The Skylab
There are almost no classical Tuk Tuks in Laos. Looking at state of the roads in Laos, it is no wonder why. Except for the main roads, most roads are unpaved, rocky tracks.
With those tiny wheels and bad suspension, they would break pretty quickly.
So, instead, there is the Skylab!1
It looks like a massive motorbike with broad all-terrain tires (depending on the area) and the latter part of that bike replaced with a colourful wagon with two tiny benches left and right, pretty much like a “song thaew”.
Of course, no Skylab is complete without adding lotsa colourful lights, shiny stickers and the most important thing: A hammock in the wagon-area to relax while waiting for customers. Just for the latter, it is so much cooler than a standard Tuk Tuk! :-)
1 No, I have no idea why it is called that way. Sometimes they are called Jumbos as well, that nickname is more comprehensible. It can transport up to 6 people instead of 2.
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Welcome to Laos
You know you are in Laos when you see…
Laotian public garbage bins made from old tires.
…and…
The (in)famous Lao Lao, homemade liquour. In the back: Fried bats.
Both were offered to me when I made a stop during a motorbike ride through the countryside. I only tried the former ;-)
Langer Lulatsch Kleiner Dotz
It is interesting to see the little differences in the breeds of livestock and pets that are prevalent here.
Many cats have just a stub of a tail. Otherwise they are pretty much the same as European cats, only that most are smaller and more shy. But those may very well be young cats (stray cats don’t live that long and reproduce faster).
Chickens sport much longer legs and generally look more dangerous than the meaty European version. Though I think there are two main breeds here, one more chubby and one more chicken-fighty version cause the latter really acts more aggressive (yes, they also do it here).
By the way, if not currently “busy” being sold at the market or being slaughtered, most do run around in village (and town) freely. Just like all the other animals actually: stray cats, dogs, ducks, goose, cows, water buffaloes etc.
Especially in villages, there are loads of ducks, most of which I saw in Vietnam.
The regional differences in South East Asia are also interesting. On the topic of street dogs, I got the impression that there are much bigger ones in Laos than in Thailand (~no street dogs in Vietnam, they eat them). Also, more are black in colour rather than ochre and like in Vietnam, more dogs have ridiculously short legs. Look at this one:
Comment if you did get the reference from the title ;-)
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Galaxy Grotto
In Nimh Binh in Vietnam, I heard about that there is quite an impressive cave 25km from the city. This was a great opportunity to try out a new flashlight I bought. Since the cave wasn’t mentioned in my travel guide or any map I had, it turned out to be more difficult than imagined to get there. Mainly because I completely underestimated the distance to the cave:
On the first day, I attempted to go there by bicycle after I visited a few other spots that I only found out about by looking at my offline-version of the openstreetmap.
To reach there, I had to go about 15 kilometres on national highway 1A (and then another 10 km to the cave) with the bicycle, which was quite stressful as the highway is quite busy with trucks and one has to evade pedestrians and other motos and bikes coming from the opposite direction (but driving on the wrong side of the highway) all the time.
It took so much time that on reaching Tam Diep, I decided to give up because I calculated that I will never reach the cave and come back from the cave before dark. Urk, so 15km back on the highway. It was the right decision though because as it turned out the cave is even further away than I thought and also one cannot just go in there by oneself but has to get a guide and a boat from the ferry boat station. Something that wouldn’t have been available at 8 o’clock in the night.
So, on the second day, I got a mototaxi to take me there and back. Since I chartered the ferry and guide (I was the only one there) that took me through the cave, it was okay that I took the mototaxi driver with me :-).
The first cave, the Galaxy Grotto, was well lit (in the sense that it looked nice, not that it was bright) which made the photos look halfway sharp but also dimmed the effect of the flashlight on the photo.
By the time we entered the second cave (Buddha cave), which was not lighted, the inner lens of my camera was so fogged from the humidity in the previous cave that I couldn’t make proper photos anymore. Given the quality of my snapshot-camera and the fact that we were on a moving boat, I probably couldn’t have anyway.
And, I mapped it! As most other things I encounter during my travels actually but anyhow.
In case you don’t know about it yet, there have been added two improvements on openstreetmap.org which make it much easier to contribute to the map recently:
- There is an easy-to-use HTML5 in-browser editor for openstreetmap now called iD.
- Without registering, it is possible to add notes to the map (e.g. “this road is a oneway street south”, “the bridge is called XYZ”), much like the discussion tab in the Wikipedia
It is only a matter of time now until you can add these notes to the map using popular apps for your smartphone.
Bonsai trees
Bonsai tree near Tam Coc. Love it, can I have one for home? They are a popular decoration at temples and monasteries as well.
How to extend your stay in Vietnam
Easy.
Rent, or even buy a motorbike!
The time you spend in Vietnam will seem so much longer – and more worthwile.
I actually met a German in Hoi An who bought a Honda Minsk (he paid 250$) for his one-month stay in Vietnam.
One day before leaving Vietnam, I decided to rent a motorbike to explore Hue and vicinity. Riding a motorbike and thus not being dependent on other people for transportation is already a worthwile experience in its own right. But also, on this day I experienced so many genuine things way away from the “tourist attractions” that I will certainly remember this day until the end of my life.
Driving in cities is challenging at least (gosh, do they ever stay on their side of the road?), but I could always go slower then and most of the trip I drove around rural areas and villages.
Also, already few kilometers from the traveller hotspots is enough distance to avoid most of the hassle one is normally confronted with in Vietnam. It was lovely to meet Vietnamese that had so little interest in getting money out of me but instead showed hospitality and treated me like a normal person. :-)
Market in some village near Hue. The canvas covers often hang so low that as an European one constantly has to duck while walking through such open-air markets.
