SE Asia Trip, Part 12 - Bandar Seri Begawan

18/03/09 - 19/03/09

After my trip into the jungle it was time for a bit of a rest. One thing I noticed about Brunei was how hot it was! Even though it was probably around the same temperature in Laos I rarely saw the sun there, but in Brunei the sun was baring down and the sky bright blue. I'd gotten used to the Laos haze so it was weird for the day to be so bright.

I decided to go out for an evening stroll again, as I wanted to take some photos of the famous mosque, Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque. I'd noticed it all lit up the night before and I wanted to capture it's magnificence.

The mosque is surrounded by gardens and a lagoon.

The ceremonial boat in the lagoon - not sure what this is for?

Across the lagoon.

I went back in the daytime to see what the mosque looked like in daylight.

Personally I prefer the night time look, but it is still stunning.

After wandering around for a while in the morning, I eventually found the Royal Regalia Museum. The signposts weren't very helpful! This museum houses many gifts from around the world, given to the Sultan of Brunei. There were some stunning pieces, including the royal chariot. Unfortunately photography wasn't allowed and I had to check my camera in. I did like the mandatory walking around barefoot though - my shoes were killing me!

The Royal Regalia Building.

I also wanted to visit the Brunei Museum - the national museum. For some reason, however, this museum is about 6km outside the city centre. I managed to catch a bus out there, and the locals on the bus were very helpful in getting the driver to stop in the right place for me.

The museum was separated into different halls. I enjoyed the exhibit of Islamic Art, the historical timeline of Brunei, and the natural history hall was quite interesting too.

The only problem with this museum is that it is so far away from town. The buses seemed to be pretty sporadic and after waiting a while I decided to walk back. On the way I stopped at the Tomb of Sultan Bolkiah, the 5th Sultan of Brunei, who ruled during the country's Golden Age. His tomb lies where the original capital city is believed to have been, on the banks of the Brunei River.

The Tomb of Sultan Bolkiah.

The view on the way back to Bandar Seri Begawan.

It was a pretty long and hot walk back. Luckily I didn't have to walk the whole way, as a porshe suddenly pulled up beside me and an English woman offered me a lift back to town. I happily accepted. She had been working in Brunei for a couple of years but was going back to the UK shortly. She dropped me off outside the Handicraft Centre as I wanted to check it out too. That was not hugely exciting though, full of overpriced handicrafts and ornaments.

That was about it for my short time in Brunei. I would recommend it as a stopover destination if you've got plenty of money, are travelling as a couple or family, and don't mind package tours. It really isn't geared up for the independent budget traveller. At least the museums are free!

SE Asia Trip, Part 8 - Luang Prabang, the Third Attempt

09/03/09 - 12/03/09

And it's back in Luang Prabang for the third time! This time I will be riding elephants and learning how to weave!

I booked a half day elephant ride through Tiger Trails. There are a lot of places in Luang Prabang offering elephant rides, but not all of them are reputable places or treat their animals well. Tiger Trails is a pretty well established company who operate under the Fair Trek community-based tourism logo. They work with the Elephant Village, about 15km outside LP on the banks of the Nam Khan. It was originally established in 2003, by a German I believe. There are 8 elephants in the village, most rescued after being injured whilst working in the logging industry. They are all kept healthy and looked after by a specialist vet. The Elephant Village is endorsed by Stay Another Day, an initiative which promotes sustainable tourism in Laos and Cambodia.

The group I went with consisted of a Canadian couple and 4 Germans, so once again I was the single one! When I arrived at the Elephant Village I also met a couple who I'd met earlier in Muang Ngoi.

An earlier group riding their elephants through the river.

As the rest of my group came in twos, they all shared elephants. I was the odd one out, so I got my own! We climbed onto the elephants from a specially constructed platform. Each elephant was also ridden by a Mahout, who knew the elephant really well. My Mahout was a young guy but he had been doing this job for 5 years. You can check out all the elephants here.

Me riding an elephant!

Didn't feel hugely safe going down such a steep hill, but we made it!

Wading through the river!

I was the first person to try riding on the elephant's neck. The mahout seemed perfectly happy lazing around in the seat and playing with my camera!

Heading back up to camp.

After our ride, we helped to feed the elephants. They definitely eat a lot!

