pee stop...bless that pilot!...and once for portage because the river was too low to allow us to stay on...we walked in a crazy line, dozens of French people and Muzzy and I wandering hopefully on a path alongside the river. We rejoined the boat quite a hike further on and having my bag on the outside afforded me the opportunity to forage for two of the nut bars I brought just for this occasion. Never were nut bars so welcome!!! Side note: it has been rare to see Americans on this trip...mostly Germans and French though we did meet 2 Greek boys at dinner the other night.

Our friends Ann and Denny continued on to Muong Ngoi. Denny is an ex-pat living in Albi, France since the Vietnam War. Ann Crittenden was a war correspondent for Newsweek during the Vietnam War in Hanoi and Luang Prabang. She told us about the last days in Hanoi and her visit to Luang Prabang when the Mekong was heavily mined and it was a dusty, rural, sad village on hard times. She is an author and playwright who lives in Washington D.C. I promised to meet Ann on Monday at her guest house in LP and take her to the weaving village...yes...Muz and I spent 100,000 kip on a tuk tuk to the old weaving village where I am happy to say the house that was so charming and had been torn down is now restored to former glory complete with a gorgeous upstairs full of antique fabric and costumes. I found my yardage...exactly what I was looking for...and the nice young man who speaks excellent English remembered us because we contributed greatly to the economics of the village on our last trip and did so again this time. I got a free scarf and two glasses of water and many "wais" as I toted my 3 bags of silk back into town...this was after having it confirmed that there is now a bamboo foot bridge over the Nam Ou that feeds directly from LP to Ban Xong Kham...the weaving village...no wonder the tuk tuk driver took a contented nap while I shopped.

Anyway...LP is prospering, changing but in a nice way. It is still charming and the people are still wonderful. The night market is on hard times but still optimistic. Laos is still the nicest place to be and I am grateful and lucky that we are here. We have booked a boat trip on the very cushy Luang Say boat back up to Houayxai and into Thailand...two days on the Mekong, an indulgence, but half the price we were quoted to go the other way when we were in the States. So we will end up with a couple of days in Chiang Rai...can the Pie Lady pursuit be far behind? (Muz felt so bad, Cris, that he changed our entire itinerary to continue the search) We had to refund our Lao Air tickets to Bangkok on the 5th and that is another story...

Suffice it to say that we are having a good trip. We have moved from the back rooms at the Xieng Mouane guesthouse to a front one again...I will be able to open my shutters and watch the monks in the morning. Muz was up early to catch the monks on their morning passigieata and practice his "blurry shots". We will try to post photos when we return to Thailand. Nong Kiaw was a whole story alone...past times, not as nice as up north in previous years, and a little too late to visit now, I think. But...the river trip was amazing and will be again.

Until next time...
Sok Dee (good luck, happy journeys)

Luang Prabang

2011-01-27T06:00:00.000-08:00

Just returned across the bamboo bridge across the Nam Khong river from Dyen Sabai and a delicious Lao dinner on the hillside above the river set in lovely teak wood terraces (sala) amidst towering bamboo. Sigh...Luang Prabang Laos is truly a magical place. Arrived from Chiang Mai on Lao air (a NEW plane!!!)...whew! Totally mellow airport, no hustle, no hassle. Easy ride into the old quarter on the peninsula at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Ou rivers. We are staying at the Xieng Mouane, across the road from the wat Xieng Mouane. Our room on the second floor looks out over the road and the wat so in the mornings we can easily hear the beating of the drums and call to prayer. This drumming echoes throughout the peninsula, from wat to wat. Today was the day of atonement so there was massive drumming and crashing of cymbals and chanting at 4:00 am and 4:00 pm. Did I say charming? Did I say magical? there really is no place on earth quite as lovely.

On Tuesday we decided to go up to Nong Kiaw, which we had heard was beautiful and more rustic. It was truly beautiful...massive karst mountains jutting up vertically from the river, narrow gorges with the Nam Ou running in between, breathtaking scenery. We took a mini-van up...packed with tourists but the driver did allow us one pee stop...thank god! We were deposited at the mini-van stop and our two new friends, Ann and Denny and I, took off at a quick trot to find lodging. We walked down the red dusty road...and walked...and walked...and walked. I had left Muz at the station with our luggage thinking that it was only a short hike to the bridge across the river that would lead us to the guesthouses. And we walked and walked and finally found the bridge and the "regular" bus stop right at the entrance to the bridge. We walked across to the Riverview, which was supposed to be the best place (and it was) but they had no rooms, so we went to the next best place, the Sunset. Somehow the woman who ran the place reminded me of Houayxai Hattie...those who know will remember her. The huts were precariously perched over the river with a wonderful view and an earful of the loudest maw lam music complete with karaoke because someone had a baby and there was a party across the river. Bad karaoke is bad karaoke in any language. At any rate, the room was too much but the only thing available and by this time I was in a slight panic thinking about Muzzy at the mini-van stop and how many kilometers I would have to walk to get him and then we would have to walk back and he must be wondering what the hell had happened. So Nong Kiaw Kattie called her sister at the station and asked after a "falang with a hat". Sister said he had gone...was no more... Then I got really scared and started walking back to the bridge. I could picture Muzzy loaded down like a Nepali Sherpa with 2 Brenthaven bags and his camera bag...lost, wondering what had happened...would we ever find one another again? I started across the bridge and stopped a few feet in, peering towards the other end, red dust covering my shoes, in my hair, choking me with worry....there he was! A small dot covered in baggage...and dust...at the other end of the bridge. My relief was boundless. I hurried toward him...he sort of scrabbled along under his massive load...we met, I relieved him of some of the luggage and we spent the night in Nong Kiaw under a mosquito net and a big thick quilt. Its cold up here in the mountains....
More about the journey back down the Nam Ou by boat later....

We're Not At Ricky's Anymore

2011-01-21T20:43:00.000-08:00

We are waiting to take a taxi to the Chiang Mai Airport, enroute to Luang Prabang, Laos. Chiang Mai has been lovely. Our guesthouse has been great, a real pleasure. Breakfast has been...challenging. Great coffee, thank goodness, but the meusli with fruit and yogurt makes me miss Ricky's in Bangkok. Muzzy marshalls on with eggs and an amazing variety of bread things on the side. He gave up on the french toast. We have walked and walked, had foot massages at the Wat, a full on two hour massage at the Old Medicine School for Muzzy, and lots and lots of great food! I think I will miss the variety of food here; kao soy, a northern Shan curry noodle dish that is a specialty here, the best somtam (green papaya salad), cashew chicken stir fry, gai yang (chicken on skewers) from the alley off the Warorot Market, and of course, sticky rice.

Last night we went into the old part of the inner city to a restaurant (Huean Phan) famous for its northern cuisine. It was set in an old style teak house full of antiques with antique silk fabrics on the tables. Hors d'oevures were served in a red lacquer bowl on stilts with a towering ornate crown sort of cover that the waiter removed with a flourish to reveal pickled pork balls, long green beans, spicy pork sausage, crispy fried tofu and crispy fried pork thingies with a red chili tomato dipping sauce in the middle. We had jackfruit salad, crispy pork with lemongrass, green chili sauce with vegetables...and sticky rice. Yup. great food!

We first came to Thailand and Chiang Mai in 1990. Both have changed. Chiang Mai is a big city with a small city feel still, but it has definitely grown and spread. You no longer see women in the traditional phasin (wrap skirts) except for older women or on special occasions. People are still very polite, still wai as a marker of social position, but it is much more western over here. There are cross lights at some of the breathtaking intersections you need to cross to get around, although they serve as suggestions to vehicles rather than hard and fast orders. You still take your life in your hands as you dodge cars and songthaew and tuk tuks, motorbikes and even samlors (single person bicycle rickshaws). There is still morning price and bargaining in the Night Market, but the Night Market seems tarnished with little appeal. We preferred walking around, sitting and watching people. The daytime excitment of the Warorot Market, ringed with Chinese gold shops where Thais shop for household goods, flowers, food and a myriad daily items was much more fun than any of the tourist oriented places. We did visit our friend Buckley at Kesorn Arts and had fun buying ancient beads and talking about the old days. I also got to see a magnificent exhibit of antique Chinese robes, shawls, bedspreads and hangings at Lost Heaven. Sadly, all of them were for sale and none of them even remotely in my price range. All I could do was sigh.

So now we journey on to an even slower paced country...and we are glad.

Chiang Mai at last

2011-01-18T21:30:00.000-08:00

Definitely time to leave Bangkok. Our two best meals were street lunches and on our last day we visited for quite a while with two sisters who are owners of a wonderful little shop on Pra Atit, Chonabod, which roughly means "country". They carry organic cotton silk screened T shirts with Thai language alphabet letters on them and clever pictures that illustrate what the letter means. They gave us a set of letterpress postcards and I bought two real cotton pa ka ma, sort of a man's sarong, but so much more. The ones I have all have synthetic thread in them and are useless as towels. These are lovely. The ladies fed us fruit...one that I'm sure Sarah will know that is like a potato, which for some reason gave one of the ladies fits of laughter. She spent time giving me Thai language lessons which was wonderful...and Sarah will also be proud that I am using as much of my Thai as I can...proper addressing of others and all. Our new friend tried to tell me about a tonal exercise that sounded like "Thai, thai, thai, thai. It sounded familiar but...anyway...they warned us of an impending demonstration and suggested an early departure for the train station, so we ate a lovely lunch, somtam and an incredible pork salad dish and took off for Hulalampong (bad spelling, sorry) train station.

