August 31, Day 10 to Kunming, China

A super train! In true Chinese fasion people line up at the allocated spot to board each carriage

Saying goodbye to Laos and Luang Prabang, today we boarded a train to travel the recently completed 750km rail link from Laos to Kunming, China.   I was very happy to be leaving the hot humid weather of southern regions behind us for the more temperate climate of the higher altitudes of Southern China. Whizzing through tunnel after tunnel, we climbed to higher and higher country into the Yunnan Province. Because of its high-altitude plateau location and year-round mild climate, Kunming, Yunnan's capital, is famously known as the ‘produce capital’ of China. It is a major food, agricultural, and culinary centre supplying a vast variety of vegetables and flowers to the rest of China.  Our Kunming local guide welcomed us to what she called the ‘City of Eternal Spring’ and the weather was indeed balmy.  We had arrived in Kunming, in China!

Acres of greenhouses

Altitude almost 2000m. Lake Dian is formed in a fault line

Not far from Kunming is Dian Lake, also known by a number of other names including Kunming Lake. It is a fault lake located on the Puduhe-Xishan fault in the Yunnan province. Its nickname is the "Sparkling Pearl Embedded in a Highland". Unfortunately we didn’t get close enough to visit it.

Kunming is named for the ethnic people of the region, the Kunmi people. Two thousand years ago, this was the Kingdom of Dian and was not part of China at all. Incidentally of the 55 ethnic groups that live in China today 25 are from the Yunnan province. Called ‘Spring City’, Kunming sits at an altitude of 1900m and the temperature seems to vary between 19 to 26C - perfect really. Because of the altitude we were told that the food of Dian region is spicy and oily to ensure sufficient energy. Kunming is basically a region of farmers growing 60-odd% of Chinas fresh flowers, 90% of China’s coffee and tobacco as well as corn and potatoes. 

Daisy our local guide sorting out the itinerary with our wonderful leader, Kara

So much to know but so hard to get information! We had arrived in China and were enclosed behind the Great Firewall of China! Cut off from the rest of the world for all intents and purposes. Our guide recommended a Chinese AI app, ‘Baidu’, which we hastily downloaded and installed, then we were able to ask some of those essential questions that nag at you when you enter a new locality. We will simply have to manage to survive without Google for the next 2 weeks!  

A local restaurant for dinner on our first night

Fascinating display of fungi in a country where they have taken cuisine to the utmost in using local produce

August 30, Day 9 Luang Prabang and the Mekong

This morning we clambered out of sleep before the sun rose - we were joining the daily morning alms-giving ceremony, or Tak Bat. We sat on baby chairs on the side of the road waiting to give out rice and snacks to the monks who walk down the main street at dawn every morning. Ours were meagre offerings but it was a unique experience. We then dived into narrow lanes to explore the morning market before heading back to the hotel for breakfast. Our westernised breakfast was pretty bland after the astonishing array of food on offer in the morning market. We have little idea of the diversity of this and neighbouring cultures.

One entrsance to the mroning market. Later they pack up and move to the night market

Most dwellings in the street where we stayed had shrines in front

A marvellous start to a day which promised much more - we were headed for a riverboat ride up the Mekong, but not before a visit to the Royal Palace ‘Haw Kham’. This was built in the early 1900s during the French colonial era. In 1975, the Communist Pathet Lao seized power in Laos establishing the Lao People's Democratic Republic and thus ending a 600 year-old monarchy and forcing King Savang Vatthana to abdicate. The Royal Family was arrested and sent to brutal ‘re-education camps’ in remote, northern Laos where they died from illness or starvation not many years later. After being lulled by the gentleness of these people, their culture and spirituality, hearing this struck a note of horror in most of us. 

Wat Xieng Thong one of the most important of Lao monasteries  

Haw Kham, Royal Palace, now a museum 

We were soon whisked away to board a ‘slow boat’ - long, narrow wooden vessels - to journey up the Mighty Mekong. And mighty it is!  what could be more idyllic than trailing your hand in the water watching the world slide past giving you a kaleidoscop of images into the life of people who live, or make their living, along the river.  Fish farms and fishing, produce gardens being reestablished after the annual flood waters, woodmen out sawing up huge trees washed down by the river. And of course, we made a mandatory stop to ‘inspect’ local crafts which included whiskey and wine making and weaving. Quite fascinating. 

The riverside gardens have to be rebuilt after each flood

Massive trees wash down the river and are stranded on the bank

Refueling stations along the river

Many riverboats ply the river

The universal problem of litter spilling into the river

A riverside wine and whiskey distillery - all manner of things are preserved in the whiskey 

Magnificent mountains 

Strange fruit clustered around trunks and branches 

Floating fish and produce farms hug the banks 

The vegetation was interesting and had me craning my neck to see more.  One eye-sore however was a newish development supposedly aimed at establishing a green and sustainable area – the ‘Luang Prabang Smart City’.  And not far upriver at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Ou River near Pak Ou, there is a large hydropower scheme under construction. I will admit to my bias as a person visiting this lovely place and feeling a sense of horror at its destruction/manipulation. Easy for us to judge but I acknowledge the need of the locals who struggle.  It is a hard call. 

We diverted to a delightful restaurant on stilts opposite the Pak Ou caves for lunch. The Pak Ou caves are a group of two caves, the Tham Ting and the Tham Theung caves carved deep within the limestone cliffs. Seen from the water, they are dark gaping cavities looking out from soaring limestone cliffs over the Mekong. Once monasteries, the monks had to move away after many floods prevented them from receiving food, but their labyrinthine-depths house many Buddhist figures mostly made of wood. Most people walked up into the caves but I remained outside because the steps up to the first of the cave were simply too steep for me.  

