Nouvelles photos

J'ai ajoute une photo au message "Les belles rencontres" un peu plus bas, pour tous ceux qui ont un lien avec l'ecole Elan. J'ai aussi ajoute plusieurs photos aux albums de la Thailande et du Laos.

G'day Mates! from Evelyne

We have now arrived to Australia and are staying with people in Woronora, in the suburbs of Sydney. However, after getting a car at the airport and driving for a few minutes, we almost thought we were back in... Halifax! Except that the beach is right in the city, kids practically learn to surf before they learn to walk, and at the end of January, people walk around in shorts and t-shirts or simply in their bathing suits! During our first 24 hours, we went to a grocery store (we hadn't seen one of those for months), to the beach and we bought a tent for our next month and a half of camping. It feels good not to be identified as tourists all the time, until we open our mouths anyways. The people we met so far are very nice and we had no problem understanding them! Until we discover and can tell you more about this country, the movie Australia is an entertaining introduction to aboriginal culture and issues as well as Australian and Second World War history.

Ma mere a les cheveux mauves!!

Je viens de voler le punch, mais je ne pouvais me retenir. Patricia voulait se teindre les cheveux et Noémi et moi avons insisté pour que ce soit en brun, sa couleur naturelle. Nous avons donc acheté de la teinture à Ubon Ratchathani, mais quand on prend de la teinture pas chère (alors qu'en Thaïlande, c'est déjà pas cher), c'est ce qui arrive! La première journée, ça nous prenait toujours cinq secondes avant de la reconnaître, mais on s'habitue. Jean-François, par contre, n'aime pas trop cette couleur qui n'est ni naturelle ni franchement artificielle. La prochaine fois, on essaiera orange ou vert!

Les belles rencontres

Je vais ecrire ce dernier message en francais (vous devinez que c'est Patricia qui ecrit), specialement pour Frank et Agnes qui lisent assidument mon compte rendu, et qui m'ecrivent toujours des petits commentaires tant apprecies! Notre dernier arret au Laos etait sur une ile tout au sud, au sein d'un archipel nomme Si Phan Don = Quatre mille iles. Ici, nous allions faire des devoirs, ecrire des cartes postales, lire les romans qu'on trimbale depuis des semaines, et mettre enfin nos journaux a jour car ce sont des iles bien tranquilles, reputees pour la farniente. Il n'y a que quelques chemins qui font le tour le l'ile, aucune voiture (seulement des motos), et quelques petits villages au bord de l'eau. Il n'y a pas encore l'electricite, seulement des generatrices le soir pour les restaurants, ce qui fait que le rythme de vie est tres relaxe. Nous avons loue deux petites huttes au bord du Mekong, avec un hamac sur la terrasse. Helas, il y avait bien trop de choses a faire! Nous avons loue des bicyclettes, nous nous sommes baignes dans le Mekong, nous avons fait une randonnee jusqu'aux chutes, un tour de bateau pour observer des dauphins d'eau douce, du "tubing" et nous avons passe plusieurs soirees avec un jeune couple de francais bien sympathiques, rencontres dans le Sawngthaew (genre de camionnette avec deux bancs a l'arriere qui sert d'autobus), et notre voisine de bungalow, Rebecca. (C'est toujours dans les plus petits endroits qu'on rencontre le plus de monde!) Bref, il y avait amplement de quoi remplir nos journees. Un jour, Julien et moi etions en train de faire une balade a bicyclette, et Julien entend son nom. Il se retourne pour voir qui l'appelle : c'est Chantal, sa prof de 3e et 4e annee!!! Je suis presque tombee en bas de mon siege (de velo), je n'en croyais pas mes yeux. Vraiment, on peut dire que nous nous sommes rencontres a l'autre bout du monde! Et ce, totalement par hasard, car nous ne savions pas du tout que l'autre etait dans ce coin! Nous avons passe une belle soiree ensemble, et le lendemain, c'etait de nouveau le depart. Quelle coincidence!
Apres cinq jours de plein air, nous sommes rentres en Thailande, et nous voici de retour a Bangkok. Maintenant, on essaie de faire tout ce qu'on n'a pas fait - en plus d'organiser la suite. Dans quelques jours, nous nous envolons pour l'Australie!!
Je vous souhaite a tous une belle annee, un peu en retard, mais sachez que je pense a vous, et que j'aimerais bien avoir de vos nouvelles, ne serait-ce qu'un tout petit mot! A bientot.

Laos, the Real Thing

Two days in Vientiane was sufficient to see that that there wasn't much to see. It's the current capital, but not nearly as beautiful as Luang Prabang, and much quieter (perhaps because we were there on Jan 1st!). Luckily, we found Le centre culturel francais stocked with Asterix, 'Tit Oeuf and Tintin, and ahem, some current affairs magazines and newspapers. Julien was in absolute heaven, they had to throw him out at closing time. He would have stayed an entire week, suddenly, this was the best city Laos! How wonderful to see him so excited about having the chance to read.