The big train station gave Muz ample photo ops; a seating area for monks, the usual train station characters who are the same the world over only they were speaking Thai to their invisible friends, country people camped out on the floor and forced to move along by the Railway Police. We finally boarded our refrigerated sleeper car and were surrounded by a gaggle of 14 giggling teenage Danish schoolgirls being herded by 3 adults. We had reserved two lower berths and when they plopped themselves down in the seats across from us I fell over laughing, thinking they would be our noisy companions through the night. One of the girls looked at me and said in halting English, "Don't worry, ve are yust waiting, not sitting here." It was quite a parade up and down the aisles all night. And the refrigeration was intense...freezing for a couple of hours and then warm for a couple. The Dutch older foursome in the seats behind us took exception to the cold with the young Thai porter who replied in frustration, "NO LOWER NUMBER! Only on and off!". He made a sucking sound and shook his head as he made up my berth. I smiled and smiled, murmuring kor thot, excuse me...the nice American. After the train porters went to sleep for the night Muzzy was able to "locate" two more contraband blankets. Trains are a lovely way to travel. They don't seem to intrude the way a highway does. A night's lodging and you arrive at your destination only 2 hours behind schedule, but hey, we have no time tables! It was a full moon and between shivers, Muz and I gazed out at the jungle and the full moon dancing through the clouds as the train wiggled and bounced us up to the north.

So...Chiang Mai...the air is fresher, the pace is slower, the fruit is sweeter and the food is better. You all know I am always on the lookout for "CHARMING", so I took a chance and directed the outrageously expensive taxi driver to the TaePae Boutique House, Soy 5, Th Tae Pae, just down from the Tae Pae Gate. Chiang Mai is a walled city, built in the 11th century by King Mengrai...white elephants and all...I'll tell you about that later. This is a lovely little guesthouse, immaculate, polished wood stairs, set back from the road, quiet, light, lovely garden, cooing doves and the bed is good! The walls are decorated with lovely stenciled vines and the bathroom is a real plum! Only and occasional tuk tuk goes by. I'm happy, I'm charmed!

Bangkok Redoux

2011-01-17T18:54:00.000-08:00

AKA Asia anew. The flight was as well as could be expected for a looonnnngggg flight. Arrived Bangkok. The New Siam II remaims the same but it won't be for long. They have taken over the entire corner now and are building an extension with a new lobby facing Th Phra Atit. I hate change, but the same people still staff the desk and I think the older woman who manages actually remembers us, especially when I mentioned our daughter the teacher. Ricky's Cafe has moved next door to a larger spot. The first morning was a little dodgy (but so were we)...I hate change (did I mention that?) but after the first bowl of meusli and fruit with yoghurt and the STRONG cup of coffee with sweet milk, I made peace with the new Ricky's and actually decided it might be a good thing! The day before we arrived there was a heavy rainstorm so the Bangkok air is clear and fresh (!) and it was actually cool in the morning. This made our transition easier. However, jetlag being what it is, we slept in the afternoon, dragged ourselves awake for dinner and then collapsed back in bed until we are wide awake at 1:00 am.

Since we are only in Bangkok for 2 days, we decided to go to Chatuchak Market immediately. Wow! It was cool and not crowded. While it is familiar to us, it is still one of the most exciting markets in the world and it was nice to stroll and see what was for sale. We had great coffee at a little stall. Coffee is the new "thing" in Thailand. It is grown here up in the north and the burdgeoning middle class has made it their own. Young people with wacky hair styles and hip clothes order lattes and capuccinos in English. Honestly, if you have ever thought about coming to Thailand, just go for it. It is quite wonderful here! I don't know whether these trips make us feel younger or older, but they certainly make us feel alive.

Day two was the Amulet Market. I thought I hadn't been there before, but I had...nevermind. It was like new. We took the river taxi from Pra Atit to Th Chang, walked through the warrens of stalls, sorted through bins and bins of amulets, statues, small penis talismans, monks in plastic covers, jars of herbs, bottle of brightly colored nostrums and hundreds of cats. Made a few purchases and walked down to Wat Po, the home of the Reclining Buddha, the largest reclining Buddha anywhere, I think. FABULOUS, and it wasn't crowded. Woo hoo!!! Once you see the Buddha, if you wander back through the Wat, you are richly rewarded with some of the most beautifully decorated plinths and temples and gateways in Thailand. This is truly a lovely spot and Muz found it photo rich. We finally made it back to the massage pavillion. Wat Po is the oldest traditional massage school in Thailand. The last time I was here they were rebuilding the pavillion. Now it is finished and open. It is air conditioned and beautifully decorated. You can select form an assortment of massage options. Muzzy did and hour and a half of herbal massage, $15. I did an hour herbal massage, about $10. After the massages, we were pretty wiped out and made our way to the pier to catch the river ferry back to the New Siam, stopping to have some somtam and fried rice. I had ordered "gai", chicken, but they sort of forgot us and when they remembered, I ended up with fried rice with squid and shrimp. Yummiest meal yet! Street food is still the freshest and best, hot off the propane burner. I love the way you sit in the middle of several carts and they all conspire to get you the food you want, yelling back and forth to each other, splitting the money up after you pay. The Thais eat here too.

Last trip we found a wonderful restaurant on the Chao Phraya called Kinlom Chomsaphan...roughly, eat the wind and look at the bridge...We loved it and looked forward to going back. This time it was full of young middle class Thais who looked like they were playing dress up from an Indian gangsta movie. It felt like young Thai date night. The food wasn't as good as we remembered. This was definitely not our place, it was their place and that's probably as it should be. It was a good night all things considered. The next night we visited Jok Pochana, which I almost missed as it used to be set up along the klong that runs through Banglamphu. It still is, but someone has built a huge 3 storey hotel along the klong so Jok Pochana has set its tables up across the street along the lane. Now that was good!!! Great food, lots of atmosphere, and much more relaxed.

This afternoon we are headed to the train station to catch the overnight Special Express to Chiang Mai in the north. It leaves at 6:00 pm and we have two lower sleepers. We arrive at 7:00 in the morning. Bangkok is fun, but the adventure begins now. The north is mellower and it just gets more laid back from here.

Time to go

2011-01-11T08:01:00.000-08:00

Friday morning is coming fast. One bag each. Mine is nearly packed but I am still trying to figure out which books to take. Nothing precious because I will dump them in a local travel library when I am finished, so I have ratty paperbacks, Innocents Abroad, A Moveable Feast, something trashy and something else...Henry James? Wish I hadn't read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy...that would be fun. The trip is loosely plotted, some of it depending on the availability of train tickets and plane tickets, but it is firmly anchored with Bangkok at the start and a week on the beach at the end. Time for 2 visits to Chatuchak Market, plenty of time at the night market in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, as well as the night market in Luang Prabang, a trip out to the hill villages around Muang Ngoi and even a visit to the Pie Lady outside Chiang Rai! I left lots of downtime, realizing that I have lots of downtime here at home, but downtime in a Lao village is so much better. No internet, no electricity, no English. No problem.

Anticipation

2010-12-29T10:52:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty excited. I've been rummaging through our old travel clothes, checking out shoes, thinking about Laos and dreaming of THE TRIP. I want to go everywhere in Laos. Its hard to make a decision...Namtha? Muang Sing? Sam Neua? Nong Khiaw? Do we fly? Can we fly? Or do we have to take a car or a bus? Do we want to be traveling all the time or do we want to stay in one place and try to be a very falang part of that village for a few days? Do we go someplace we've been before or do we strike out for someplace new? And just how much energy do these old bones have left in them? Its been 8 years since we first went to Laos and I have never lost my love of this wonderful country nor my desire to go back, go back. This will be my 5th trip, Muzzy's 4th. Its never enough. Can we just bypass Thailand and go straight to Laos? Hmmmm....

2010-12-09T17:25:00.001-08:00

It's true! Mid-January, after the Christmas rush and blues, we are off to Thailand and Laos again. I look forward to being back in Laos, this time maybe heading up to Sam Neua although it is tempting to go back to Luang Namtha as I do love it so up there. We will visit Luang Prabang again. As taken over by tourism as it is, it is still such a lovely, gentle place, so beautiful. I love Laos and want to see more and understand more, so I think maybe a new area is on the agenda. I have no store to shop for this time and Muzzy will be coming along. It will be a whole new set of adventures.

Bijoux Trading Company

2010-06-12T07:14:00.000-07:00

Its gone. The store at 1417 Cornwall in Bellingham is no more. With the help of my faithful and stalwart partner, Mr. Muzzy, we emptied the shop over Memorial Day weekend and stuffed the leftovers into our house. I spent the first week nursing my wounds, hooking up a new WiFi system, calling people to disconnect this and that, and getting ready to "re-invent". I have a small studio space at the Waterfront Artists Studios in Old Town and have been busily arranging the sewing room upstairs to accommodate and anticipate a bit of sewing. Who knows where this new path will lead? Hopefully more travel in our future. Certainly more writing. And if I can create even one of the wonderful ideas that are percolating around my head, I will be happy. In fact, this staying at home, going where I like, spending the morning in my pajamas is not so bad!

