Pai in the sky

Welcome Home - the sign should say as you burst out of weaving roads in into the Utopian city of Pai. Thailand's worst kept, most freely shared hippy secret :) it's the official home of peace and love in Thailand, tucked in the rolling hills and verdant valleys of the North.

Firstly, I haven't thrown up on a bus since a primary school trip to the Big Pineapple. My big night in Chiang Mai brought me to this ruin, the road curves and hairpin twists on the journey up - are never ending. It's hard to be discreet when sharing your insides with 10 other tourists on a mini bus..a kind old lady with purple plaits gave me a mint..hehe. just the start of the kindness :)

Nevertheless, I made it to the far north. Pai is an old secret, a small hippy village in the style of Uki, Kuranda or Nimbin..yes, there are beautiful villages like this everywhere in the world.

As I fell through the door of the mini-bus a delicious sight filled my eyes..I am most comfortable surrounded by people whose preference lean towards rainbow colors and tie-dyed hemp. Around me were the smiling faces of 'family' from many countries, all colors, shapes and sizes and dreadlocks, on bicycles, on foot, barefoot and browsing bamboo covered rainbow shops..I took a deep breath..the city was covered in a smile!

My first day was spent luxuriating in the highest point of bliss I have experience in a long time.

1. being stationary!

2. swinging on a hammock absorbed in 'Kafka on the Shore' - wow, what a book..

3. and most importantly - and best said in prose -

ahem - framed by rolling green hills dotted with leaf covered bungalows... bamboo bridges crossing sunflower laced rivers... dirt fires burning freshly caught fish with smiles.
An invitation to your place, his place, their place..large drinks in large backyard pubs, red dust staining the hems of my pants and blending my bare feet with the earth. Green grass, pizza, wheatgrass, green grass pizza and smiles, smiles, smiles..from new brothers and sisters..

Pai will sit in my memory as one of the jewels of all my travels..

I spent hot days wandering sun soaked streets = more smiles. Jewellery making and chit chatting about life and change with Sandy the Chai tea lady, joking with a Thai rastafarian and learning how to work with leather, sharing music, the source of inspiration and endless rounds of 'Don't worry be Happy' with the Estonian - someone who wandered in here 4 months ago and hasn't left yet...haha, I think it happens frequently.

And at night, local live jams (Josh, these are times I miss you most!), friendly faces and new friends bonding you instantly to the town..after 2 days, I felt as though I had been a part of the water, moss and rocks for 2 years...I'll be back )

Tonight, I take a slow boat up the river, or maybe it's down...yes, down the river to Luang Prabang, Laos.. at which place I have instructions to walk along the Mekong 2km, turn left at the wishing well and find the banana place..or something similar..I'm not worried, there are a few hours left for me to savor this delicious place before turning and leaving..

Right now I'm sitting in an internet cafe with my ears tingling with the sounds of Oka and Josh's melodic new one..

I've just returned from a two day road Triiiiippppp....
.....on a 650cc black Ninja (the 'black' part is apparently the most important).

We followed the snaking asphalt that carves tracks between Laos, Burma and Thailand, forming the 'Golden Triangle'. We moved at the speed of vibration, my brain rattling to the Burmese border and back again... mountainside, countryside...actually, I'm still vibrating.

Bangbang Bangkok

Time's up again...visa run!

From the serenity of Laos to the concrete intensity of Asia's busiest city - Bangkok. It's been 5 years since my last visit and the streets are as colorful and crowded as ever. Bangkok is a beautiful, clean and bustling metropolis full of gorgeous glittering temples, monuments, impressive palaces, exotic foods, clean streets and orderly traffic...it's big and it's noisy, polluted and packed to the gills with backpackers.

Luckily, I landed directly on the soft cushions of Tu's Thai oasis. Another lucky find all those years ago, Tu's place is a sanctuary of calm. He's opened his house to travellers and hippies since 1988 when he was a travelling hippy himself following the trail to America and back...

Now the house is full or instruments, history, stories of The Grateful Dead, Jerry Lewis and other amazing artists, sitar playing, percussionistas, Rainbow kids, tailors, healers and artists..it's a wonderful place to recover and get back into the tie dye and inspired! I love Tu and there is always something happening in the house..