The second half of our trip took us from Vientiane all the way to south, and allowed us to discover the rural side of the country (which does, after all, represent the majority, since 80% of the population still lives in villages) In Phu Kao Khuay Park we did a three day trek, which included one night sleeping in a watch tower (desperately) waiting for wild elephants to come to the salt lick (they never showed up) and one night sleeping (in our mosquito nets) on a dried up riverbed, where our guide assured us the elephants would not come, since they only go where there is water. We did however see lots of elephant tracks, trampled bamboo plants, and poop, so we know they do actually live in this park. We also spent two days in Ban Na, a a beautiful village on stilts just next to the park, where we did a homestay. This means you sleep in a family's home and they provide you with meals, similar to what they would eat, although they never actually ate with us. They would serve us first, and then eat after we had finished. After four days of sticky rice and vegetables for breakfast, lunch and supper, with an occasional omelet, the reality of life in rural Loas was starting to hit us. (And to think we complain when we have to eat the same thing two nights in a row!) The village of Ban Na is entirely dedicated to the production of bamboo baskets for steaming sticky rice, apparently supplying baskets to most of the country. One afternoon we just plunked ourselves down beside a group of women and got an impromptu lesson in basketweaving, Julien and the girls got the hang of it quite quickly, but we never got as fast as the locals.

Next stop, Ban Kam Lo where we took a boat through a 7 km long cave, getting in and out of the boat in the shallow spots and wading through the water. The tunnel is entirely unlit (except for one spot with incredible stalagtites and stalagmites), so it's kind of spooky, you can barely see the roof in some places, it is so high. We did another homestay in this village with a highschool history teacher and his wife. Unfortunately, their English was quite limited and my Lao extremely limited, so the conversation was very basic. Still, we managed to talk about our families, and share a bit about our respective cultures. The night we slept there was extremely cold, the wind was howling, I thought for sure the house, a bamboo hut on stilts, full of gaps, was going to collapse, but it stayed up despite the elements. I guess it was more solid than it looked!

It is here we met another family traveling around the world, and yes, more Canadians! A family of six - wow, was I impressed. (A special hello to the McConnery family if you are reading this) We spent an afternoon together sharing travel stories, and hooked up again a few days later in a small town a bit further south called Pakse, where we spent another day visiting What Phu Champasak, an ancient Kmer religious complex, kind of a mini Ankhor Wat. Meeting this family (with a teenage girl Noemi's age and three boys, 8, 10 and 13) was a true blessing, since Julien got to spend the day amidst a bunch of boring old ruins playing with boys his own age, instead of walking around a bunch of boring old ruins with his family! An entirely different experience! The next day our paths again went separate ways, and we were quite sad to say good bye to our new friends.

Finally, we stayed a few nights on the Bolaven Plateau, where they grow Lao coffee. And boy is it good. After months of Nescafe and chai, we were thrilled to taste the freshest coffee in the country. We actually stayed in a guesthouse run by a family who has a coffee plantation, so we got help out with some picking. Of course, all of it is done by hand, mostly by young girls, and from my personal experience (a whole two hours), I can assure you it is hard work! After picking, the beans are spread out on the ground to dry for a month and a half, raked regularly, and then roasted in a small fire heated, hand turned roasting oven. This was very exciting for me, as I had never seen coffee plants before (what a sheltered life I have led). Now I will really appreciate my coffee (as well as my rice!).

New Year's Eve in Laos

As you may know from the article recently published in Le Devoir (merci Agnes!), Luang Prabang is an absolutely beautiful, former capital city, in the north of Laos. It is a peninsula, at the junction of the Mekong and the Nam Kam rivers, and our "Christmas" breakfast, after getting off the boat, was in a lovely riverside restaurant, and included pancakes, fruitshakes, delicious real Lao coffee, and exotic fruit salad. A real treat after our night on the beach! Classified a Unesco heritage site in 2001, the architecture is a combination of traditional Lao and French colonial, all freshly renovated over the past few years. Although it is quite small, Luang Prabang has art galleries, museums, bookstores, many little boutiques, the most amazing handcraft market I have ever seen (I know, I say that every time), food markets, and delicious, inexpensive street food. I would even go so far as to say it might be "hipper" than the Plateau Mont Royal! It has a very French feel to it, many signs are in French (and Laos, but not English), some of the older people still speak a bit of French, and you can find baguettes, La vache qui rit, nutella and pastis! And the men still play Petang (petanque).
It also has dozens of beautiful temples, and lots of monks walking around the town, which gives it a very serene atmosphere: one morning I got up at six o'clock, believe it or not, to see them receiving alms (food) from locals sitting on the sidewalk with baskets of fruit and sticky rice. They do this every morning, but I only witnessed it once! (Just too early for me)
Despite the numerous tourists, I was amazed at how "untouristy" it felt, not a plastic temple keyring to be found anwhere! One day we rented bicycles and cycled out to a small village on the edge of the Mekong, where we had a picnic and spent the entire afternoon swimming and playing (mostly Julien) with a group of local boys. Even though we only know about fifteen words in Laos, we managed to communicate by drawing in the sand and using hand gestures. It was a lovely experience, the kind you just can't plan in advance.
From there we took a bus over the mountains (very windy and slow but stunning scenery, sharp mountain peaks covered in vegetation) down to Vientiane, the current capital, arriving at eight o'clock on New Year's eve, with, as usual, no reservation. As we started wandering around, only to discover that everything was full, I was starting to think that our last minute planning was perhaps not the best way to do things after all. And then we heard a friendly fellow who said : "Are you from Canada, you are a walking advertisement for Mountain Equipment Coop!" We had a good laugh, a nice little chat, (thanks Trevor and Erin, from Alberta) and he recommended we head away from the city center: ten minutes later we had a room. Twenty minutes later we had supper in the main square, where a Lao rock band was doing a New Year's countdown concert, and fifty minutes later we hooked up with our new Canadian friend and his gang, (including an English fellow we had done a trek with in Thailand!) and, voila, we had an instant bunch of friends for New Years. We headed off to a bar where we did the countdown, and watched the fireworks from the terrasse (yes, the kids were all with us, not a problem whatsoever, Julien even bought the beer, but only drank coke, of course - just in case any of you Villa girls are reading this!) I suppose you could say it was a pretty universal way to spend New Years Eve. And the next morning, like most people, we slept in!

