G'Day from Down Under Australia!!!!!

Hiking is good for the soul!

Mixed emotions as we left Southeast Asia and arrived on the big continent of Australia, but in no time we felt right at home where the language was a least sometimes understandable , the temperature more to Nanci's liking and the friendliness was just good.  Made us a little homesick.  We arrived and took off in our rental car driving on the left side screaming KEEP LEFT and wondering what we do next.  It is a little unnerving especially after a 10 hour flight.  But hey, we're the adventure girls so we drove to our little bed and breakfast in the Katoomba in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales.  There our host baked us a cake [we ate it all] and encouraged us to get some rest. 

We toured the Blue Mountain area for a few days . We went to a great cozy concert in a pub and hiked the mountains the next day. On Sunday,  we drove north on country back roads to Hunter Valley.  The wine region and it was GORGEOUS! 



First Tasting!!!

 Off to wine country and then over to Sydney 

JOMTIEN-THAILAND, BEYONCE, MADONNA AND ALL THAT JAZZ!

 Our blessing is in the center

DRAGON DIARY, back again.  A visit to our friend Ken in Jomtien, Thailand, rounded out our wonderful and fascinating 2-month sojourn in China, Japan, Bali, Hong Kong and 4 countries of Southeast Asia – Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand.  To say those months were an adventure is to fall short of choosing the perfect word to describe those lovely days.  To say more would be to risk spending far too much time on this diary entry. We have been struck with so much luck on this trip and so our last night in Laos was the celebration of the end of lent. The Laos people prepared their flower blessings and placed them in the great Mekong River as they made a wish. And so, we placed ours which is centered and we made our wish.  Laos, we hope to see you again in this life.

The pool at Ken's

Glamour Flowers to the ceiling - Only Ken!

Back to our farewell days at Ken’s.  His beautiful villa and the velvet-soft temperature of the pool’s water embraced us, gave us time to reflect, and afforded us the luxury of totally relaxing.  Of course, the relaxation was needed to steel us for our wonderfully wild and wooly nights out on the town in Pattaya and Jomtien. 

Courtesy of Ken and his talented partners in entertainment, we were regaled by Lady GaGa, Beyonce, Madonna, Norma Desmond, and the list goes on.  Ken’s night club, The Venue, a high quality Las Vegas revue, showcased lady boy dancers who performed their hearts out.  The singers, lights, sounds, and costumes dazzled both us and the rest of the audience and made other night club shows pale in comparison. FIRST RATE DRAG, well drag can hardly be used in this context.

We had front row seats each night, and Ken invited in special performers just for us.  We were all sad to part, but as Robert Frost once noted, “We had promises to keep and miles to go before we sleep” and the trip must go on….plus the truth is, our  beloved Ken is the devil in the red dress, and we needed to vacation from our vacation. Thanks, Ken, we’ll see you soon.  And…look out Australia:  Here we come!!!

Go-Go GaGa!!!!!



Beyonce, you rock all night long!




A star is born !!1



Thai Navy came out for the show!!!

 


Thank you Lady Karen for coming out just for us! 

 

Madonna, vogue still works for you!!

How many years has it been since we stayed out until 2:00 am every night?  The answer, not years...it happens every time we are with Ken....a little fun goes a very long way. 

 

Cambodia- SS

Cambodia- Notes from Sheila 

I hope you skip over this and go directly to Nanci's post on Cambodia.  I loved her thoughts.  I, on the other hand have not been able to get Cambodia out of my mind even though we arrived in Laos two days ago. 

So.....as we near the end of two months in Asia, I had this thought before arriving in Cambodia.

"Should I confess it?"

"Allright."

 I thought… “What’s another wat-what's the big deal?” OK, I am a little shallow at times..so are some of my friends for that matter."  That afternoon we took off for Angkor Wat.  It was raining cats and dogs, but the temperature was cool and for us….that is a perfect condition.

We jumped in our tuk-tuk, which I think is the coolest transportation, and along with our local guide we headed down a tree lined street that automatically invoked a mood of mystery…I felt like I was in a detective novel...."where's Angelina Jolie-Pitt?"

And then….there it was…. Angkor Wat.  I grabbed Nanci’s arm; she grabbed mine and we did a little dance to celebrate our delight; we threw our rain gear on and took off like bullets down the double lane entrance imaging we were in the 12th century. We touched the walls, rubbed our hands over the stone carvings...there were no tourist, not a one.  The rain drove them away.  There we were strolling the Wats all by ourselves.

