March, 2010: Vientiane, Lao PDR

P is for People's, D is for Democratic, and R is for Republic.
This is Vientiane, the capital of Lao PDR.
But more than a couple of times while wandering in Vientiane, I found myself asking: "So, this is Vientiane....and where is the capital CITY of Lao exactly".

Laid-back doesn't even begin to describe Vientiane. It lacks the chaotic traffic of most south east Asian capitals, and the tallest building around seems to be the Victory Gate, no more than seven storey high. This is possibly one of the busiest junction in Vientiane (I kid you not),

...and here's the Victory Gate.
The Laotians do not seems to pay too much attention to tourists in their midst. Stalls and shopkeepers also aren't too keen to wave at tourists to take a look at the wares and offering, unlike in most other places. And that is not exactly a bad, I kindna like it this way.
Even this plaque found at the entrance to the Gate shows the 'uniqueness' of Lao amongst her neighbors. While not all countries go for the superlative when describing their national monuments, Lao has to be the only one that went for:"it appears even less impressive, like a monster of concrete."
And how should one read from this: that this is a gift from our friend, the Chinese, but, hell, it's damn ugly.....?
With the many buddhist pagodas and pagodas-stlyed building, Vientiane can sometimes be indisguishable from Thailand. And already there are hints of Chinese influences. Mixed with these, are the many colonial buildings.
The Mekong winds through the city. And as with the section seen over the Friendship bridge, it's looks to be drying up. This looks like a good 'dining concept', river-side dining by the Mekong. Except, the Mekong river bank seems to be turned into a massive construction site. One blow of evening breeze, and you could be chewing on Mekong river sands.

March 2010: Bangkok, Thailand to Thanaleng, Laos

"Why not go all the way to China?" -- Alice, Alice in Wonderland, 3D...IMAX

Does it get curiouser than this. So here I was, with the sleeper ticket from Bangkok to Nong Khai in northeast Thailand, and an afternoon to while away in Bangkok. The plan was to get to Nong Khai the next morning, cross over the border to Laos, and onward overland to Yunnan in China.
It was a hot afternoon, and Alice in Wonderland was openning. Slipping into the theatre sounds like a plan. So, the theatre darkens, and the show starts with Alice's father suggesting the setting up of trading posts in Bangkok to his biz associates. By the end of the movie, Alice, with a map of Asia rolled open, was suggesting to her late father's asociate: "why not go all the way to China?"
Thailand to Laos (or, more precisely, Nong Khai to Thanaleng, all 3.5km of it) is a small step for a trip from BKK all the way to China.














Starts by taking the northeastern line of Thailand railway all the way to the border town of Nong
Khai. A weeks from now, masses of 'red-shirts' would travel the opposite direction to BKK.
The Mekong River serves as the border between Laos and Thailand. The Friendship Bridge crosses the river and the railway runs on it. In the middle of the bridge, as the train crosses, there you will find the Laos and Thai flag on either sides. But forget about the "Mighty" Mekong. Hot weather and (prossibly) Chinese dams upstream means the river don't look that mighty this year.
The train arrived at Nong Khai late the next morning. But the Laos train, scheduled to have left, was waiting on the track. That's seems reasonable, since it looks like the sole purpose of the Laos railway (still in its 'infancy') was to pick up passengers from the Thai train to Thanaleng (currently the only station.)
But at least it is a start, a good start. Especially when it doesn't look like the Thai-Cambodia railway is going nowhere.
The Laos immigration at Thanaleng looks 'easy', there isn't even a baggage check machine.
Onwards to Vietienne, on the pickup taxi.

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Sept, 2009: BKK -> Dec, 2009: TPE -> Jan, 2010: BKK

And so, it seems, everything has come full circle......







BKK



















TPE



















TPE



















BKK

August, 2009: Beijing, China

One Night in




I was going around the Beijing "bird nest" stadium, hoping to get all the alphabet to make up the word Beijing. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Curiously, there are no gates "I" (maybe to avoid getting mixed up with gate "1", one) and "N" (maybe to avoid mix-up with the similar-sounding "M").




I have been in Beijing previously, so only spent one night at a friend's place. In the day time, I went visiting the Olympics site, which wasn't built during my previous trip.

Other than that, the most fun was checking out the 'English" menu at a resturant while waitng for dinner to be ready. Obviously, the Englisg language police checking out English roadsign in the capital before the 2008 Olympics missed out on THIS restaurant:

August 2009, QingDao to Beijing on the China High Speed Railway

The China high speed rail is the equivalent of the Japanese Shinkasen. It even looks like one, with it sleek aerodynamic design. A Japanese friend actually call it an "i-mi-ta-shi-on shinkasen": imitation Shinkasen (I sense some north Asia rivalry here, friendly or otherwise.)


The He Xie, Harmony (or Concorde, I don't have the official translation) train takes one from Qingdao to JiNan, although the high speed track is only between Qingdaon and JiNan (the capital of Shangdong province.)
You can feel the speed as the train zip out of Qingdao city and out into its rural county. But after JiNan, it noticeably slows down.
Inside the train, it looks similar to a Shinkasen train. The seats, the toilets, taps and even the cloth-hanger by the window all reminds one of a Shinkasen interior. But that's, more or less, where the similarity ends.

I was booked into a no-seat train. That means there were no more seat available on that trip. I am looking at six hours or so standing on the aisle. I manage to find a place near the doors between two carriage. There was a family of four (returning from a Qingdao seaside holiday) share that space with me. They manage to get some stackable plastic chairs and was having a pretty comfortable. So comfortable that before long that space was littered with their fruit peeling, melon seed shells and plastic cups. The chief conductor, a big matron-like lady, came a few times on her rounds, making half-hearted attempt to get them to not block the passage between two carriage. She sometimes ask the train service guys and gals to clean up the floor. The guy and gal made equally half-hearted attempt to sweep up the floor, spending most of the time taking a nap on the floor. By the time the train pulled into Beijing South station, there was a pool a water on one of the carriage from a bottle spill.

I made a mistake of sending my heavier luggage ahead of me by China railway. There was actually big enough space on the train for heavy luggage, even for one with no seating ticket. The luggage ended up in the old Beijing Station. To collect it, you need to go down to the dark basement below the platforms.