After Bangkok I'll be going to the city of Chiang Mai for a few days in the mountains..I've always wanted to go :)

So here I go!

Hitchiking Links

Here are some good quick reference tips for hitchikers!

On hitching in general
For women's travel tips - wanderlustandlipstick.com
Hippy perspective and rainbow
Excellent travel reference site www.seat61.com
50 best travel sites

Dreamtime in Laos

Merry Christmas everyone! Mum, it sucks we can't email anymore, how can it be in this century that we can't communicate!!

I am living and working in an eco resort in the Lao jungle. Dreamtime is a beautiful place created by a dreamer, designed to protect and conserve the forest and offer a welcome space for travellers and other dreamers! It has the feeling of a North Queensland forest retreat - open platforms and open spaces for dining, cushions and mats on wooden floors. Trees, bamboo, misty mornings and handbuilt log cabins scattered throughout 30 hectares!! BLISS!!

I feel lucky to have landed here, in addition to learning Laos, my Hebrew is getting better, haha. It's jungle bliss, with no electricity, gourmet meals and a river to bathe in..

.. here's a photo of my little bungalow :) There are projects to be created..new compost bins, the garden plot, arranging spaces for goats and chickens. For now my main task is to decorate the bungalows. I collect materials from the forest floor and design dreamcatchers. There are also hemp paintings to design and curtains to sew..it's been very creative and I've surprised even myself.

There are also less fun tasks, such as hauling water, checking trails, making new trails and washing..but all in all it's been a blissful rest! Mid-afternoon when it's hot, I swim in the river and find a nice hammock to curl up in and drink tea or smoke the remainder of the day. There are some beautiful travellers and Christmas was spectactular with an amazing fire feast and drumming and music! I was thinking of you!

There are pieces of surrounding property available..did someone say start a commune and live in Laos?

If you're ever in Lao, go and bliss out in the forest!

http://www.dreamtime-laos.com/

Love you!

Life on the farm

Imagine, 6am, soft morning sun glinting through your window. Chickens clucking, pigs grunting, birds and your sleeping partner shifting on the thin bamboo bed, preparing for a day of harvesting rice...Josh and I were lucky to experience a small part of Vietnamese village life.

Josh has only been here for 3 weeks but he already knows half of Hanoi..the Vietnamese half too! It was one of these connections that got us living on a farm in the middle of the countryside.

They have a small farm about 30 kms outside of Haiphong, a port city near Halong Bay. We managed to meet their entire extended family and were invited to a wedding (I was surprised it wasn't Josh's.) Even so poor, they were so generous, we gave them two huge flopping fish caught straight from the breeding ponds and food, but found it impossible to pay for anything!

After a difficult goodbye, we headed south..my rough idea was to go in a diamond shape, from Hanoi - Haiphong - Ninh Binh - Kim Boi Waterfalls - Hanoi. We didn't bring guides, or look at a map..so it didn't exactly turn out that way.

Giggling like loons we picked random buses from a station board or jumped on without knowing the destination. One took us to a town on the edge of the sea, we spent the afternoon whizzing around rolling hillsides in styyyyle..on a tandem bicycle!!

The part I enjoyed most was scootering from Ninh Binh to and through Cuc Phuong National Park. It's about 100 kms from Hanoi. And the landscape around Ninh Binh is delicious!

Huge, green monoliths jut out of the mountainous region...carved with rivers, lakes and scattered with peaceful temples. From the town it's 2 hours by bike to Cuc Phuong. We took it easy, explored streams, hung out with endangered monkeys and hundreds of brilliantly colored butterflies. Although it's a 'paved' national park, the happiness of the trees and animals would rival any Australia rainforest!

Ninh Binh was also nice, for a city. Happy dogs roaming the streets. It's my new measure of the kindness of a city's people, when stray dogs are friendly and well fed. Hanoi has a lot to answer for, considering they eat their strays..practical, but not too friendly.

Neither of us brought a camera..so until I can work out how to get the few I took off my phone...