Bijoux Trading Company Reinvented

2010-03-05T15:18:00.000-08:00

I am closing my retail store in downtown Bellingham. I thought I had already posted this on the blog, but after review, I didn't! So, farewell to the retail grind. I am renting a very small studio space that I will work in on my website and my Ebay sales, plus my writing, my jewelry and my clothing. It feels very exciting and it will be nice to not be burdened by the expense of a storefront. I will miss my customers very much, and I will miss carrying all the wonderful cards I have in the shop. What I won't miss is the worry about money, putting money into the store instead of getting some out of it, turning people on to wonderful things I find, and the fact that I have been in this building in some form since 1997. Now I have to get rid of everything, and I mean EVERYTHING! On the positive side, when Muzzy and I travel now I won't have to concentrate on shopping for the store. I can shop for myself and I don't have to shop at all if I don't want to. That will be lovely. AND we can stay gone longer (and longer and longer). So if anyone who reads this shops in the store, come on in and we'll make a deal, or just come in and say goodbye and make sure I have your email so I can send you notices about my studio sales. Muzzy and I are off to Mexico this summer and back to SE Asia this next winter. I am already excited!

Tucson

2010-02-09T11:48:00.000-08:00

I practically ran out of town on Thursday the 4th. The trip to Tucson was a little bumpy, but not bad and we arrived in Mesa where Annette's father met us. While not a whole lot warmer, it was dry and smelled dry and that was nice. Heading out from Mesa, Annette drove her father's van, which we borrowed for the weekend. She took the back road from Phoenix to Tucson so we could go across the desert. I could just barely see the outline of the Superstition Mountains as we headed into the night. Out the windows on either side the ghostly shapes of the saguaro loomed in the darkness. We stopped once to get out and look up into the night sky littered with stars. I love that communities in Arizona limit the use of streetlights because of the sky views. I have a limited knowledge of the night sky but I found Orion straight off and from there located the Seven Sisters. I was unsure about the Big Dipper. Can you see it from down there? As the weekend wore on it was obvious that a sense of direction is not one of my strong points.

We arrived in Tucson at Christy's little house and I was tired so I went almost straight to bed. A long day. Christy was up early to get ready for work. She made us each a latte on her espresso machine and after she headed off, Annette and I mapped our course for the Gem and Mineral Show. We had 2 shows in mind for Friday, the To Bead True Blue/Tucson Bead Show at the Doubletree Inn, and the larger J.O.G.S. at the Tucson Expo Center. We got to both though the second show was a little illusive. Our return from the J.O.G.S show required quite a bit of driving by the incredibly patient Annette. Luckily she has a better sense of direction than I do and after a few calls to Christy, we found our way home and saw some exciting sites too! I recall that I used to be able to read a map quite well, but the inability to tell north from south from east or west makes it really really hard. The map ended up on the floor of the back seat. Christy greeted us with margaritas and we walked to dinner.

If we had tried to pack any more into Saturday I think my head would have exploded. But of course, it isn't necessary to detail every hour. I think a quick list of highlights...
The Nacimiento at the Museum, installed in the oldest mud adobe house in Tucson. It goes up well before Christmas and stays into March or so. It is not to be missed. Done by an old woman, now assisted by family and friends, it is a nativity on steroids. Oblivious to scale, it meanders up and up with scenes from domestic Mexican life peppered with traditional nativity figures, donkeys, elephants, hidden devils, goats, pigs, chickens, wise men, angels, temples, tents and humble adobes. Mud adobes with thick walls, squat with smooth rounded corners, pots of cactus out front, hidden glimpses of courtyards hung with plants all painted in Easter egg colors, ochre, lime, turquoise, fuschia, red, gold. Arroyos, dry depressions running through neighborhoods and across highways with signs warning not to go through them when there is water. They duck under the flat desert with precarious overpasses perched on crossing highways. Barrel cactus, agave, yucca, the amazing saguaro and prickly pear which comes in many colors. I didn't know that! Strange trees and shrubs with mean spiny stems that rip and tear your flesh. Different birds, grapefruit trees, orange trees, lime trees, pomegranates and front yards that are nothing but rocks that people rake and plant with all the amazing desert flora. Really wide flat streets, the Santa Catalina's one one side and two other mountain ranges on two other sides. Sweet green corn tamales. Huevos rancheros at the Cup Cafe in the Hotel Congress. The Hotel Congress with newspaper clippings along the wall to the bathrooms that extol the legend of John Dillinger, the Congress's claim to fame. The old Rialto Theater across the street with its western sort of New Orleans architecture. The barrio, where mud adobes are not an anomaly and probably don't cost $500,000.

And the gem show. Well, since its the largest one in the WORLD, it is quite impossible to see all the venues. We touched on a small part of it but it was quite, hmmm, stimulating? I walked my butt off! Since I am a retailer, I didn't find any real deals, but I did see a lot of things in one place that I don't usually get to see. Silver sold by the gram and it was all over the map. I did find some fine old pieces, but I couldn't afford them. Parts of the venues reminded me of being in Asia, except the prices weren't as good. Some of the dealers were fussy and snotty, lots were friendly and fun. My big discovery was Sally Bass...if you don't know her work, you should. Its big, colorful, clever, fun and exciting. If I could I would carry it in my store. I also saw lots of ammonites, trilobites, crystals, geodes and an assortment of "troglodytes." In short, it was a great getaway. I'm glad I went, grateful to both Annette and Christy for helping me enjoy a short respite in the grind. Hope I get to go again. I am inspired and excited and ready to move into yet another phase of my life.

Shopping in Tucson

2010-01-21T12:19:00.000-08:00

I can't deny that the local weather makes me feel like its spring, but I know in my heart of hearts that freezing temps could descend at any moment. All that aside, I am mourning the lack of travel this year. Mr. Muzzy is in a play and the best I can do is 4 days in Tucson for the Gem and Mineral extravaganza that I have long heard about but never visited. I have my ticket and a place to stay, so there will be at least 4 days of warm weather and different vegetation, not to mention aisles and aisles of goodies to look over. Mr. Muzzy will be performing that weekend, so it is a "girl's time". I like it. And on the horizon is a trip to Mexico, Oaxaca to be exact, later this year. THEN....I am going back to Laos and Thailand next winter come hell or high water...don't know about the rest of you, but that is where I will be. And as for poor dear Bijoux, its been a rough sea these last 5 years, especially the last 2, but I feel a change coming. I'm hot on the trail of the "fish waffle" pan I saw in Chiang Mai in 2007, and having lost some weight I'll be dusting off my phasins, moving the hooks over, and trying to figure out how to sell kanom krok and fish waffles at the Farmer's Market. I have joined a writing group and have begun to realize just how awful my poor Haight Ashbury memoir really is, but it gives me something to do late at night and early in the morning when mortality and time weigh heavily on my soul. And re-inventing is right up my alley...does the world seem crazier to you all too or is it just me? Politics in the US are just right out of my realm now. I think I have given up and will concentrate on my karmic future.

The Beautiful Wedding

2009-10-27T11:53:00.000-07:00

Muz and I took off for LA last Thursday to celebrate the wedding of Muzzy's sister Irene. It was a grand, gala affair in full LA style. Outdoors in the 80 degree October weather, perfect, halcyon, palm trees, pomegranates, lemon trees and houses throughout Alta Dena and Pasadena decked out in full Halloween regalia. The wedding took place in Farnsworth Park, outdoors in the amphitheater with the stage featuring a huge flower filled in with red rose petals outlined in marigolds. The bride was a vision of exotic splendor and the groom suitably handsome in a traditional Indian knee length jacket. The reception took place in the lodge where many of the scenes from Dirty Dancing were filmed. We worked on the decor all day, long tables with black table cloths and black lacquered runners strewn with white flower petals, hand made intricate tapestries that were made by two of Irene's friends hung from the rafters. They were on loan from an exhibition at a local art gallery. The head table was placed in front of the massive fireplace whose mantle had been lined with photos of absent family members. Catering by Wahib was a brilliant idea, great Lebanese food, a fabulous band, and a glittering array of family and friends added to the perfect event.
Staying at my brother and sister-in-law's is always a treat. Safe from the recent fires, the house sits at the foot of the San Gabriel mountains. The air was clear from the recent rains, and my one treat was a visit to The Folk Tree to see their Day of the Dead altars exhibit. it was more than inspiring. While I don't want to live in LA again, the "city hit" just wires my mind and sets my creative juices churning. Check out www.ladayofthedead.com to see what our next year's project may be. Irene has asked me to do this with her next year and we may have to make it a family event. Call it what you will, cross-cultural, multi-cultural, the blending of the hispanic tradition around the Day of the Dead with the LA flair for the dramatic is something to see. Since death is the theme of this time of year (and this time of my life!), I am filled with joy at the ways I have seen it expressed this last long weekend.

Call for Artists

2009-07-17T16:12:00.000-07:00

Bijoux is bumbling along through the summer. Thanks to all of our supporters. Downtown Bellingham may make it, no thanks to the city fathers or mothers. I will be doing my yearly offrenda in Bijoux's front window for the Days of the Dead and had hoped to involve the local arts community with a nice exhibit like the one I saw in Mt. Vernon last year. But it is not to be. So, how about a grass roots sort of movement. Does anyone out there do artwork around the Day of the Dead theme? I would be happy to host your art at Bijoux for the month of October, and if it looks like I have too many takers, I'll help you find another spot to exhibit. Just drop by and talk it over with me. We all need to pull together in these "par'lous" times!

