Pai Mai Lao 2555

This is now Buddhist year 2555. In Lao they practice Theravada Buddhism, which is one of the main types of Buddhism, and is the dominant type in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.

In the English language Vientiane Times, which is published by the government, they had a couple of comments regarding Pai Mai Lao, or the Lao New Year:

"Everyone has the right to put soot on a person's face to indicate they had some deficiency or that their behavior was inappropriate in spirit and word. Instead of putting soot on another person's face they often use flour, which usually goes over the face, in the hair and on the clothes, mixing with the water which is usually already there.

"Visiting a temple over Pai Mao Lao helps to set people free from their daily worries and should bring them health, happiness and good fortune in the year to come. Laura heeded this advice at Wat Si Muang.

After going to Wat Si Muang, Laura was looking at cloth to buy and this salesman was particularly insistent.

Life In Lao

Yesterday during lunch at the Talad Sal Market we were watching an overhead TV and a television advertisement caught Laura’s attention. The advertisement showed a modernly dressed Laotian woman washing clothes in the backyard of her house in a large wash tub. She was scrubbing away, and her hands were becoming red and irritated. The hands suddenly became animated showing the pain she was feeling in them. Then her husband and two children appear from the house and they are smiling with an idea. Laura thinks that they are either going to help her wash the clothes, or buy her a washing machine. No! They are going to buy her a different brand of bar laundry soap. Such is life in Laos.

Songkan - Lao New Year

Lao new year is celebrated every year from April 13 to 15. This afternoon from our hotel room we could hear music and singing so Laura decided to investigate. After half an hour Laura came back to the hotel soaking wet. She had found the party. It was at the Lao National Theater and it was a party the afternoon before the staff headed home to their villages for New Year. The theater people played music,sung, drank and danced the afternoon away. The party ended at 5pm as the people left for their homes.

We only stayed for about an hour. But, it was long enough to be completely drenched.


As Wikipedia put it "Tourists that plan to travel to Laos during the New Year are advised to be prepared to be soaked. This has an important role in Laotian culture - they are not only wishing a long and healthy life for themselves, they are also wishing the same for others."

Pommes Frites

Yesterday we went to the U.S. Embassy to get pages added to Laura’s passport. When Jim did it in January, 2010, in Chaing Mai, Thailand, it was free. Now, it costs $82.00. We gagged over the price to tape a few new pages into the passport but it was cheaper than getting a new passport. So, we did it. You can no longer drop in on the U.S. Embassy, you have to go online and schedule an appointment to have them see you.

After the embassy we went to the National Museum, which extolled the fight for freedom in Lao, from the communist perspective.

Here, we bought some woven fabric to hang on the wall from around Xam Neua in Hua Phan province, and Laura bought a silk Laotian skirt. We went to the market after going to the U.S. Embassy to look for Fabric to get a skirt made, actually Laura did, while Jim stood around. But, at the museum, Laura determined that it was a better deal to buy the skirt already made. She bought a very nice silk skirt.

The market is next to the local bus station and there we saw these glorified golf carts that are used for city buses, complete with the route number on front. Jim really liked the open air version.

Last night we went to Dao Fa bar for happy hour. Wine during happy hour is only $1.25 per glass. The bar is owned by a Frenchman, and is quite nice. We sat in the open air bar, drinking our wine, eating fried potatoes, and staring at the Western Union sign across the street.

The red wine was served slightly chilled, like it is supposed to be served, and at which it is rarely served. Maybe the French do know something about wine. After the first glass of wine Laura ordered pommes freits thinking the french fries might be listed in French, but when she asked for pommes freits, the waiter replied ”You want an order of french-fries?”. So much for our foreign language skills.

That Dam Stupa

We found the hotel we stayed in sixteen years ago. It’s located on the other side of the main Rue (street in English, Lao being a former French colony, there are no streets, only Rues) running parallel to the Mekong River. Jim remembered where it was by the big radio antenna next to it. We went in the hotel and talked with an Australian professor who, when he comes to Vientiane stays in the hotel, and has been staying there for twenty years. The hotel is the Day Inn Lao Hotel, and is French owned. The restaurant where we found the Laotian woman whose family lived in Liberal, Kansas, is gone, and in its place is a big hotel. The Rues leading up to the hotel are now paved, sixteen years ago they were dirt.

On the way we stopped by a temple so Laura could photograph and met a monk who had lived in San Francisco, California. He was going to be a monk for a week so his parents could go to heaven. Apparently if you do not serve as a monk sometime during your life, your parents will not enter heaven. His father had recently died so he was making sure his father would go to heaven.