...you'll have to imagine, a brother and sister on scooters, grinning wildly from ear to ear as the wind whistles past. Luscious rainforest all around, rice paddies, towering limestone karsts in the distance and long white winding paths ahead..

Full Moon Fiesta

Our friend works for a French NGO, and during the mid-autumn celebrations she organised a gala at Hanoi's National Pediatric Hospital.

A few foreign monkeys, including Josh and I, were invited to sing a little, dance a little and generally create a bit of fun for the kids and parents :)

My friend, Mienne, caught footage of the poi and drum performance! Enjoy *

Drumming and poi video

Mienne and Tab juggling

What's this...mid-autumn...again!

Mid Autumn has come..and gone! With all of the hooha and hoopla (and traffic) of last year. Only more...

Tet Trung Thu is my favorite Vietnamese festival. New Year is too big, Christmas too ugly. Mid-autumn is just right. Cool breezes are starting to sneak in, the city is overdue for a holiday and in the lead up the streets crackle with a buzz of excitement.

Plus the pagan moon-worshipper in me loves city-wide revelling under a full moon! And like any good pagan event, it's celebrated with fire, masks and myths!

You may remember me marvelling last year at beautiful floating lanterns let off around the city...well, they are dangerous, create litter and are now banned..surprise! But, I found a guy who took me to the back of his dingy shop..hehe..and with a prayer, we set it off from my balcony. A little scary considering the houses below my apartment all have thatched roofs..

This year I was lucky enough to have a chocolate mooncake magic'd up for me...yep, magic mooncake.

I organised our mid-autumn event and put on a great show for the kids! We put on our masks, decorated, reenacted a myth of a golden carp who swims through the dragon's gate to becomes a flying dragon...nice!

((And much better than the traditional story of the moon woman who accidentally urinates on a holy tree!! Go figure, I wasn't going to explain that one to my four year olds, no matter how traditional it is.))

All the same, hoopla, traffic, the coming of winter..I really like mid-autumn!

...and here's the link to my post last year in case you didn't know just how cool it was ;)
http://happylittlefeet.blogspot.com/2008/09/mid-autumn-moon-festival.html

Road Trips and Randomness

Finally..I'm back..on the blog.

I could describe this month as insane, colorful, intense, intention albeit slightly drunken..but let me tell you about our little journeys, some of the best parts of the month.

The first was a mad weekend dash to the coast. Saddled on two grumbling Minsks four of us hit the road, hangovers in hand and hammocks in packs to meet a pair of friends.

The trip was uneventful bar running out of petrol..twice, one minor breakdown, losing a bike (the wait nicely soothed by roadside beers and pappadums) and the ride blanketed by green countryside, speeding highway trucks, waves and smiles at as our growling minkas left motorists in clouds of pollution...culminating in spotting our beautiful friends magically on a roadside that evening.

After a happy reunion, seafood dinner and purchasing a few highly toxic alcoholic coconuts we headed away from the town and onto winding roads towards a destination...somewhere beautiful.

There were six. Frederique a dreadlocked Indian feminist anarchist, her lover, Stix, a spindly German intellectual. Cedric, a soulsy French activist, Lan Anh, my earth child, a bearded Quebecan cat called Felix and me.

Now, at this point we either got lost, or didn't have a direction in the first place (more the case), but in the dark of night the road we were driving on dipped suddenly down towards the ocean and...ended.. abruptly.. at a jetty. Surrounded by towering freighters and not to be deterred, we asked where the mammoth ships were headed..South Africa was the reply.

Now, this has to be said, there was a moment of hesitation as the destination was seriously considered. But then, one of the ladies said if we got onto a little boat, she would take us to an island. So three huge motorbikes balanced precariously and Western asses on a tin boat...we chugged towards black outlines in the distance.

Darkened foliage silhouetted islands ahead of us, but it was pitch black. Land was a welcome sight, bikes off the boat and onto solid ground, and rumbling off again towards mountains...

Now... I could say we made it to a beautiful beach, found a suitable place to camp, put our hammocks up in an respectable way and lit a campfire to play guitar around..