Almost as good as traveling!

2009-06-01T17:23:00.000-07:00

I just began cataloging and pricing a 40 year collection of amazing artifacts from Panama, Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala, the Phillipines, India, Bali, Laos, Thailand and more. The collection has some pieces that belong in a museum and belongs to a man with an incredibly discerning eye, and a love for all things unique and exotic. I will begin integrating it into Bijoux as soon as I can. I even bought a new cabinet to house the baskets and pottery. This is great stuff that ranges from the mundane to the sublime. If you are in town drop by as I unfold all of these wonderful items into the shop. I even have the stories and dates to go with them! I feel incredibly privledged to be part of helping him divest a lifetime of travels and tales. In the midst of life's trials and tribulations, I am blessed with much.

2009-05-31T07:22:00.000-07:00

New musings, new travels. My mind slip back to Laos and Muzzy is itching to take the train to Lhasa. Northern India beckons and travel is on my mind. I need more great "stuff" for my great store, Bijoux, www.bijouxtradingcompany.com. It's movin' slow in this economy. I'm hanging on by a thread and I can almost see a light at the end of the tunnel. My web administrator says I need to push the site everywhere I can, so come out and support me! Visit my site, visit my store if you come to Bellingham.....Bijoux Bijoux Bijoux!!!

Reflections on Guatemala

2009-03-29T17:02:00.000-07:00

I am still conflicted about this trip. In retrospect there were many wonders, not the least of which was traveling with my favorite companion, being silly, and seeing the world without telephones, computers, televisions and such. Of all the marvels, I think the birds and beasts of Tikal stand out most for me. I still haven't gotten a bird book so I can read about them and show them to my mother and to Sarah and Don, but I looked some of them up on the net today. Of the mot mot, I have to say, I only got a very shady look at it and after seeing it's amazing tail in a photo, I wish I had seen more. Montezuma's Oropendula was so prolific, it was just commonplace, but always startling and it's voice was lovely. The Violaceous Trogon...a small, colorful bird with a huge name, was a real treat since they don't seem to be very common. And the keel billed Toucan still makes me think of Fruit Loops. I never thought I would see so many wonderful birds outside of a zoo...

As for the rest? Guatemala is an enigma to me. Parts of it were lovely and charming, but it was hard to get next to, hard to travel, and I've had some hard traveling before this. I just prefer Asia. There is something more welcoming, less tense, more like a soft embrace when I wander through those countries. Guatemala was hard in the way rocks in your shoes are hard, or the way a cold hard cement bench is hard. But the textiles dazzled my eyes and the mountains around Todos Santos were a moonscape with the giant agaves blooming indiscriminately on a landscape so bleak and dry. So I'm glad I got to see it all, of course. And I know that travel, any travel, is a privilege. I never take it for granted, and I hope I will get to do it again...maybe not to Guatemala, but somewhere. I'm certainly ready to go any time.

Next to Final Post

2009-02-22T10:00:00.001-08:00

Belize...did all we could. Muz swam with the rays and the tarpins and the turtles and sharks, etc. etc. We sunned and sanded and found a remedy for sand flea bites. We gorged ourselves with the meat pie man´s wares, guzzled juice from Julia the Juice Lady and got pineappled, limed and grapefruited out. We had Dove bars in various incarnations and tried our darndest to find the perfect cup of coffee. We even saw a dead inflated blowfish! Eeek! Island life, mon...
We took a beautiful boat ride across azure waters to Belize City, a Christian cab ride to the airport (he preached the whole way there), surprised to find ourselves booked into first class on Taca Airlines to Salvador and then to Guatemala City. We´re back in Antigua now, preparing for the push home tomorrow. The Posada San Sebastian (yet another wacky room!) seems like home. We snuck out this morning before the parrot was up and headed across the plaza to Cafe Condessa for some good Guatemalan coffee and panqueques. Yummmmm....then off to the Artesanas Mercado for one last negotiation...ah more textiles...but really, your honor, I have a PLAN! And as Mr. Muzzy says, ¨Yo soy es Burro¨.
Thanks for enduring the posts. I intend to post a long boring Ïmpressions¨ wrap up whe we get home.
The Muzzys

Winding Down

2009-02-18T07:30:00.000-08:00

Antigua to Tikal. We left Antigua in the misty morning. Sitting in the tiny domestic airport in Guatemala City, no coffee, 4 very strange looking folks walk into the waiting room. The men were tiny with tiny voices and plastic cowboy hats. One woman was small with a VERY strange voice and the other was large with the ugliest dress I've ever seen and a big neckbrace. Both the women had black scarf-bonnets on their heads and they all spoke some very unrecognizable language...so...4 Mennonites walk into a waiting room...
The prop plane ride over the jungle was nice, short and smooth and we landed in Santa Elena where a big sign with Mr. Muzzy on it waited with a van to take us to Tikal. Our guide, Berta, was already quizzing us on jungle flora and fauna...see de big hill ova dere sticking into de lake? What does it look like to you? Ah ah ah...an alligator? Berry good! An hour and a half later we pull up to the park entrance (actually, the entrance was an hour before that) and we beg for some coffee and breakfast before beginning our 3 hour tour with guide...5 hours later we dragged our weary butts into the lobby of the Tikal Inn again and collapsed. Berta tells us our entrance fee to the park is still good and we can go back later in the afternoon if we like....right....

It was pretty amazing. Spider and Howler monkeys with their babies swinging through the trees, agouti rummaging along the jungle floor, the blue headed mot mot and chatty oropendulums along with a long list of other tropical birds. And then there were the ruins! Oh my oh my! Well worth the trip. Right out of the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Muz got lots of photos and only dropped a lens once (he was younger then, only a few days before his birthday)! As I looked over the edge of one of the temples down into the dense jungle, I was grateful we didn't have to climb down to get it. Needless to say, by the end of the walk we were templed and ruined and ready for a nap.

We awoke the next morning to parrots and toucans having breakfast, screeching and warbling. Shelley grabbed her binoculars and headed out of the Inn onto the big clearing around the visitors center. Muzzy moved more judiciously to a chair by the pool where he saw just about as many birds with much less movement. There was actually a yellow-breasted woodpecker making improvements to its house right there in front of us.
We headed back to Flores in the afternoon...a quick stop for the night on the little island in the lake and then a bus to Belize City the next morning.

We spent about an hour at the Guatemala-Belize border. You have to actually get off of the bus, with your stuff, stand in line to get an exit stamp from Guatemala, and then walk across a bridge into Belize, get another stamp, and then wait for your bus to come through the border as well. We bought a couple of breakfast burritos, and boom boom...on our way to Belize City. The roads were instantly 150% better, the language changed from Spanish to English, and we were dropped right at the Caye Caulker Water Taxi...grabbed our bags and bought a couple of round trip tickets and were on our way out into the Caribbean on a 60+ person boat skipping over the seas passing reef after reef at about 50 mph.

An hour later we landed on Caye Caulker, found a place to stay and began slowing down for real....

More later, maybe....
Muz and Shell

Todos Santos and back

2009-02-11T07:31:00.000-08:00

We decided to leave Todos Santos before noon on Saturday. When we first arrived, Jon had found, with the help of our somewhat dodgy innkeep, a secure place to park the 4WD Hyundai deisel rented in Guatemala City for the trip. It immediately became apparent that the one and a half working glow plugs weren't working at 8800 feet...the car wouldn't start and we ran the battery out. Aha...here we are, Todos Santos, major market day, far from anything resembling a car repair shop and we needed another battery. Flayanna and I adjourned to the town square and found a seat while Jon and Muzzy hiked up and down, up and down and I really mean UP and Down, looking for an auto mechanico. Jon had been in Todos Santos a few years earlier and taken photos of a young man whose photo was later picked up for a worldwide HP campaign. He and Muzzy found the young man's family and cousin Benito came to our rescue, leading them to a motor vehicle graveyard sort of auto repairish shop where they rented a battery that had been removed from a wrecked pickup. To assure it wouldn´t go missing, Flayanna and I observed a small parade of traditionally clad Todos Santeros men, Muzzy and Jon (and the battery carefully cradled in a large piece of plastic) through the center of town....and after some manipulation, the car started. Then the owners of the two huge transport trucks that had been parked behind the car had to be found and the intense manipulation to move them...sort of like one of those flat puzzles where you move all the little squares around up and down in order to get them in order...and we were actually on our way...some two hours after we had intended. The way back to the main highway seemed shorter but no less perilous and we jounced and bumped and rattled our way into Huehuetenango where we immediately grabbed a room in a magical little hotel in the center of town. Our room was off a lovely little courtyard with a huge fountain and caged singing birds, TV and all! I must here interject the curious concept of the speed bump. Throughout Guatemala, on all the roads, no matter what their condition, Guatemala has installed speed bumps...few of them in any place that makes any sense at all. It makes driving a true adventure...ones that make the windshield wipers start up are considered a 10.