Our quite idyllic lunch stop

From our table we looked out over the river to the Pak Ou caves

Beerlao was always deliciously cold

Reboarding our boat was a little challenging - slippery mud and our boat was of course the furtherest

The Pac Ou caves

The Mekong is such a beautiful river

It had been a day full of unique experiences and sights. Lindsay and I finished the day by escaping the crowds to a 'pizza joint' where we had hamburgers! and a bottle of wine, alone. 

August 29-30 A tiny window into Laos

 Laos, meaning ‘Land of a million elephants’, now only has 860-odd elephants left -  some in the wild and others in protection camps. I asked about other wildlife and it seems that many of the people, hill/rural people particularly, are very poor and so they eat whatever they can find - monkeys, bats, birds, snakes, insects, and so on. As a result, wild fauna populations are diminished - and markets are real eye-openers if not a little confronting to we westerns! Never say you don’t have enough to eat. These people eat everything - a lot of the wild vegetation, river weed, tiny fish, frogs, small birds, frogs, fowl of all descriptions, bee and wasp larvae, fungi, snails, buffalo skin - and insects although we didn’t see any at the markets because it is probably seasonal.  Some of the sights at the market were a bit challenging for us used to sanitised, vacuum-packed food. One upsetting sight was tiny birds in miniscule cages. I discovered that they are birds that the rice farmers capture because they swarm through ripe rice crops eating the rice as they go. Many farmers once simply ate them but now they capture and sell them. It is seen as a win-win scenario. The farmer gets rid of his pests and the buyers more often than not free the birds and in so doing are blessed.  (We gave our guide money to release two birds.)

These packages of buffalo skin and fried mushrooms were less than $A2 

These tiny birds were similar to Java Sparrows 

Buffalo skin while not very attractive is highly nutritious

Generations have survived on snails

River weed on the left and either roots or bark in the centre

A delicious array of mostly vegetables

Either bee or wasp larvae - we saw both

Fresh river fish and toads - good nourishing protein

On this stall were small birds, a wee mouse, and crabs trussed up ready to go

Fresh ducks, chooks and other fowl on offer. You could also buy them BBQed

The BBQed fish looked quite inviting

August 29, Day 8 to Luang Prabang

 Very early start this morning - 6 am brekkie for 6:30 departure to catch an 8am train. We are heading to the beautiful UNESCO city of Luang Prabang, Laos for 2 days. We travelled business class which was very comfortable and we had our fingers crossed that this same train D88 will take us to Kunming, China in a few days’ time. It was a delightful journey through lush jungle and past limestone monoliths once part of the sea floor.

Very comfortable train

After we arrived in Luang Prabang and were collected by our delightful local guide, we drove through lush forests including many teak trees to the Ok Pop Tok Living Crafts Centre. A reviving tranquil place set in lush gardens on the banks of the Mekong. Here women cultivate silk worms, spin and weave and paint textiles - they produce and use silk, cotton, hemp, and another plant fibres, which I can’t recall. It is a delightful place of happy industry. I bought a few little trinkets then sat with a honey, lemongrass and ginger tea gazing out over the Mekong - it was a place to dwell. This haven is located a couple of kilometres outside of Luang Prabang city which is a smaller than Vientiane and has a gentler feel.

Ok Pop Tok Living Crafts Centre

R: a large basket of silkworms feeding on mulberry leaves; C: silk cocoons; L: hanks of spun silk  

This child was content to play under the loom his mother was working

The fibres and yarns they produce here are coloured with natural dyes

Exquisite batik fabric being created - the detail intricate

The Mighty Mekong - we all could have lingered longer

We then were off to visit the Tat Kuang Si waterfalls 30km south of Luang Prabang. Quite a magnificent roaring drenching avalanche of water sending clouds of spray across everything and everyone. Some chose to walk up to the falls along the river and visit the bear rescue centre operated by the organisation 'Free the Bears'. The organisarion primarily rescues and houses Asiatic Black Bears (Moon bears) and Malayan Sun Bears. These bears are saved from the illegal wildlife trade and bile farms - an horrendous practice.  Others, like me, took the easy way (up hill!) and caught a buggy that whisked us away from the ubiquitous markets surrounding the entrance to the falls. What magnificent scenery! Multiple photos later, we wandered down river to round out our visit with a delicious lunch overlooking the falls.

It all revolves around food

BBQed chook!

Deers are symbolic of this park

Asiatic Black Bear (also known as Moon bears)

All froth and bubble and megawatts of enery

Everything was rather sodden from the spray

Let me tell you just one of the local legends surrounding the Falls. According to this one "the Kuang Si Falls were formed when a wise old man revealed the waters of the Nam Si by digging deep into the earth. After the waters came to Kuang Si a beautiful golden deer made its home under a big rock that protruded from the falls. The sound of the water falling on this rock created an enchanting echo that drew people to the waterfall from as far away as China."  Some say that Tat Kuang Si gets its name from this legend. 'Tat' meaning waterfall, 'Kuang', meaning deer and ‘Si’ meaning 'dig' but I heard others. All quite enchanting.
Our first day around Luang Prabang finished with dinner at a local restaurant enjoying the entertainment provided by dancers from a number of different local ethnic groups (this performance had been arranged for a group of rowdy Chinese businesmen - we were simply hitchhikers!).

Delightful ethnic dancers - Laos officially recognises 49 ethnic groups and over 160 subgroups