But somewhere along the way, an important piece of someone's motorbike fell off...and the journey deeper into the hills was cut short. And once the first nasty little coconut was cracked, there was nothing else to do but enjoy the unexpected stop, find trees for the hammocks, drink more coconut, light fire poi and generally degenerate into giggling alcoholics..then sleep.

The next morning, six slightly intoxicated travellers squinting in the hot morning sun fixed the broken bike magically and scooted to the left. Just in time to dip in the pollution filled ocean, munch prawns, breathe in the scattered beauty of dotted islands... and make our merry way home.. after 5 hours on a bike, in the dark, totally assless...

,,,but having no ass at the end of a beautiful weekend is better than sitting on a fat ass at home.

Taxis in Hanoi

It should go without saying that 90% of taxis in Hanoi are cheats..and yet, why do I still get cheated?

It seems some taxis drive you around the block, others blatantly 'forget' to use the meter and others have simply tampered with it.

Ok, so how to get around being ripped off completely. My suggestion is to get a bike..but here, who knows how you'll go. The next best option (the only option really) is to use a reputable taxi company (like the ones listed below).

1. Don't go with the tiny green taxis you see zipping around
2. Ensure the meter has a clear, unbroken box around it
3. Watch the streets on your map
4. Ask the driver approximately how much before you get in

Here's a list of good taxi companies in Hanoi, hope it keeps you out of trouble!

MaiLinh Taxi - 04 3822 2666
Hanoi Taxi - 04 353 5353
Taxi CP- 04 3262626
Hanoi Tourist Taxi -04 3565656

Spa-licious

In the hectic lead up to Tet I took some time out to have a ME day :) Luckily, this is a very easy task living in Hanoi.

I went to the local spa. I don't really need to say more.. but I will anyway...

I began with herbal indulgence, bathing in a large wooden barrel filled with a steaming mint and herb concoction. After relaxing it was into a spa bath with a tea, herb and ginger soak. Then shuffled into a steamy sauna with a ginger foot bath/soak ready and waiting.

After the cool shower was divine, being towel dried by someone else, a wee bit awkward. But they are too brisk for you to have a second thought. Then whisked into a pleasant smelling room for the massage of a lifetime.

Hot towels, a cucumber facepack, head, face, arms, legs, back, stomach everything massage. All finished off with a nice warm shower and ginger lemon tea to revitalise you.

All for 150, 000 (a little less than $10).

I'm liquid... and doing this next week!

I forget the name ~
78 Duong Yen Phu
Hanoi

Drumming at Puku Cafe

It seems our group is now called, da da da...The Bongos! As that's how we were introduced by the Vietnamese MC.

We were invited to play at a fund raising event, raising money to ensure kids in remote villages have access to schooling, including transportation, books, pens, clothing and proper health and nutrition.

Puku Cafe is a hidey hole cafe, frequented by expats and locals, and well known in Hanoi for ambient decor and ridiculously good food! Last night it was packed to the rafters with musicians, photographic exhibits and Vietnamese supporting a great cause.

Afterward, the group, still in a drumming mood, wandered down to Hoan Kiem lake to play in the green evening lights...until the police came....which is always to be expected!

Puku Cafe
60 Hang Trong
Hanoi


Photo The Bongos from Dat Tie Suc and David Pricco.

The Art of Tet

As Hanoi disintegrates into Tet madness, Vietnamese scramble in preparation for the most important festival of the year. Best described as Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, moon worshiping and everybody's birthday combined!

The Vietnamese dedicate an entire week to this new year celebration, a time for family, food and harmony to welcome in a new year. It heralds the beginning of the lunar calendar and the beginning of Spring. Surprisingly, Vietnamese follow the solar calendar during the year and on the first night of the full moon they switch to the lunar calendar.

All seemingly confusing, so don't bother asking what actual 'day' Tet is. Just know you'll probably be given 10 - 12 days off sometime between the 17 - 30 Jan. It's really time to simply go with the flow.

Hanoi has a dream-like quality, floating through the end of the solar year. Hanoians are shopping to impress with delicacies, new clothing, new furniture, traditional cumquats trees. Driving in Hanoi has become like walking through an orange grove. Supernaturally bright orange cumquat trees and peach blossoms lining the streets or strapped to the back of motorbikes.