We were also provided with yummy lunch at the Elephant Village Eco Lodge, before heading back to Luang Prabang. It was a fun morning, though I wish I hadn't worn such light colours, I was filthy by the time I'd finished. They also run full day and overnight trips, and Mahout courses where you can learn a bit more about the elephants. We were supposed to go to Tad Sae waterfall as well, but apparently it is all dried up at this time of year.

The rest of the day I spent enjoying LP and meeting up with the other two girls I'd left in Muang Ngoi as well as two of the German guys I'd met on the elephant trip.

Over the next two days I'd enrolled in a weaving course. The aim was to make a traditional Lao silk scarf. The course is run by Ock Pop Tok, a Lao textile gallery and weaving centre founded by a Lao weaver and an English photographer in 2000. It provides sustainable employment to rural weavers. The centre itself is in a gorgeous garden location a wee bit out of the main centre of town. The course is quite expensive, but well worth it I thought.

The first half of the day involved learning to dye silk. There was only me and one other woman on the course. We had an interpreter, a young guy named Morn who was studying English at Uni. He was a really nice guy and very helpful. He first told us about the how the silk was made and dyed, and the origins of weaving. Then we got to choose some silk and what natural dyes we wanted to use.

Making my dyes!

We were learning how to make natural dyes. I chose tarragon root (yellow), sappan tree bark (purple) and some kind of berries (orange).

The range of colours you can get from the natural ingredients found in the Centre's garden.

The other participant was only there for the morning, so that left me on my own for the rest of the course - making it even better value as these people were solely focused on teaching me. They made me a yummy Lao lunch and then I got to choose two colours for my scarf and learnt to spin the silk onto the spools. I chose a blue-grey colour for the base and a pinkish colour for the pattern.

I was introduced to my teacher, a Lao lady who spoke no English (hence the need for an interpreter). She showed me how to work the loom and make the pattern. It was quite difficult but I eventually got into a rhythm. By the end of the day I'd done about a third, with a bit of help!

Before heading to the weaving class the next day I got up early to watch the Monks collect alms. This happens early every morning in Luang Prabang and is a big tourist attraction, although it really only involves the locals. We just stand around and watch. There are a lot of rules about not getting too close to take photos etc. I stood on the other side of the road and watched, well away from the snap-happy tourists.

After that I headed up Mount Phousi to check out the views. Unfortunately there really wasn't much of a view as the whole of LP is blanked in smog at this time of year.

The entrance of the Royal Palace, from the gates of Mount Phousi.

Random Buddha statues dot the mountain.

Yey, naga statues!

I spent the rest of the day finishing my scarf. Unfortunately lunch today wasn't so great - mushroom soup and fermented fish - yuk! But at least there was plenty of sticky rice!

I was pretty proud of my finished scarf - the edges weren't perfect, but it wasn't bad for a first attempt. I haven't taken a photo yet of the finished piece. It was hard work but well worth the effort to actually say I learnt to weave, Lao-style!

In the evening, my friend and I went to see the cultural performance at the Children's Cultural Centre. I saw something similar before in Vientiane, but actually I preferred this one. The kids were great and it was quite interactive too. They started with a Baci ceremony where they greeted everybody in the audience and tied white strings around our wrists and gave us food and water.

The Baci ceremony.

Some of the young performers.

There were some lovely dances, full of energy and fun. There was also a puppet show in Lao, depicting the legend of Pi Mai Lao or Lao New Year celebrations. Luckily we were given a leaflet to explain what was happening! It was pretty funny though!

Well, that's it for Luang Prabang. After the show I spent way too much money in the night market buying souvenirs and gifts, and got a great Lao massage before heading to bed. It was up early the next morning to head to Vang Vieng. My trip is almost over!

SE Asia Trip, Part 4 - Luang Prabang, the First Attempt

25/02/09 - 27/02/09

After checking in and making myself look and feel a bit more human, I decided to take a wander up the main street of Luang Prabang. The main 'old town' part of Luang Prabang is a thumb shaped piece of land, with the Mekong river on one side and the Nam Khan flowing around to meet it. It was very hot, though not as bad as Vientiane, so I headed to the Royal Palace Museum where I could do some sightseeing away from the heat (seems to be a pattern of mine now...)