The grandeur was astounding… and all so one man could immortalize his essence. I have read it written that people say AW, symbolizes the soul of the Khmer people.  In my mind, a soul is the essence of our greatness.  Perhaps once again I am wrong.

Three miles north, south, east and west of the temples looked pretty good to me.  But..go further out into Cambodia and we began to see the poverty that over time made me feel faint.

It was hot, really hot, and by 10:00 am it was over 100 degrees, maybe plus 40.

We visited a school.  We brought writting books for the children.  We walked in the class and they all stood and welcomed us..joyfully.  I felt so ashamed that I did not bring more and even more ashamed that after I delievered the books, I would hop on a boat and leave.  For the first time in a very long time, I felt useless, for awhile.

There is something about South East Asia; I couldn’t lay a hand on it at first.  It has something to do with their kindness, which hasn’t yet been murdered by poverty and corruption. Their smiles are more than mouths and a lip turning upward...it is a real reaction that comes from within...that forces a confidence that seems to be essential to moving spirits onward.

Is it the reinforcement of family that oils their spirit?

And so instead of being mad at the what a waste a wat seems, I accept that if nothing, it is bedrock that to say to even the hungriest child…that her family existed ten centuries ago and they still exist today….and that perhaps as tourist flood in… someone, someone might see they can be more.

My favorite image was six little boys  who were walking down a busy highway and one pointed to a puddle of water.  In a blink, they were striping down and running as fast as they could get butt naked and leaping into mid air and falling into a fresh cool swimming hole and a second later their ecstatic faces emerged hootin’ and hollering merrily. We all love a good swimming hole.

Blessing Cambodia…you truly need it.

  

We caught a raggedy-ass boat captained by a 12 year old to take us up the inlet to a water village.  Turns out when the engine went ka-put, the kid knew what he was doing. Check out the gears.  The steering wheel was a torn out of a car and had it's suspension enhanced by one old rope which pulled in the opposite directions for turning left and right.  That too worked pretty good.

We do what it takes don't we?

CAMBODIA-SIEM REAP

Nanci's notes DRAGON DIARY 5: 

Sitting here in the airport of Vientiane, Laos…capital of the country…and just reflecting back over the few days we spent in Siem Reap, Cambodia.  All of these names of places have been in the periphery of my consciousness since the 60’s.  Only now, however, do they begin to assume the shapes of a reality, filled with people, sounds, colors, smells…a reality.  Being here is somehow jolting, but then it is also “completing” in the sense of putting in those final pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.  There really is a whole, and we are in the middle of it.

I’ve always heard of Angkor Wat.  I’ve seen photos of the twisted roots climbing the walls and penetrating the temples…the forests reclaiming what was originally theirs anyway.  Believe… the photos and the words cannot portray the timelessness of these centuries-old temples and monuments.  Their symmetry, the art of their day forever inscribed on the weather-worn walls, the stories these walls tell of the battles, the domesticity of the days, the festivals, the costumes, the means of transportations and, perhaps, most importantly, the totally encompassing and pervasive presence of the people’s beliefs.  The echoes of time past became more than echoes…I heard a chorus.

Most memorable were two experiences.  The first was a 5AM hike with just Sheila, me and our guide.  With only one flashlight among us, we climbed up a hill and then up very precariously steep steps up to the top of the ruins  of a lesser temple.  From that vantage point we watched the break of day over the distant ruins of Angkor Wat.  We were alone.  We were silent, and we were strangely moved.  A very, very memorable moment of this trip…of my life.  I was somehow in the flow of a large universe…way bigger than the little world of my life.

First light-after a mile hike up in the dark

(Wow!!!  Sheila is so fast with posting our blog that I didn’t quite finish waxing eloguently about my second most memorable experience, and…I knew my hosts of readers would be left uncomfortably suspended if I didn’t finish my thought.)