The next day we stopped briefly in Quetzaltenango, known as Xela (shay la) where Jon (and Muzzy) had an intense photography session with a family on the edge of town. We actually stopped to photo an old car covered in dust when these two ancient women came out and insisted we take photos of them. One of them kept grabbing my arm and hugging me...she was toothless, with gnarled hands covered in leather like skin...sweet and charming as could be and chattering at me in a steady stream of Spanish and Kich e (a Mayan dialect). The photos are quite amazing. We liked Xela, an old coffee town with colonial Spanish style buildings and the facade of a 16th century church, and if we come back, I could see spending some time there...still pretty high up at 7200 feet.

Then back to the Posada where we fell into our suite in exhaustion. David and Susie were kind enough to upgrade us to the Jr. suite at the same price as a cabana. It was impossible luxury after the 2 days in Todos Santos... what a contrast. Then David contracted with Muzzy to do more photos of the Posada for his website and they paid us with room and board for one day...sweet. We indulged in guacamole and chips (handmade blue corn tortillas custom fried for the order) and a lovley rum and fruit drink with a basil sprig by our favorite bartender, the lovely Laura...she is part of the package deal with the world class chef. They were quite a couple!

We left the next morning at the crack of dawn, chilly ride in the back of a pick up down to the beach, into a collectivo, across Lake Atitlan in the misty morning with about 14 other indegena bound for the Tuesday market at Solola. We hopped on a shuttle for Antigua and our home at the wacky Posada San Sebastian...on to our next adventure...Tikal and Beyond.

Todos Santos and Flying Ants

2009-02-09T07:36:00.000-08:00

After hooking up with our friend Jon Kaplan, we delayed our departure for Todos Santos a day to take a trip into Panajachel and San Cristobal. Jon, for those of you who don't know him, is a world class photographer of indigenous peoples whom we met in Bali in 1993. He and his partner, Flayanna, Muzzy and I drove around the volcano through fields of coffee plants, shade grown, and into Pana where we picked up an old friend of Jon's, an older woman named Sarah, who has lived in Guatemala since she was 6. What a character! She conducts textile tours for tourists and is herself a weaver. She also makes patchwork quilts which she sells in Antigua, Pana and the US. She hitched a ride with us out to San Cristobal where she introduced us to some weaver friends. Of course I had to buy a huipil and although I didn't buy a traditional San Cristobal one, I did buy one that her friend's daughter made for herself. Its glorious, as are most of the textiles here. At any rate, Sarah bore a striking resemblance to my good friend Cathryn.

We left for Todos Santos the next morning. Hooking up with the Interamerican highway, Mexico and Seattle to the north, Hondorus to the south, we sped north up into the Cuchmatanes mountains, the highest mountain range in Central America. The road took turns at being smooth and speedy and then reverted to its original patchwork of disrepair, sudden ruptures, and ubiquitious speed bumps. It is, after all, an area of earthquakes, volcanoes, and landslides. Passing through villages of adobe huts, herds of sheep and dry, high desert landscapes, we reached Huehuetanango, rumpled, dusty, shaken up and hungry. Jon stopped at the new shopping mall (!) and we ate at the McDonald's! Muz hasn't been in a McDonald's in 25 years and though we were skeptical, Jon assured us we wouldn't regret it. I was grateful for the clean, nearly fully equipped bathroom. Jon was a little unsure of the turn-off for Todos Santos, but since he was here 4 years ago there is a nice big sign indicating the direction. That was also where the "highway" ended. From there on it was dirt and gravel, hairpin turns, chicken buses and trucks coming the other direction on a one-lane road, sheer drop-offs to the side. At the over 10,000 foot mark, we passed through flat mountain meadows, dry, barren, littered with volcanic rock and sectioned off fences of agave plants, complete with 25 foot blooms. It looked like another planet. Then we descended into the valley of Todos Santos, 8800 feet up.

The Hotelito Todos Santos was our home for 2 frigid nights. Our first room was at street level behind a barred barrier to the 8 foot wide cobblestoned street. Very much like a small dungeon cell, the blankets stayed damp all night and we slept in everything we owned. We were awakened to the sounds of a boom-box and the whine of a carpenter's power plane as the carpenteria was only 8 1/2 feet away from our door. We made our way out to Katy's Comedor...now don't get excited. This is the way it works. There are no noticeable places to eat in Todos Santos. Katy's was a small adobe hut with a half door. You walk to the door, poke your head inside and yell "Hola! Comedor?" And somewhere in the back a light comes on and either Katy, and ancient woman in traditional huipil and dark indigo skirt comes to the front, or one of the children comes forward and opens the door. You go to the woodstove area in back and Katy tells you what she can offer...usually beans, rice and eggs. That's breakfast. Dinner is either chicken fried, chicken pipian, or one night carne asado, beans, rice and/or eggs. Yes. Oh...and blue corn tortillas, LOTS of blue corn tortillas, more than you could ever eat...which could or could not be a good thing. By the way...a good rule of thumb is not to eat any meat when you travel...unless you are staying at the Posada, of course.

Todos Santos....this is probably the most traditional village in Guatemala. The men all, and I do mean ALL, still wear traditional "traje" which means costume. Exceedingly colorful it consists of red and white stripped pants, thin blue and red stripped shirt with a handwoven elaborately ornamental collar, and a small straw hat with blue band studded with silver. The older men also add a black wool sort of chap-like garment over the top of the pants, open in front and hanging to the knees in back with a small stripe of blue cloth sewn to the bottom edge. We will post a photo soon. Most of the pants are custom made, the men are the tailors. The young men add their own style by making the pants quite baggy, ala US style. All of the fabric is handwoven. The women wear an indigo corte (skirt) with a lighter blue stripe and an elaborate woven huipil, in blues and purples, their hair in long braids down the back with ribbons woven in them, tied together at the bottom. Its quite something to see the whole town turned out on market day like a flock of exotic birds.

End Part 1

Movin' on day...we think

2009-02-04T07:09:00.000-08:00

Time to reckon the bill and pay for a week of decadence here at the Posada. We've been back and forth across the lake a few times, sometimes rougher than others. Chaldera's aren't always the calmest places. The wind has come up and a couple of the crossings have been bone-jarring adventures that have left Shelley's hands cramped from gripping the plastic seats as the boat slammed into the waves. It didn't help that we heard that a couple of months ago 5 people didn't make it...sunk like a rock was the term David used, I believe. Nice. We intend to move on today. We did, however, make it to the market in Santiago Atitlan twice and yesterday raced across the lake, grabbed a tuk tuk to the bus station, just in time to have Muzzy push my butt up into the rear end of the chicken bus to Solola (he needed two hands!). The bus then climbed over 1000 feet in 20 minutes on a road that had more twists and turns than a bad mystery novel. It never slowed down once, just honked as buses decending waited at the hairpin corners for us to pass them. Yikes! Arriving in Solola was a relief and a thrill. This sprawling village on the top of a ridge, the main plaza packed, Guatemalan music blaring out over the balmy windy day as hawkers cried their wares...vegetables, fruits, chickens, tables of hand-woven fabrics sold by women in amazing costumes, men strutting like peacocks in fabulous ghost-cloth jackets with over embroidery, cowboy hats and these great spotted wool skirt-like things around their hips...and villagers from all over in different costumes of amazing colors and head ornaments. What looks like "costumes" to us is actually their daily wear...and they wear it proudly. This is not a tourist market. We only saw a very few gringos...none buying cloth...this market was locals only. There were tables of beads sold in small packets and by weight, stalls of brightly colored thread...I swear Guatemala has the corner on DMC embroidery floss! And then there was the food! Chuchitos, small tamales with ground meat inside, more avacodoes, soups and stews and ice cream. It was a fabulous market well worth the hair-raising climb.
We have hooked up with our friend Jon Kaplan and intend to start heading toward the highland village of Todos Santos...maybe in one day or perhaps stopping on the way. If you want to know what these areas look like, Google the names and take a look around.
On the road,
Shell & Muz

Lago de Atitlan, Guatemala

2009-01-30T18:17:00.000-08:00

Hola!
Left Antigua yesterday via shuttle bus. 3 hours later we came up over the mountains and stopped for our first view of Lake Atitlan. Lago de Atitlan was formed 150,000 years ago in an eruption that sent ash as far as Florida and Panama. The chaldera filled with water and created this amazingly beautiful 128 sq. kilometer lake. It is ringed by three volcanos, Atitlan, San Pedro and Toliman, which is where we are now...on the lake. We navigated our way successfully, after some firece negotiation with boat captains in Panahachel, crossed the lake and landed at Santiago Atitlan where we got a ride in a tuk tuk up the hill to the Posada Santiago. How can we describe the posada? The interior is like the inside of a medieval castle built from volcanic rock overlooking the lake at Volcan San Pedro. It last erupted some 30,000-40,000 years ago so we're either okay or overdue. This is an incredible posad and as luck would have it, a world class chef who normaly plies his trade on world-class yachts is staying here for 3 months...poor us! No dieting here. The food has been simply unbelieveable. We've walked into the village itself a couple of times but went to our first Friday market today. I don't think I've ever seen so many avacados in one place...or handwoven, brightly embroidered fabrics and women and men like exotic birds all around us. Pretty special. Our bungalow is a stone hut with a toasty fireplace...a cross between a hobbit house and the stonecutters cottage in a fairy tale. We'll be here a few days and plan to explore some of the villages on the hills around us. More later...
Feel free to drop a line...the adventure continues.