This is how the typical village temple (in Hue region) looks like. This temple is very new, chances are that the whole construction minus the ornaments are cast out of concrete.
While admiring the temple, I was invited inside for a tea by the people there. They also had this machine for making incense sticks.
A common sight on the road: A fisher net. It is simply lowered into the river and after some time pulled out again, containing all the fishes that were swimming over the net at that time.
Fisher boat on the beach near Hue
Chickens at the market. I might become a vegetarian after what I’ve seen in Vietnam…
Moi
Just some schoolchildren
Siesta
Every town in Vietnam will have a small market that is open every day with more or less fixed stalls in a roofed building. The market is the commercial heart of the town.
At noon until late afternoon however, the market goes to sleep. In Ninh Binh, I walked through the market at that time and saw this:
(So, how many did you count? ;-) )
Noon to late afternoon is the time sitting down at one of the plenty cafés or drink stalls, talking with your friends and colleagues and sometimes play games while being there.
A drink stall on wheels. Not on the picture are the tiny chairs and tables he pulled out of his trunk.
Apart from Vietnamese chess and cardgames, horse-themed Ludo (“Mensch ärgere dich nicht” in German) and Domino are played. All can be played for money.
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Architecture
Taking a break from those heavyweight posts with a lot of text to read, here is a typical modern family home in an unusual environment (at a rural road) :-)
Apparently, the land price is oriented on the width of the land along the road. So houses in general are very high and slim.
Also, for some reason, the Vietnamese only bother about the front of a building. Often, the sides of a building are left without windows and in concrete-grey without paint.
In the Lonely Planet, there are reports about that in Hanoi, a dubious guesthouse owner rebuilt the front of another actually recommended guesthouse to lure travellers into his. But only the front.
This “massage body” building does not do well in hiding that it was indeed a barn before it has been converted into a “first class” spa. (Just as a side note: From the inside, it indeed looks like on the photos)
There is still quite a bit French architecture left from the colonial era, most of which are in a somewhat crumbling state. Though, the French era influenced modern Vietnamese architecture. Any new representative buildings or expensive hotels will look somewhat French. Upper-class family homes will often look something like Neuschwanstein-Disneyland-French (we all know, Southeastasians love bright colors). This piece, found in Bac Ha and still under construction is still missing the colors which makes it look like a cool Geisterhaus:
Vietnam Everyday Religion
The practised religion in Vietnam is much different from religion in Thailand. There are Buddhist monasteries (and quite a few Christian churches), but Buddhism doesn’t play such a central role in daily life here. The monks are not in all that blessing and amulet business so much, which is a good thing.
Spirits are also not really worshipped here. While in Vietnam, I have only seen spirit altars in two places, one hidden away in a storeroom of a guesthouse and one in some corner in a big restaurant.
This is the one in the restaurant.
They also look inconspicuous: No pompous miniature temples with dozens of (figurines of) dancers around but instead a single piece of paper glued to the wall with a cupboard underneath for offerings.
So, the big thing here is ancestor worship. In every family home, there will be an elaborately decorated altar for the ancestors. It goes so far that sometimes the altar takes the size of a whole closet. The temples here are also quite ancestor-oriented, Buddha statuettes are not so big in numbers, instead there are many statuettes of deceased monks (or other people) to pray to, surrounded by a whole pantheon of I-don’t-know-what:
However, the family shrines are not the kind of thing travellers will see so much, what they see is this:
Also an altar, but neither really for Buddha, nor ancestors, nor spirits. You see it in almost every restaurant, shop or hotel, any place that will have customers. Here is a short explanations what the stuff in and above the altar are for. (Click the pic!)
Above the shrine, a golden beckoning cat (maneki-neko) is beckoning customers. Half behind the cat and the glass, there is a pile of gold beads, resembling, yes, wealth.
Below that, the laughing Buddha is happily holding up a bead of gold and carrying a sack of money. Left and right of him are guardian lions guarding the huge pile of gold beads behind them. This also resembles wealth and luck (through wealth?).
Finally, below the Buddha are three saints, gods or something (I didn’t find out exactly). Two of three are holding up gold beads. It has been explained to me that those are for wealth, the middle one is for luck.
So… yes. This religious practice is all about money then. They pray and give offerings for money and for customers. Not to be bitchy, but: it fits to them, though.
And to whom do they pray? I don’t know. As one restaurant owner said that also I could take the offerings, it might have something to do with karma. But this is just a shot in the dark.
For a separate religious practice that seems to be inspired by Buddhist belief on the other hand, they sell these products on markets for religious use:
Fake paper money, paper gold beads and other golden items and whole sets of paper luxury goods, for men (watches, shirts, wallets, smartphones,…) and women (see photo) alike are available on the market.
This fake paper-money (there are Dollars, Baht, Dong and even Euros) and the paper-cutout luxury goods are burned ritually to get rid of all those material things that stand between you and the path to enlightenment.
This is symbolically of course, haha! So to not burn the actual money and luxury goods. That would be stupid of course! wink wink
So, erm, just to summarize the last paragraph: They buy products and burn them to renounce material life but keep the actual products. And they do not see the contradiction in that, hmm!
Gamers
In a previous post, I wrote about the board game they play here in Vietnam. However, these are mainly played by adults, age 25 and up.
So what do the (male) teenagers play?
This:
(The second picture is from a mall in Thailand. There, it’s just the same)
Extremely popular here are League of Legends. Also played a lot are Counter Strike, Age of Empires 1 (!?) and a World of Warcraft-like RPG, named Hoành Tảo Thiên Hạ.
Those internet-gamer-rooms are all over the place, similar to those internet-cafes in Germany back in the times where internet was a new thing and few people had it at home.