Same Same But Different

Greetings from Seoul. This airport is pretty sweet...rest areas, showers and free internet lounge complete with computers. Given that we have a 5 hour layover, it's a good spot to provide details on the last leg of our trip. The title of this blog refers to t-shirts that we've seen all over, but mostly in Laos. Apparently, it's a backpacker thing here (and there are a good number of backpackers...mostly Australians). When they go to pick a guesthouse or hostel, the owners try to tell them that they are the same in terms of price...but that each is different. So the owners say to them "Same Same...but different." Or something like that. After an 11:55 pm flight which arrived in Seoul at 5:30 am (3.30 am Vietnamese time), I'm a little fuzzy on some details. But it could also refer to how we end up feeling about pagodas by the end of the trip, or how we start to say..."was that in Hoi An or Siem Reap?" It all runs together. The same but different.

When we last reported in, we had a day left in Luang Prabang and a day in Hanoi. We packed about as much into those two days as possible, mostly having to do with water and walking up steps.

Our final day in Luang Prabang started with something that is unique to the town, and that is watching the monks collect alms at 6 am. Each day, all the monks go, by temple, around the town with collection baskets collecting alms in the form of mostly food - sticky rice (surprise!) and banana leafs mostly. They use this food for their monasteries. They walk 2 km and people sit by the side of the road, handing it out to them as they walk by. Women must kneel and be below them, while men are allowed to stand. And theoretically, you should really only do it if you are a Buddhist but some tourists take part too. Our guide, Bounmay, told us that some of people in the town go to do this every day. It's really quite amazing to see this long line of saffron robes walking silently through town as day breaks. What isn't amazing is that tourists aren't always respectful and try to get up in their faces to take photos, or kind of break through the lines. We did not do that. And we are glad to say that the French won the most obnoxious tourist award (usually Americans take this hands down) for their obnoxious behavior.

The rest of our day in Laos was spent doing the following:

• Taking a boat ride on the Mekong River to visit the Pak Ou caves. These are on a cliff and have all these images of Buddha in them. I would guess hundreds.
• Visiting two more temples, one of which had some creepy pictures of what happens if you do things like steal, etc. The other temple was on a hill, high above the town and required a walk up a ton of steps. It had Buddhas along the way that symbolize the days of the week. It turns out that there is a different Buddha for which day of the week you are born. Kind of like we have that poem "Monday's child is full of grace." There is a reclining Buddha for Thursday...a Buddha with his hands in front of him for Sunday, etc.
• Hitting one last weaving factory.

Some final things we learned in Laos:

• The Mekong is the longest river in Asia, starting in Nepal and going through China, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
• The current on the Mekong is strong. It rises and recedes with the monsoon season.
• There are three ways that the locals go from Laos to Thailand. One is the slow boat, like the one we were on which takes 3 days. The second is a bus, which takes 15 hours. The third is a speed boat, or the fast boat, where people crouch down, wearing a helmet, life jacket and ear plugs. I think that takes 7 hours...but it sounds incredibly uncomfortable. We'd all opt for the slow boat.
• Rice whiskey is foul. Rice wine isn't that great either.
• A walk through the local market may cause you to swear off poultry...at least temporarily.
• Thai monks like to act like tourists and take in the Laos monks receiving alms as well. We saw a few there taking pictures.
• Bounmay two kids are named Bom (might not be spelled correctly) and Bell.
• The number one song in Laos right now is Eminem's "Love the way you lie." Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" was the previous number one.

Flight number 7 (of 9) took us back to Hanoi. After a bit of delay waiting for the bus to come meet the plane - and that is a big thing over here and a lot of places we travel...there isn't a gate...there is a bus that takes you to a baggage claim area - we headed outside looking for our typical "Stephanie Hedean and friends" or "Cynthia Freed group" sign with our guide...but didn't see it. Instead, we saw a familar face...Phuong!! Our guide from the first two days of the tour was back! It was so nice to see a familar face, especially as he told us that he wouldn't be our guide again. We all gave him a hug, which caused the other guides to tease him. We think they were just jealous.

Hanoi was even crazier than ever as there is a big Asean conference here. All kinds of diplomats from Asian countries were in town, as was the UN Secretary General. Upon arrival to Seoul, we also learned that Hillary Clinton arrived there yesterday. Too bad we didn't know that as we would have loved to catch a ride home with her. The conference caused a lot of street closures, adding to the general craziness of the town, and to increased security as some diplomats were staying at our hotel.

Luckily, this didn't impact as the next day as we set off on our final Vietnamese adventure, a visit to the Perfume Pagoda. To get there requires a 60 km trip out of Hanoi and then a row boat ride on the Yen stream. The row boats seat 6 people and the ride is about an hour. Women row you out...wait for you...then row you back...all for about $7. It further confrmed our suspicions that women do all the hard work in Vietnam.

The Perfume Pagoda is a Buddhist pagoda that is in a cave, and pretty famous in Vietnam. People take pilgrimages there after Tet, with about 1,000 people arriving every day. It gets super crowded. But luckily we went pre-Tet, which is low season. Phuong gave us the choice of walking (2 km, uphill) or taking a tram. We decided that exercise would be good, so we walked. It took an hour. Uphill. Up stairs. At noon. When it was hot. When our calves already ached from climbing the previous two days. But it was good exercise. And the pagoda inside the cave was very interesting. It took us one hour to walk up, but we made it back down in 45 minutes. There was also a pagoda at the bottom...and one along the way. Moira made the very good point that she was getting pagoda'd out. And that pagoda rhymes with Vigoda, as in Abe. The trip really took all day...and after a trip to get some coffee and their special coffee filters (did I mention we love Vietnamese coffee) and a final Vietnamese dinner, our two week holiday (which sounds much nicer than vacation) was at an end.

Some final things we learned:

• Phuong has a two year old son and his wife is a teacher.
• Avatar was HUGE here. Phuong talked about it both times we were with him.
• KFC seems to be the only US fast food restaurant around here. We've seen it in all the major cities. Although we did see a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Saigon...
• We saw a number of people in various towns and villages playing what looked like hacky sack, but with a badminton shuttlecock. That can't be easy.
• While there may be more traffic in Saigon, Hanoi seems to be the craziest. There is no rhyme or reason to how people drive, particularly on motorbikes.

Sorry for the lack of fun color in here or final observations. I seized the chance to use a computer and didn't get to get input from the peanut gallery...which means maybe we will add something later. I can say that it was a great trip and that it feels like we were away forever. I think we're all ready to head home at this point...sleep in our own beds, wear different clothes, and most importantly, have a meal without rice.

So, until the next trip...happy travels.