La Antigua, Guatemala

2009-01-28T12:59:00.000-08:00

We made it and made it safely! Muzzy just had some Guatemalan chocolate (cup of hot chocolate and 2 cookies) and he's going even faster than usual. What can I say...I'm not far behind.
After Seattle to Atlanta, Atlanta to Guatemala City, we walked out of the airport and caught a cab to La Antigua (45 minutes=$30 and a lost fleece vest). Good to get the loosing thing out of the way. Arrived at Posada San Sebastian only to find they had no room for us that night. However, when I signed in Robert Muzzy for the next night, Luis exclaimed "Ohhhh, Robert, yes, I think we have you now." And hola amigos, mi casa su casa! We have a huge room in this crazy posada filled with antiques, oddities and Catholic religious icons of all sizes and shapes (an enire case of plaster babies, eeek!) all to the backbeat of marimba carousel music. Wonderful people. Courtyard with a three level fountain, a big green parrot and plush crawling vines. Charming, charming, charming. Nestled in between 3 volcanos, Antigua is incredibly beautiful laid out in a grid pattern, cobbled streets, countless 16th century churches, some crumpled victims of past volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Long multi-colored walls with grill covered windows and fortress-like ancient wooden doorways with little peepholes in them giving way to secluded living spaces beyond. The textiles are unbelieveable and the people are friendly, helpful and tolerant of our attempts at Spanish. We are actually getting better! And with no tonal inflections, my brutish attempts at pronunciation seem to work. Of course, I work hard to catch up with Senor Muz, who was brilliant at asking directions to el bano the other morning, a most necessary request.

We leave for Lago Atitlan tomorrow morning, one duffel almost full. You know, embroidered cotton is much heavier than silk...sigh. But as Senor Muzzy states, "Yo soy es burro"
Love you all
Us

Another Journey

2008-12-03T08:02:00.000-08:00

Another continent this coming year. We are off to Guatemala at the end of January 2009. My heart is still in Laos, but it seems like we have some forces pulling us south. Of course I have always wanted to see the Mayan ruins, and the textiles of the highlands are exerting an undeniable siren call. Who knows what we will find? Monkeys and birds and other mysterious things. Old friends, new friends, and a journey away from the crazy year of 2008. And, of course, a journey with my best friend, Mr. Muz.

Retro Blogs

2008-04-24T11:59:00.000-07:00

I'm going to post the emails we sent home from our 2007 trip. I don't know why. It just seemed like the best place to put them. Three of us traveled that year, Muzzy, Me and our good friend Kyp Bisagna. We tried to do a lot in one month...Thailand to Nepal, back to Bangkok and up to Chiang Rai, over to Chiang Kong and into Laos at Huay Xai, up the Namtha River to Luang Namtha, by private car to Luang Prabang, back to Bangkok and by plane to Koh Samui and then over to Koh Phangan, back to Samui and Bangkok and up to Chiang Mai for 2 days, then to Bangkok and home. We wanted to make the trip up the Namtha again (we did it in 2003) and we wanted to share it with Kyp. It was every bit as wonderful and while there had been changes, some of the experiences were very similar. I was happy to have an English translator, happy to see some prosperity in Namtha, and happy to see the eco-tourism sector growing and thriving. I was not happy about the proposed dams across the Namtha and Mekong, and I missed the huge, magnificent stands of timber bamboo that arched over the upper part of the Namtha. All of the southside of the river had been cleared for rubber trees. I was not happy to see the big new airport at Namtha, but I was happy to see the wonderful morning market in town was still the same...sort of...I want this country (Laos) to prosper. I only hope it can do so and still hold on to its soul. But isn't that what we all hope?

Thailand, Nepal, Laos 2007

Kathmandu
Date: Thursday, January 11, 2007 8:22 AM

We've made it as far as Kathmandu. Left Seattle late on a flight originating in New York, so of course we got into Taipei late, missed our connection and traveled the rest of the way to Bangkok on China Air. Landed at the new airport in Bangkok (we won't even try to spell the name!) billeted at the New Siam II for the night (no bombs allowed) and headed out the next morning for Kathmandu. We had plenty of time to see the new airport...what a wonder! It is truly a marvel of architectural engineering and soaring
space, gorgeous art, lovely gardens...

Departed Thailand on Thai Air...skirted the Bay of Bengal and came in over the Himalayas with a great view of Everest. We've been in Kathmandu since Tuesday afternoon and its been a non-stop shopping marathon. The city is much like we remembered and also very different. VERY organic, very few tourists and very cold. No snow, but a fire in our room would be nice, with or without a fireplace. The Hotel Mustang (reputedly owned by the King of Mustang) looks much nicer online. No, actually, it looks very charming from the outside and has a rooftop garden which is nice in the afternoon...sunny and warm...but the rooms and service leave a little to be
desired. But for $4 per night, what can you ask. We changed rooms and got one with a hot shower that WORKED and a small balcony. Took a trip to Bodhnath and made the circuit, however we had a small detour on the way for a traffic accident. The motorcycle that ran into us became the transport for the policeman (he rode on the back) as we all had to go to the police station to sort it out. We drove through the locked gates into a bunkered site with lots of people milling around, some with rifles. They spent a half hour going from our car to the motorcycle, looking over the headlamp we lost (it had been lost before and was held in with duct tape). It was declared the motorcycle's fault, he paid 200 rupees (less than $5) to our driver and we were on our way.

We are headed up the valley to Bhaktapur tomorrow, hopefully escaping the air pollution of Kathmandu. The people are wonderful and we are doing fine...well enough without our down jackets and more socks. For those who may be wondering, we made it to the Tibetan Refugee Center and bought rugs today. We'll check in in a day or two. Our love to all...sorry about the snow!

Love,
Muz and Shell

Subject: Bhaktapur and back
Date: Saturday, January 13, 2007 5:14 AM

Where on earth do I begin to describe what its like here? It’s so cold at night, and of course, there are NO heaters in Nepal. We play dodge car every evening and run to Pilgrims Bookstore, hoping to secure a place by the big fire pit in the restaurant. And you would have to see this to believe it. There is a big oil can cut in half, with welded legs, burning merrily and sending showers of sparks up to the tarp covering the patio. No one seems to mind. Tamel is a merchandisers dream, or nightmare, I'm not sure which. The tourism season has not begun so we are sparse here and the hustle is relentless, but it doesn't seem to bring the prices down. Kathmandu is so polluted, but our little hotel with its laid back staff is an oasis of calm in the storm.

We moved out to Bhaktapur yesterday, just for one night. Our cab driver was so charming and while he deftly dodged the traffic, his car dying at every stop, he talked about politics, his government, religion and his new baby, showing us photos on his cell phone and reaching over to the glove box (to our horror) to haul out a photo of his wife. Bhaktapur was such a refreshing change after Kathmandu. Quiet, clean and so utterly charming you feel you have stepped back in time. We stayed at the Sunny Guest House,
right next door to the Sunny restaurant where we ate every morning on our last visit. While it is new, its decor is not. It sits right on the square next to the Nyatapola (the tallest Hindu temple in the valley) and at the hub of this medieval city's heart. Our room had a long carved wooden window with a window seat. We sat looking out and down over everything. It was magical. That is until we realized that Bhaktapur has a market in the morning and one at night and there are horrendously evil dogs that howl all night long. Perhaps this would not have bothered me so much had I not come down with some sort of crud that left me shivering and sweating by turns. Still, when it was quiet, it was wonderful...cold, but wonderful. Bhaktapur is magical in every way, full of brick streets, Jaypu women in their red and black saris walking to the well with brass pots on their hips, babies tucked into shawls, old men with impossibly huge loads of everything imaginable on their backs, potters square with drying pots spread as far as the eye can
see, wooden windows tucked into impossibly old brick buildings and amazing statuary at every turn. I am especially fond of the hidden shrines that seem like simple decorative slabs in the streets. You look down to see some god's special place adorned with crushed marigolds, oil and red tikka powder. When the sun comes out in the afternoon, it is so nice. Everyone sits in the sun or turns their backsides to the sun's rays, warming up from
the bitter cold. The morning market is shrouded in fog and the sounds of the vendors calling their wares wafts across the square, plastic tarps full of bright red underwear and gloves, untidy heaps of neon colored plastic shoes, traditional topis (men’s hats) and vests laid out with great dignity. And everyone is bustling and buying. Ladies stop on their way back from puja at the temple, holding their tray of offerings in one hand and peering over the goods for sale. There is the laughter of children running and the
Complaining of small herds of goats wandering across the square and much visiting and gossiping...all the parts of daily life that need no explanation nor require a common language. Sick as I was and as much as I wanted to shoot those evil dogs, Bhaktapur is still my favorite. Muzzy took some wonderful photos.

We leave for Thailand tomorrow and then for Chiang Rai the day after that. I have to say it will be a relief to have a break from shopping. I never realized how tiring it can be. It’s a lot of decisions that make me very nervous. And we are hand carrying it all...what on earth am I thinking?