We also went to Patuxai, which is also known as "The Vertical Runway”. This monument was built by the Lao government using money and cement which the U.S. provided to build a runway, hence the name. When we were here before the area around the monument was dirt. Now, it is the most popular park in Vientiane.

This is a sign on the wall describing the building: "From a closer distance, it appears even less impressive, like a monster of concrete"..

The final stop was That Dam Stupa.

Here's the Wikipedia article on it: "The That Dam is a large stupa in Vientiane, Laos. Many Laotians believe it is inhabited by a seven headed nāga who tried to protect them from the armies of Siam, who invaded in 1827. It is also known as the Black Stupa, the English translation of the Lao name "That Dam"."

Jim likes the English pronunciation of the name, which seems to be his feeling toward seeing all these temples and stupas.

In Vientiane, Laos

We are in Vientiane, Laos. To get here we took a two hour bus ride from Udon Thani. The border crossing was a breeze thanks to us getting our Laos visa in Bangkok. We had to show our visa in order to buy the bus tickets from Udon to Vientiane, and then again at the border.

Vientiane has changed quite a bit since our last visit sixteen years ago. There are so many new buildings that we can’t figure out where we stayed before. Here there are a lot more female farangs than in Udon. In Udon whenever we saw an American, British or Australina man, he was either with his Thai wife (temporary or permanent variety), his Thai boy, or with other men. Here the men are quite often with European looking women. Laura doesn’t feel like such an oddity.

The first thing Laura did after arriving at the bus station in downtown Vientiane was to get her nails done by a woman walking around the station carrying her own water and supplies. It cost just over a dollar.

Last night we went to a free showing of the silent film "Chang", which had been filmed in Lao in 1927, back when Laos was part of French Indochina. A screen had been set up along the riverfront where they had also built coliseum type seating on the side of the river. This was all new since our last visit. The area is still under construction, having been started two years ago. There is also an active night market along the river. The movie was subtitled in both French and Laotian. The orchestra accompanying the movie played traditional Laotian instruments and Laotian music.

In Udon Thani

We took a ten hour train ride from Bangkok to Udon Thani. From here we are going to take a bus to Lao. We arrived after dark and as we walked out of the train station, the first sight was a huge night market, with a bright orange McDonald’s sign shining over it all. Naturally, we had to get an ice cream cone for 7 Baht (less than 25 cents). After we got off the train we saw people climbing all over the train, including the roof, with flashlights, checking it out and probably looking for bombs.

This town is the major commercial hub for NE Thailand and since the bombings in the Southern Thailand, the country has been on high alert. The paper is reporting that the explosion in Hat Yai was a car bomb parked in the Lee Plaza Hotel’s underground parking lot, which caused an even bigger gas explosion. We instantly recognized the area because it showed McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken neon signs next to the bombing. I’m sure the ATM which I used to get Thai Baht to go on our cruise suffered heavy damage as it was right next to the explosion.

During the Vietnam War, this town had U.S. air bases nearby. B-52s flew from this are to bomb North Vietnam. Our friend Doug was partially based here during the war, and Laura’s brother in law, George, flew in and out of here. The town still has a very large number of farangs here, who seem to be mostly pot-bellied men with their Thai wives. This is a booming economic area of Thailand. Our hotel is right next to the largest shopping center in town and is also on the street known as Soi Farang because of all the bars and sex tourism opportunities on it. The guidebook used the term “sex tourism opportunities”, which I thought was a great euphemism.

When you travel on the train in Thailand, at the stops people get on to sell you food. For supper on the train we bought a whole skewered chicken. It had been pressed flat and skewered on two flat sticks then cooked over charcoal. It was really good. Here, when you buy a cooked whole chicken, you get a whole chicken. The chicken came with both feet and the head attached.

For our last lunch in Bangkok we ate at Mos Burger, which labels itself as “Japanese Fine Burger & Coffee”. Their slogan is “Making People happy Through Food”. The best thing about Mos Burger is that they serve a lot of their burgers on buns made of pressed white rice, so Laura can eat the bun. This time they added Lettuce Burgers to their menu. These burgers are served between two large pieces of lettuce, with no bun at all. Laura was quite happy with her lettuce burger.

After the Mos Burger we went to Patty’s Fiesta for margaritas during happy hour. Laura had previously talked to the tall, deep-throated, short-skirted adam-appled, waitress named Fen about the cost of drinks during happy hour. So, this time we went. The restaurant has been on Silom Road for thirteen years and has nightly Mexican music performed by a Filipino band. And, like most Mexican restaurants, it has a religious statue in a corner of the bar, although this statue is a very garlanded Ganesh rather than Jesus, and Fen, lit joss sticks to place in front of it, rather than candles. This is Fen.

Benjamin and Dagmar were staying at our hotel. He is from London and she's from Austria.