The Royal Palace was built between 1904 and 1909 after the previous one was destroyed during the Black Flag invasion. It is a mix of Lao and French styles of architecture. The monarchy lived here until 1975 when it was dissolved and Communism took over. The Palace was turned into a museum - which is a much better fate than being knocked down.

I wasn't allowed to take my camera inside, which was a shame as there were some really nice things. I really like the mosaic on the walls - it portrayed scenes of typical Lao life - and seeing the King and Queen's rooms, which looked apparently just as they did when they were occupied. There were also displays of gifts the monarchy had received and clothes they had worn.

Outside I chatted to a Lao man who worked at the Museum for a while. He was trying to convince me to move to Luang Prabang - think they might need to pay their nurses a wee bit more before I consider that! Then I had a look around the gardens, on the edge of which was a temple. Presumably this is where the Royal Family would go to worship.

I couldn't get inside but I did look around the outside - again it had some cool naga statues.

It was still too hot to attempt walking up Mt Phousi, so I headed to the riverside instead. There are a couple of restaurants along the river banks but it has nothing of the atmosphere of Vientiane.

The next day I was up early to get a head start on the day. I had problems changing my travellers cheques because my current signature doesn't exactly match the one on my EIGHT YEAR OLD passport, but eventually found somebody who would change it with my much more up-to-date driver's licence. I decided to spend the day seeing the city sights, which basically meant another day of temple-seeing.

To be honest I got bored of looking at temples fairly quickly, but the next few photos are from Wat Xieng Thong, one of the most historically important temples in Luang Prabang. It was founded in the 16th century by King Setthathilat and was spared during the Black Flag invasion because the leader of the invasion, Deo Van Tri, had been a novice monk there. He used the temple as his headquarters instead!

The temple is classic Luang Prabang architecture - apparently that's when the roofs sweep low to the ground.

On the back of the building above is a gorgeous mosaic depicting the Tree of Life, Buddhist style.

During the late afternoon I took a walk around the peninsula. I could see orange clad monks bathing in the Nam Khan river. There were a few very rickety looking bridges spanning the Nam Khan - but I wasn't too keen on crossing them!

Found some more nagas on the way home!

I spent the evening looking at all the pretty handicrafts at the night market and watching a movie at a cafe-slash-bookshop called l'Etranger. They have a funky room upstairs decked out with comfy floor cushions and a big screen TV. Yummy food (Western and Lao) and Beer Lao too!

The next day I decided to grab a slow boat ticket up the Mekong to the Pak Ou Caves. There must have been about 60-70 people waiting at the boat landing for the skippers to shepherd us down in groups of 6 to their waiting boats.

Here's our skipper - boy they hire them young here!

A common sight on the Mekong (looks pretty much like the photos from my last post!)

The Pak Ou caves are literally in the side of the cliffs on the bank of the river. They bring the boats up to some wooden pallets floating on the river and you clamber out and up some steep steps to the caves. On the way up the first thing I saw was this sign - if you can work out what it was trying to say you're smarter than me!

There are 2 main caves at Pak Ou, the lower one chockablock full of Buddha images, large and small. Apparently there are about 2500 sculptures inside. These caves have been spiritually significant even before the rise of Buddhism, when local people worshipped river spirits there. The Lao Royal Family used to come on pilgrimages here on Buddhist holidays. Now, however, they are mostly a tourist attraction and unfortunately I think the local river spirits are long gone.

The upper cave is a fair walk up some concrete pathways, populated with small children trying to sell the freedom of small caged birds. A big seated Buddha dominates the entrance, silently watching the tourists flock in and out.

The upper cave is much longer, bigger and darker and stupidly I forgot to bring my torch so I have no decent photos to show for my trip up there. After a quick look around I headed back to the boat.

On the way back the boat stopped off at a 'traditional' Lao village. There was basically a pathway to follow leading us around several market stalls selling the usual handicrafts, which I ignored for the touristy gimmick it was. There was also an interesting display of Lao alcohol and insects in jars - tried a bit of Lao rice wine, which was absolutely disgusting.

While the rest of the group wandered around the village I sat on the beach and took in the scenery, a much more pleasant way to spend my time I thought.

I got back to Luang Prabang at about lunchtime and had been planning on visiting the local waterfalls, but really I just wanted to be lazy and soak up the surroundings, as the next day I would be leaving Luang Prabang for a while to head to Phonsavan and the Plain of Jars!