I hope you are all well, that the cold weather has not been too much of a burden. Thank you all for taking care of my life while I am out here adventuring...Mr. Muzzy is thrilled with his new camera and is doing it justice. He reads about it every night as we shiver in our beds, and then tries out new tricks the next day. It feels like we have been gone much
longer than 1 week...I miss you all!
Love
Shelley and Muzzy

Subject: Nepal Dispatch and Departure
Date: Saturday, January 13, 2007 10:30 PM

Survivor Nepal..

We're well. After a morning Tibetan breakfast...Getting ready to depart Nepal on the next leg of our own "Amazing Race". Thai Air will lift us away at 14:00. It's a clear day... might get to see Everest again. 3 + hours to Bangkok over Mandalay and Rangoon. We spent the last two days/night in upper Kathmandu Valley (Bhaktapur)... very medieval
and wonderful. We're looking forward to shaking off the Nepalese chill and warming up in Thailand at least overnight. We're aware many of you have experienced greater cold than we have and we hope all of you are well. We're reminded central heating is a luxury. Beyond Bangkok, the plan has us heading north to Chiang Rai for a couple of nights before further north to Chiang Kong and crossing the Mekong River.
Love to you.. and we'll look forward to our next turn at cyber travel chat and the discovery of your messages from home.
muz n shell

Subject: Chiang Rai
Date: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 8:33 PM

We hear it’s really cold...so sorry...5 degrees and more snow! Yikes! We're at 86 degrees, no humidity in Chiang Rai. We are heading up and over to Chiang Khong tomorrow to cross the Mekong into Laos and begin our river journey up the Namtha to Luang Namtha, We will be out of touch a few days, but then...what the hell. You are all probably tired of hearing from us anyway. We have been walking and eating and sleeping and NOT SHOPPING!.... well not as much anyway. I think Kathmandu cured us of that for a while. Its just nice to be able to sleep and read and do nothing. Kyp and I (Shelley) stopped for foot massages yesterday and after about 45 minutes working on our feet and legs, they put us face down on beds and massaged our backs, shoulders and heads...all for $7! Such a deal !
We love you all and want you to take care.
Shelley and Muzzy

Subject: Luang Prabang
Date: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 2:41 AM
Well, we finally made it to Luang Prabang, Paris on the Mekong. It’s been an incredible few days of adventure and discovery. Crossed the Mekong at Chiang Khong to HuayXai, Laos. Met our guide, Xai (Sigh) and our boat crew (driver, navigator, wife and young son plus the teenaged daughter of the navigator...he sits in the bow with a sturdy oar and long bamboo pole to push off of rocks) and secured ourselves in our 3 foot by 45 foot canoe. Within the first half hour we were stranded on a submerged sandbar. Trousers rolled, we got out in the middle of the Mekong and helped push the boat free, hopped back in and promptly got stopped at the mouth of the Namtha with no power to the engine (a small 4 cylinder Toyota motor). The boatman disappeared up the bank and
came back with a new battery from we know not where...that wasn't the problem. He rebuilt the solenoid and starter with ancient tools...not the problem. Then he fixed the battery cable and we were on our way, about an hour late...and that is an issue on the Namtha.

We pulled into the boatman's village by flashlight after dark...the Namtha is rife with rapids and rocks and very low this time of year and an hour delay made a difference. Xai stood at he bow of the boat and held his flashlight over the water ahead. We made it. We scampered up the bank into the hillside village where we were given tiny little chairs (which Muzzy and Kyp promptly broke), warm Beer Lao, Lao Lao whiskey, and dinner, plus we were visited by all the young weavers. This time Shelley was ready for them!
Dinner consisted of the ubiquitous sticky rice, plus a bowl of greens and the piece de resistance, pork, buffalo and some chicken…we think. The headman came to the hut and smoked a cigar with Muzzy and we requested our beds. Not too bad, on the floor with neon colored Chinese quilts, actually quite toasty, mosquito nets for all (to keep out the centipedes!). In the morning we were invited to walk around the village. We bought more amazing textiles, Muzzy's camera was smokin', and about 8:30 we got in an even
smaller boat for the final leg of the journey.

It’s impossible to describe the wonder of the Lao jungle. Giant bamboo, karst mountain rising starkly to either side of the boat, small villages full of daily river life, water buffalo lounging and birds darting back and forth. It was magnificent...and then we came across some particularly rough rapids and lost the propeller...twice. The boatman stripped to his undies, dove in the river and by god he found the damn thing! He banged it back on with a rock and we were off. The river was VERY VERY low and we were the last boat to
make it in to Luang Namtha...whew!

Two days in Namtha, trekking through villages, visiting the morning market full of northern delicacies…deep fried bat, river kelp dried with sesame seeds as a snack food. We found some lovely textiles at a woman's co-op, all natural dyes, and great earrings and handwoven indigo dyed cotton from the Lienten village just outside the town. We recovered and enjoyed the Boat Landing Guest House....very nice folks...lovely setting, great traditional food and hot solar powered showers.

Left for Luang Prabang yesterday...seems like a lifetime ago...amazing ride over the ridges through Hmong villages perched impossibly on the narrow ridgetops...and into Luang Prabang which is like another world...its so beautiful here...those of us who were here last year will be happy to know the silk lady remembered us all and sends her regards. She invited us to lunch tomorrow to help celebrate her store’s years in business...I'm not sure how many years it was, but you can see that I probably spent way too much money with her already. Sarah...you will be happy to know I am using my Lao, and everyone is much impressed with me. Gang Lai to Mama!

So...Internet was down this morning. We leave for Thailand on Friday...Shelley is ill from spending so much money and making so many decisions.

We really do miss you all but would love to have you sitting on the banks of the Mekong with the warm breezes blowing around with us...Luang Prabang is getting quite ritzy, but it is soooooooooooooooo lovely, you only wish it well. The night market is much better this year...but maybe its me (Shelley).
Love to you all!
Shelley and Muzzy

Subject: Luang Prabang goodbye
Date: Thursday, January 25, 2007 4:56 AM

EEK! ACKK! ZOUNDS! We depart Laos tomorrow on Lao Air who will lift us out on a wing and a prayer, off to Bangkok. As soon as we arrive we'll book a train south to Surat Thani and then out to the island of Koh Phangan in the Gulf of Siam. Shelley left most of our money at the silk shop Sarah found for us last year....they have added an antique textile shop now...oh my god! The night market took whatever else we had, and we found the BEST mojitos in Laos...it was beer Lao and peanuts tonight. Visited many temples, found hidden mermaids and flying angels. This morning Muz and Kyp summitted Phosi
mountain at sunrise and paid respects at the temple there. There is a big temple "to do" tomorrow morning and for warm up there are drums and cymbals at 4 am...since we are staying across the street from the Wat, it’s pretty dramatic!
We’ll write again from the island...
Our love to all
Shell & Muz

Subject: Winding down
Date: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 7:13 PM

It's that alienating point of the trip where we hope everything isgoing ok back there ... not much we could do about it if it wasn't. We're actually ready to come home. Overall... we're doing fine in the throes of thisadventure. We do get emails that have kept us abreast of the winter weather many of you have been challenged with. Here...on this island....Been pretty stormy.. big big surf etc...monsoon-like rain off and on... Quite a boat ride over here from the next island. It's calmed down now and the sea has turned placid and turquoise. We're in a squid etc fishing village. Muz found a motorbike of sorts and has been exploring. It's jungley...coconut trees..banana trees...birds, monkeys. The weather goes from warm to hot. I know I know... poor us. We leave on Friday for Samui Island then Bangkok Air lifts us out back to Bangkok. Then we go up to Chiang Mai in the north for a couple of days. an overnight train ride through the jungle back to Bangkok, then back home through China. Its been an amazing journey, really full and fun and wonderful. Muz has been burning up the new camera and has some spectacular shots. Shelley has been shopping to exhaustion and Kyp has been a good sport about all of our peculiarities. We miss home and miss you all and look forward to pasta, salads and a cushy bed....NO SAND FLEAS! We look like refugees from a smallpox epidemic!
See you soon!
Love, Muz n Shell

Home

2008-01-23T08:45:00.000-08:00

Sigh....home. The bed was like heaven, the shower a miracle, the weather mid-January bright low traveling sun on a cold crisp day. And I am glad to be home, but already my mind is slipping back to the sly, mysterious last two weeks. I know some things now. Two weeks is not enough. It takes at least a week for your body to adjust to the rhythms of Southeast Asia, for you not to feel like a complete alien. By that time, its almost time to come home. After the romance wears off, I find I am still inamoured of Thailand and Laos. What is that?
Don't worry, Somchai. Even if I don't go back right away, I have thousands of stories. I could re-post some of my old travel writings...Nepal, Burma, Thailand and Laos....believe me, I have stories and the pictures to prove it.

Bangkok Redoux

2008-01-20T17:25:00.000-08:00

We left Luang Prabang at 8:00am, cold and foggy. The young man at the Sayo forgot to order our van so we were running a little behind and tried to negotiate with the other boys but they were on Lao time so we settled for a tuk tuk, Lao style and were dropped outside the entrance to the airport because the driver didn't have permission to go all the way in. As I shivered in the cold, Sarah roundly berated the young man in Lao about the price he charged us and the advantage he took of us. We just kept thinking about what Du, Sarah's Thai co-worker, said about merit and how the blessing is on the giver. Kristen kept saying that perhaps he would buy his wife a new sinh(skirt) and pay his children's school tuition with the money.