Christmas on the Mekong

Mea Culpa - I'm backtracking again, and there's no hiding it this time, Christmas was indeed over two weeks ago! When I last wrote, we were in Chiang Mai, in the north of Thailand. The night before we left, by pure chance as we were wandering around the night food market, we bumped into another family who heard our accents and said, "Mais c'est du Quebecois!" So, we started talking and ended up having supper together - it turns out they are from Saint Bruno (salut Michele, Charles, Nicolas et Florence!) and are also travelling around the world! Julien was thrilled to finally have someone his own age to share his stories with (and us too : ) of course ) What a lovely unexpected surprise. The next morning we had breakfast together and then went off in opposite directions, however we may meet up again in New Zealand.
From Chiang Mai we went to Chiang Rai, a few hours further north, where the highlight was renting mopeds! As you can see, it doesn't take much to make me excited, but this was actually the first time I ever tried, and within fifteen minutes, I got the hang of it, and was quite proud of myself. In typical Thai fashion, we piled five people on two mopeds (noone batted an eye), and insisted on having helmets, which seems to be somewhat optional here. We toured through the countryside, following the Mae Nam Kok river, out to a small tribal village where we had lunch. The next day we went to a "modern" temple, Wat Rong Khun, all white with glittery mirror mosaic, described in the LonelyPlanet as a frosted birthaday cake on fire! Quite different from your run of the mill Wat.
We then took the bus up to Chiang Khong where we crossed the Thai-Lao border. This has to be the absolute most casual border I have ever seen. On the Thai side, you get your passport stamped confirming your departure date in a small kiosk on the side of the dirt road, walk down to the river where a small motorboat takes you across the Mekong, and then, on the Lao side, in Huay Xai, you fill out a couple of forms, pay for the visa, and voila, you can stay for 30 days.

N.B. Avis aux interesses: si vous avez deja lu la version francaise de notre Noel sur le Mekong, ceci est ma version en anglais.

We spent the night in Huay Xai before heading off on our two day "cruise" down the Mekong to Luang Prabang. Now before you think we decided to splurge on a luxury boat trip, let me give you a few details: the boat is a long wooden boat jam packed with wooden benches, just wide enough for two people, and a cushion wide enough for one and a half people! There were about eighty people on board, mostly tourists, but a few monks and locals as well. Despite being rather squished, it was quite charming, and the scenery was beautiful: lush vegetation covering mountains on both sides of the river, small villages on stilts here and there, and gardens all along the sandy riverbanks. It's amazing what they can grow, from what I could tell, corn, leafy lettuce-type stuff, and peanuts! Julien had a good book and was incredibly patient, it was sunny and peaceful, the day was lovely.
We stayed overnight in Pak Beng, about halfway along the route and got back on the boat in the morning, Christmas Day. Only this time, the boat was even smaller, with just as many people, smaller benches and no cushions. Several times we stopped along the way to pick up locals, bags of rice and baskets of chickens (which were hoisted onto the roof). The second day was not as sunny, and the wind was quite nippy, so after 8 hours, we were looking forward to getting off the boat and having a nice hot shower. Well, about an hour before reaching Luang Prabang, the boat broke down and the captain managed to bring it safely to the riverbank, where a local fisherman tied us to a rock. We all got off the boat to stretch our legs while waiting for another boat to come, and then were informed that, in fact, it was too late, the boats couldn't navigate at night, so we would just have to stay there! There was no village in sight (not that they would have room for a hundred people) so a couple of guys (of course) with Julien happily helping out, built a fire on the riverbank. We pulled out our sleeping bags and spent the night on the beach, singing by the fire, sharing stories with other travellers and sharing the instant noodles and beer the captain managed to scrounge up for us. Some people slept on the boat, but I don't think they had quite as much fun. As Jean Francois said in his message, Christmas on the Mekong was really Christmas on the Mekong! Not what we expected, but one we'll certainly remember!