The second experience was more of a physically exhililarating type.  Our day started off with an ultralight flight over Angkor Wat and the surrounding countryside.  Eddie, our pilot who hailed from the hills of West Virginia, proved to be not only an excellent pilot, but a knowledgeable guide, as well.  As we flew low over perhaps an area of 20 square miles, nothing but air surrounded us.  Quite a departure from all of the airplanes we have been in over the past couple of months.  The land below was very wet; I would’ve called it swampy but for all of the neatly defined fields of rice in various stages of maturity.  Water buffalo lazed in the shallows, finishing off the leftovers from the harvested fields.  They left an almost artistic zig-zaggy path of mud in their path as they slowly grazed.  Numerous wats peeked modestly from the dense forests that hosted them…somehow they had the only forests remaining.  The rest…rice lands, very flat.  It was a beautiful day and an equally beautiful experience

In all, Cambodia proved to be well worth the time spent there.  Siem Reap is a hopping little town where tourism has emerged as a dominating influence.  We were very comfortable everywhere, loved the friendly openness of the Cambodian people we met, and we would most definitely return one day.

Bye for now from the Dragon Lady who has totally chickened out on the dragon tattoo idea.  



That's some roots

That's Sheila- I think

That's Nanci I think...

Dragon Lady takes off----

Ta Prohm-  Tomb Raider

BANG-BANG- BANGKOK



Nanci made us do a show tune number for her birthday!



We flew into Bangkok for a few days to meet up with our friend Ken who helped us immensely in putting together the logic of this trip.  We planned to have dinner with him and the next day very generously took our large suitcases back to his house, while we travel a little pared down to Cambodia and Laos.

No longer intimidated by city size...Mexico City 22 million, Beijing 28 million, Shanghai and Hong Kong....we were ready for it.  What we were not ready for was Neil’s and laser face lift [more on this marvel later....] and the night out on the town with “darker side” of Bangkok being the entertainment theme of evening....but when in Rome...







Started out looking pretty good- all of us!

Maybe a little toooo much wine- what-cha think?



Nanci immediately gravitates to Bangkok street scene and plunges her feet into a fish skin eating tank on the street..5 dolla- 15 minutes.....she loved it, until later we were told they never change the water...........ugggghhhh

Later Nanci went off with Ken shopping and I went with Neil to have his non surgical face lift. 

I had to go, I couldn't let him go on his own and I wanted to check out the clinic...I knew if it looked tricky I could talk him into bolted.  It was actually a five star place and everything went smoothly with the laser and an hour later we are in the taxi and he looks 10 years younger and completely refresh!!!! Modern science

Next day we headed over to a palace, why..I am not sure, beside it pouring down rain, it was lovely and after that we went to a cooking class.

Our MasterChef!



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It was fun...the three of us, like old times....but its bye for now until the next time!



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Myanmar-Bangkok and More

It is time to wrap up our Myanmar experience which was quite amazing and we recommend it to anyone who really wants a south east Asia experience that is authentic and rolled back about 50 years. 

Bring in the fresh catch at the end of the day

Everyone lives on the lake

Neil- found his grove!

This is what we remember the most

young monks in training

Nanci below is at home with the local men's club where we stop at the 189 th temple on the trip so far.  She sits with them sharing tea with me chanting  in the background, "don't drink the water unless it is boiling." 

On a trip like this your sense of caution wears down....but we have to keep going and there is no time lay out...every day brings a new adventure


Nanc at home with the local "men's club" in temple 189





Master weaver who started at 6 years old

We were 

We caught a floating pogoda parade, which only happens once every year.  Our team was the pink team.

O

Myanmar-Inle Lake

Inle Lake- We rounded off the trip with a three night stay in a wonderful place called Inle Lake .  Houses, stores, hotels, gas stations...just bout everything you can imagined are built in the water and serviced from a boat. 
What was most remarkable and perhaps world famous are the floating vegetable gardens around the lake.



What a welcome



Happy to be here!

From plane to boat

When our boat turned in to Inle Lake, we had a sigh of relief.  The last place we stayed was a bit scary.  The town had no lights at night, the hotel was dirty...more like filthy and the one restaurant in the village center had fried rice and more fried rice.  We did not want to even drink the bottled water so we took to drinking beers and in two days, I think I drank more beer then I did in college.

Oh No Neil---Not the Pink Umbrella again!

The fishing men of Inle lake have the most amazing technique in fishing,  They balance on the tippy part of the boat, row with one leg and toss the net.   Enjoy the unique photos.

We ate the fish that night!

With continuous luck we arrived in Inle Lake the day of the annual festival when thousand of people took the day off and decorated their floating temple and boys had rowing contest and music came from everywhere.  It was a memorable sight!

The people of Inle lake were friendly and hard working.  We did not want to leave there.