I miss the moderate temperature of the mountains here in Bangkok. We spent our first night in BKK at the restaurant overlooking the new Rama V bridge. The name means something like "cool breezes and view of the bridge". Its good to say what you mean. Muzzy and I discovered it last year when we were here. It is a very nice restaurant for middle class young Thais and a place where Thai people take their falang friends. The food is fantastic, unfortunately I was still a little behind the girls in my appetite recovery, but Sarah ordered for us and I managed to get down some of the yummy twiced fried fish stuff that she has a real name for, OH MY GOD it is so good! After a shower, I gratefully collapsed in the New Siam and geared myself for the final push of shopping at Chatuchak on Sunday.

Du met us at Ricky's Sunday morning and after waiting for the cooks to arrive so we could have something besides coffee(it was, after all, Sunday morning!), we headed out to the market. There was actually less humidity and it seemed cooler to me than the week before. Of course, all of that is only an illusion when you step into the warren of asiles in the great shopping mecca of Chatuchak. I had a mission and two Thai speakers. It was a much better experience. I made my purchases, had an iced tea at the little bar in the midst of the market, ate lunch at the somtam and gai yang stand, shopped more and headed back to the hotel for another shower and repacking in prep for the journey home. I suppose it is a chore to come and do this, but it is also an adventure, no matter how brief. We played cards in the lobby of the New Siam and headed out to our little alley restaurant, Jok Pochana, where we had clams in basil, chilis and garlic, squid in red curry, pak boon, mixed veggies and rice. And while theThai food at home is good, none of it is as good as sitting in the squalor of BKK on the side of a klong while cars and motorbikes drive right through your restaurant, katoey's get hair makeovers in the mani-pedi salon across the lane, traffic roars by at the end of the alley on a busy Bangkok night, and you try to figure out how the seating works for the little food stalls. I am ready to come home. I miss my soft bed and powerful shower, but I think it will only be a short time until I miss Southeast Asia again. Maybe the mosquitos have innoculated me with an addictive venom that makes me want to come again and again.

Fried Fish and Bats

2008-01-16T01:29:00.000-08:00

Its all about the food. Baguettes smeared with Laughing Cow cheese, grilled chicken, tiny tomatoes, long slices of cucumber and carrot, chilis, topped with Dipping for Chicken. Searching for real "Cafe Lao" and trying to explain that we want the kind with real sweetened condensed milk in the bottom. Why is this so difficult? It never was this difficult before. Is it just that there are so many falang now that we just get what they think we should have? It is preverse logic. The night food market is down a grimy alley lined with long tables, precarious benches that kill your knees, and portable barbeques with smoke from slabs of organ meats, chicken and fish. We point to a crispy fish that the woman puts back on the grill to heat up and eat it with a side of khao niaw, fresh spring rolls, and a bottle of Beer Lao. Yesterday it was pho at a table across the way from our guesthouse. A big bowl of fresh noodles on top of chopped veggies, cilantro and mint, peanuts and hot broth. We eat with chopsticks and spoons looking across the table at a bowl of congealed blood squares, an option to add that we decline. I finally found a fruit shake without added sugar and salt. Now I know to ask them to leave these out.

This morning we walked through the local morning vegetable market. Fresh long beans, water cress, mustard greens, unfamiliar herbs and suddenly it turns sinister; bowls of small crawling crickets, individual servings of worms on their own banana leaf, ready for packaging, and then there is a cat stretched out that looks vaguely like a regular housecatbut is really a small ocelot. It is an expensive item that draws interest but no buyers. Rounding the corner there are shallow pans of slithering live eel, gasping fish neatly laid in rows on a table next to one huge grouper-like behemoth, a cluster of live bats are struggling to get away, and the cooked bodies of small birds and rats finish out the bizzare foods section. We hurry by, on our way to coffee, clutching our can of condensed milk and trying not to linger except to buy 2 limes and a bunch of the tiny bananas that taste like heaven.

Its been one of those Traveller Tummy days.

Luang Prabang

2008-01-14T17:12:00.000-08:00

Foggy, chilly, damp, inadequately clothed. Luang Prabang has both changed and not. The Night Market has another incarnation that runs right in front of our guesthouse. It meanders all around the old Royal Palace now and last night we discovered the food market down a dank alley. Yummmm! We moved from the cramped, noisy Sayo Riverside to the old Sayo and the lavishly roomy upstairs corner "family room". I am deposited up the scary staircase to the loft bed. That way I can snore to my heart's content and listen to the slightly ominous whistle of the electric water heater housed up here with me. The bathroom is big enough to swing a cat in, as my grandmother would say, that is, if you are inclined to swinging cats. This is a luxurious thing in Laos....large bathrooms, not swinging cats.

Luang Prabang retains all of its charm, though you must pay more for it now. The beers are ridiculously cheap, perhaps to offset the sting of the price of a room. Building and rebuilding is everywhere. Prosperity abounds, as do French, German and Thai tourists. The silk is still beautiful, the food even better, if you work to find traditional Lao food. The views of the Mekong are still stunning at sunset and mysterious at sunrise. I am grateful to be here. I am happy in this place.

Chatuchak Weekend Market

2008-01-12T05:10:00.000-08:00

The city is clothed in black for the mandatory 30 day mourning period for the King's sister. Chatuchak is as busy as ever. It is hot, humid and hard to believe that I left 32 degree weather to find myself drenched after the first 5 minutes outside the AC room at the New See-am II. 93 degrees, 100% humidity. Anything you want at the weekend market. After 2 hours I have to stop and refuel and after 3 hours I am suffering the first effects of dehydration. We stop for lunch right as I begin to realize I can';t make one more decision. Lunch is delicious...somtam, khao niew, gai yang, cold cold water, cries of the kanom krock vendor in my ear, high sing song pleas for one more sale, someone in a cartoon character suit strutting up and down the uncovered asile that separates the sections of the steamy tin roofed market. How hot he must be, it is impossible to comprehend. The market swings into full blown mid-day action...colors, textures, throngs of people so thick you have to walk sideways clutching your bags, the sweat pouring off your skin, trying to remember to drink more water. I suddenly realize I have reached my limit as my stomach cramps and my head begins to explode. Sarah and Du deposit me in the back of an air con taxi with multiple admonitions to the driver to use the meter, to get me back to the hotel safely.

My second shower of the day. I lay like a loaf of sodden bread in my phasin, waiting for the AC and fan to do their work. I drink more water. I read. Then its back downstairs into the heat. Its an illusion, lying there and thinking that this time you won't be so hot when you step outside the room. A bit more conversation, a fruit shake, dress for dinner, and out again. After dinner the others take a stroll down Saturday night on Kao San. I opt for the banana roti and a walk back to the hotel, my room, and one more shower.

Tomorrow is Laos and I hope it will be cooler, at least at night.

Bangkok

2008-01-10T16:21:00.000-08:00

Early Friday morning Bangkok. Wat Po and the Reclining Buddha. I can't believe I've been here so many times and never done the tourist things, but getting OUT of Bangkok has always been our first priority. Fighting jetlag all the way, we hopped a river taxi and made our way down the choppy churning Chao Praya. The wat itself is just a few metres away from the pier. What a magnificent temple! Huge spires of mosaic shoot up to the moon and giant Chinese warrior guardians abound. The Reclining Buddha rests magnificently in a building covered with paintings of the lives of the Buddha. The constant clink clink clink of coin offerings being dropped into bowls accompanies us as we circumambulate his peaceful figure. His massive feet are completely inlaid with mother of pearl and the symbols sacred to the dharma.

We found the massage center in its in temporary quarters and sat under an obliging tree to wait our turn. Traditional Thai massage is taught at Wat Po. Sarah and I went in together, me to much laughing as they give me a pair of loose pants to wear and I indicated that they may not be so loose on me. I mime to my masseuse, a small compact little man, that I am having trouble with my thumb and have some tenderness in my ankle. I think he thought I needed MORE work on those sore areas so he doggedly ground his way into my thumb until I had tears in my eyes. He then gestured for me to move it around and by god that thumb felt better than it had in weeks...but I think the secret of Thai massage is the relief you feel when they end the torture! On the whole I felt much better when we were done. It was a miracle! No backache, no ankle distress and a moveable thumb!
It was nap time.

Traveling with Sarah is a treat. She is fearless about finding little holes in the wall to eat and we had a delicious meal in an alley off a klong...green lipped clams, tom ka and pak boon! Today we are off to see the Emerald Buddha and some shopping at the Thieves Market, sometimes called the Amulet Market. Elephants and Buddhas abound!

I miss my Muzzy. Bangkok is hot, humid, conjested, and dirty. We leave for Luang Prabang Sunday mornimg. Chautuchak is tomorrow. Sawadee ka!

Another Journey

2008-01-01T11:04:00.000-08:00

This is a new thing, this "blog". Since Muz and I send copious emails home every time we travel, we thought this might be easier to read and post. etc., so I'm going to give it a try. Up until this year, I have never traveled without Mr. Muzzy. I'm going to miss him. This is a shopping trip, short, a dry run to see just how this works. I'll be in Bangkok for 3 days, in Luang Prabang, Laos, for 5, and back to Bangkok to finish up shopping and head for home. I leave January 8th, return January 22nd. Sarah is meeting me in Bangkok and will be my trusty shopping partner. I am excited to see what we find!