The myth or superstition attached to these plants is probably similar to the one that recommends releasing a fish at this time of year to appease the Kitchen Gods!! hehe. I hadn't thought about the fact there might be kitchen gods out there...ever.

Traditionally expats take this opportunity to leave! Flying of to more exotic locations like Thailand or Indonesia. Considering that during Tet, the whole of Hanoi shuts down and closes up shop, it may have been wiser to flee the sinking ship. But since the budget doesn't allow for Thai beaches just yet, my first Tet will be spent with the few friends left in the city.

I'll be soaking up the quiet ambience of the surprisingly peaceful city and relaxing!

Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

Get a hobby

If you've ever wanted to be a multilingual, jazz guitar playing, belly dancing martial artist who cooks a mean Pho noodle soup... you've come to the right city!

With so many extracurricular activities offered in Hanoi it's hard to simply choose ONE to do. (Although it seems the favored past time of the average expat drinking more than anything else.)

I'm a huge fan of accumulating pointless knowledge. Over the years I've learned more than my fair share. Let's see.. skateboarding (a lost art), stilt walking, pan pipes, guitar, crochet, fire twirling, basket weaving, oh and my recent favorite a hell-bent desire to perfect contact juggling (yes, I loved The Labyrinth), none of which I can perform with any skill.

Anyway, for the eternal procrastinator you may find yourself learning a language (Spanish anyone?), tango, Shaolin kung fu, Viet cooking, performance art, photography etc etc the list is endless.

... there are even drinking clubs... if your average weeknight/weekend bar crowd just isn't dedicated enough for you, join the Bia Hoi Appreciation Society.
http://newhanoian.xemzi.com/en/group/show/21/Bia-Hoi-Appreciation-Society

For art lovers Hanoi is scattered with arts museums, galleries and alternative art and photography (it's big here, everywhere you see dudes wearing khaki vests with serious lenses rivaling small artillery).

There's the Geothe Institute, the Cinematheque, bowling, roller disco, Tay Ho amusement park, karaoke, opera house and jazz clubs...

My favorite way to spend a Sunday afternoon is to hoof it down to tree covered Lenin Park and spend an afternoon in the sun with fire twirlers and drumming circle or hang around a little later in the twilight to perfect that Thai Chi stance with a personal teacher.

www.newhanoian.com
Hanoi Grapevine

Hanoi Cinemateque

Apsara Dance Studio
Nghi Tam

Lenin Park - Cong Vien Thong Nhat

Museum of Ethnology - Hanoi

The Museum of Ethnology provides a deeper look into the life and culture of the Vietnamese hill tribes as colourful and varied as they are.

I caught a xe om to the museum for a little more than 10, 000VND and had a bit of fun poking around the various clothing, jewellery, religious and birthing exhibits. My xe om driver insisted on being my tour guide, but with his terrible English it seemed better simply to read the tiny plaques.

The wander through the museum is nice! I love the difference between traditional clothing of the men and women of the tribes..the men's costumes are rough with bits of twine and bark quickly sewn together in jagged lines, covering only important parts. The women's costumes are lined with colors and intricate patterning and tiny detailed work..hahaha, typical!

Outside the main building there is a large space where they have built gorgeous traditional houses and huts as well as burial tombs. It's the first time I've seen a set up like this, and a walk inside the creaking bamboo of the houses is really something special!

There's a water puppet theatre with the backdrop of a wonderful traditional house. In fact there are many traditional houses spread over a large area in the back of the museum.






This photo is of decorations on a traditional tomb was by far my highlight, hehehe, even my guide had a giggle at that.











Nguyen Van Huyen Road
Cau Giay District
Hanoi, Vietnam

Halong Happiness

Well, happy birthday to me! In Vietnam instead of cake I get five-star food and instead of a wrapped gift I get a boat cruise, eh voila, merci mon ange.

3 hours east..which way is east..um, slightly down and right of Hanoi is Halong Bay and literally hundreds of limestone karts scattered across the horizon. I can't think of anything better than being on great big junk chugging past ancient monolithic islands!

Days were spent sprawling on a deckchair on the top deck feeling like a movie star on a cruise somewhere exotic (ahem, like Vietnam), eating seafood, swimming in the shimmering green ocean, kayaking through schools of enormous white jellyfish and mooring for the night surrounded by dark island silhouettes and watching a storm roll into the bay...beautiful...

However, in the middle of the night, around the time the roof above my bed sprung a small geyser and I heard shouts and running on the deck the thought crossed my mind that maybe I should have paid more for this tour. Now I know I'd unwittingly booked one of those 'Surprise Tours' you get in Asia, the kind where your guide says Surprise! ...all the time.

It went something along the lines of 'Surprise! Now you must pay extra to see the caves', or 'Surprise! Now we're taking a two and a half hour trek up a slippery rock face and it'll be dangerous' or I really liked this one two poor New Zealander's got, Surprise! You're changing boats mid-stream because...

...well, just because.

Apart from having to guess what was coming next which is something we all began to laugh at, I had a great time and even enjoyed a few seconds of satisfaction at the top of the scary mountain.

Now back in Hanoi I am preparing for an adventure of another kind...getting settled in a school, literally, we are living in a working school. 'Surprise! There are small Vietnamese students coming for classes over the weekend' (that one was our landlord)...

More on the new place soon...

Art, literature and temples

I realise I have been talking a lot about food, so I am NOT going to begin this post mentioning the absolutely amazing butter chicken I ate last night or the melt in your mouth coconut squid at Little Hanoi...

Just a short walk through green trees, a wander along a busy street and a few totally hair-raising intersections later (haha..gulp..) you come into the luscious green gardens of the Temple of Literature.

It’s lovely, a little touristy but reminiscent of moss covered Angkor temples scattered around Cambodia (minus all that cool old Cambodian temple energy).

Anyway, I see now I should have hired a guide because the whole time I didn’t get what was so literary about the place. It looks like the sort of place skinny monks wander reading fat spiritual texts in perfect solitude surrounded by lotus ponds filled with golden carp. Of course, Simone later told me it’s not a spiritual place but actually the first Confucian university – bloody cool place to study if you ask me.

Only another short walk down the street is the Museum of Fine Arts, after wandering up and down the same street four or five times I was a little embarrassed at having missed this enormous building. Truly Vietnam has some amazing art (and a great café culture to show it all off)! The museum had extraordinary contemporary art, cultural art so beautiful it made me want to cry, Stone Age exhibits and ceramics and finally some very weird boob focused art I stumbled upon in a temporary exhibition...

As you can probably see immediately from my entries I still haven’t found gainful employment (or read through the Lonely Planet guide properly), but after this week I’ve realised I’m not actually looking. I’ve given myself an official two weeks grace. For someone who flew across the world to work, I’ve slowly realised there should be more ‘holiday’ to this ‘working holiday’.

So for the moment, my job is Cat Nanny and Official Tourist. And oh boy, is it a fun job. If this became a proper job I would be the happiest traveller on the face of the planet.

Temple of Literature
Tuesday to Sunday from 8:30 to 11:30 and 13:30 to 16:30
Quoc Tu Giam St

Uncle Ho - Mausoleom Hanoi

I've begun to realise how difficult it is to be a good tourist and take photos when... you've always got a pair of chopsticks or a fat baguette in your hands, but I'm doing my best!


Ok, here's an easy one, I've moved in next door to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. It's an indomitable grey box proudly set among gorgeous lush Victorian gardens and snaking paths. The much loved 'Uncle Ho's' body is kept preserved mummy-like inside this imposing mausoleum while the irony lies in the fact the great leader specifically requested a simple cremation, (that and the rumours of Madame Tussuad's involvement in the 'preservation' of his remains).

Rumours aside, this icon of Vietnamese independence is still very much revered in Hanoi, and even I was pretty impressed by his dedication over many years of his life to secure Vietnamese independence. I wish I could be so dedicated to one task!

It really is a cool building, one of my favorites. Opening times are only from 8 - 11am so don't miss out!