pierreo May 28th, 2010
I lived in Wales for a year a long time ago! Since I left there in 1988, I never went back until recently.
I decided that South Wales would be a convenient stop-over point on my way to Ireland. I took an early ferry from Dunkirk to Dover with Norfolk Line then drove directly to Saundersfoot where I had booked at the Harbourlight Guest House. There are more details on these, and other practical aspects of my trip at the end of this post.
I had lived in Saudersfoot for a year in 1987 and 1988. The town had not changed much since then. Here is a panoramic view of seafront (assembled from four individual shots) – the photo is shown half size so you are encourraged to open it separately in your browser to see more details.
The old “Coal Office” in front of the harbour has been refurbished, it is now painted white and is again the local information office – when I lived there, it was a chinese Fish&Chips shop where I went on a regular basis for dinner!
Above the harbour, with direct access to a small beach is the mansion where I lived – No, I did not live in the mansion itself, but in the “Coachman’s Cottage” attached to and to the rear of the mansion. The family who lived there has since moved to Tenby – we have not kept in touch unfortunately so I did not have a chance to meet with them again.
Here is a photo that was taken while I was there – different angle, but the same cliffs and the same house on top!
The scenic town of Tenby, just down the coast from Saudersfoot, has not changed at all. The ramps on the left of this photo are for launching the RNLI Lifeboats which cover the Pembrokeshire Coast from here. At low tide, access to the harbour itself is somewhat restricted.
The seafront is essentially the same as it must have been 100 or more years ago.
Continue Reading »
pierreo May 16th, 2010
After Vientiane we were supposed to fly to Pakse, but since the airport of that town is closed in order to resurface the runway, we flew instead to Savannakhet, about 150 km further North. Not a real problem, but it meant 3 more hours of driving to get to our final destination, the Tat Fan National Protected Area (or NPA) and an Eco Lodge right on the edge of an escarpment, the Tad Fane Lodge. The claim to fame of the lodge is the best view of the Tat Fan Waterfall, one of the best in this area.
It is actually two waterfalls right next to each other, one smaller than the other. Remember, this is the dry season – I wonder what these are like at the end of the rainy season?
I went for a short walk to see if I could get a different viewpoint of the falls. I did not – it seems that the resort is at the only place where there is a reasonably clear view from the opposite side of the escarpment. However, I did discover that spring has other advantages, with beautiful violet flowers everywhere along the path.
As the sun started to go down, the reddish light metamorphosed the falls, gradually.
The effect get better and better with time
One the second day, we went for what was supposed to be an easy walk to view more water falls. It started easy enough as we went to another resort (I cannot remember the name) near another waterfall, for which I also forgot the name – I do have a photo, though!
Continue Reading »
pierreo May 11th, 2010
After the North, we flew to Vientiane, the new capital of Laos. We arrived relatively late and so there was no time to do anything, except have a few beers while watching the sunset over the Mekhong river. And not much of a sunset, again because of the smoke and ash in the air. After I took this picture, the sun disappeared behind a black veil, as if behind a mountain, but I know there are no mountains there…
We visited what is thought to be the oldest remaining temple in Vientiane the next morning. The layout Wat Si Saket is not quite the same as what we generally saw further North, which was more similar to Thai temples. Here there is a central hall surrounded by a square ‘cloister-type’ building. In this temple, both the main hall, on the right of the picture, and the “cloisters” on the left of the picture are full of Buddha statues.
The Buddhas here all look identical, but they are not. The face, the hair, the hands and sometimes the clothing are slightly different for each statue. See if you can spot the differences.
There are also Buddha statues in each of the small niches on the wall … thousands of them. The main hall is beautifully decorated
The shutters on the windows are designed to inspire
Across the street was the presidential palace, not where he sleeps, but where he works. It is mostly bureaucrats who work there, we were told. Next to the palace, is another, newer temple called Haw Pha Keao, and in the more traditional layout, with several buildings in a large open area. It was commissioned by the king specifically to house the Emerald Buddha now housed in the temple of the Royal Palace in Bangkok!
Continue Reading »
pierreo May 8th, 2010
I interrupt the telling of my trip to Laos to share pictures of Bangkok. I have been there several times including this trip as I spent two days in Bangkok before going to Laos. Some of the pictures in this post were taken on previous trips to Bangkok.
On this trip, I started with a place I had seen, passing on the river, but never visited. We had to take the monorail, than a river taxi, and finally find our way across small alleyways to the Royal Barges Museum – not really a museum as these barges are regularly used for parades on the river.
Some are quite old but the majority have been built or restored recently. The intricacy of the design and carvings is amazing
Would you not be intimidated by this coming at you? Take a look between his legs – yes, there is a cannon there!
Continue Reading »
pierreo May 5th, 2010
The whole city of Luang Prabang is listed as a World Heritage cultural site. It does not take long in the city to understand why. Out first full day there started very early, even before sunrise. Yet once we arrived on the main street Th Sisavangvong, there is already a lot of activity. Before sunrise, monks from the local monasteries parade through town begging for food and it has become a custom for tourists as well as locals to participate in this ritual.
Enterprising shop owner set up stalls where one can purchase the rice that will be donated to the monks.
This area is set up for a large tour group of Thai tourists. The tourists arrive at the last minute – I am glad we are here early as the preparations are just as fascinating as the event itself.
Monks from each monastery arrive in single file as the light of day is slowly increasing.
What a better picture that a row of monks in bright orange robes in front of some of the local architecture which are the fame of the city.
After a short stay in the area where a lot of tourists come, we moved to another areawhere generally only locals come. The monks loop around and pass through here on their way back to the monasteries. People have set up their own ‘donation’ area along the other main street inthe center of town, Bat Wat Nong. The whole family (three generations of it) is involved in this daily event. Continue Reading »
pierreo May 2nd, 2010
If you are interested, there is practical information about this trip at the end of this post.
Our first sight of Laos was from across the Mekhong in Chiang Khong after a two hour bus ride from Chiang Rai where we spent the night.
On the Laos side of the river, the town is called Huay Xai. We immediately discover that the ‘burning’ season is at full swing as the smog is quite thick (Photoshop was not able to recover much, I am afraid). This is a very busy crossing for people and for goods coming from China.
The landing spot for the ferries is not very impressive – it has had to be improvised as the river is much lower than usual.
The Ferry Terminal, where we completed the transaction to exit Thailand is a long way up the hill once we get to the river.
The passenger ferries are not very fancy – fortunately, the crossing does not take very long.
I cannot say that our first glimpse of Huay Xai is very impressive – and we would not spend more time there than strictly required to go through emigration and get a little cash – the line to exchange money was actually longer than that to clear emigration as that needed more paperwork. I should have gone to the ATM up the street – that was a lot quicker.
Continue Reading »
pierreo May 1st, 2010
I am in the last leg of a trip affected by the eruption of that volcano with the unpronounceable (and unrememberable) name in Iceland (I refuse to even try to remember how to spell it).
The more people I talk to, the higher the number of people I know who were affected by it – not always in a bad way.
My trip was delayed by a week, and thus shortened by a week. That made everything a lot more hectic, both while waiting to leave in Brussels and once I got to Houston. I ended up ‘attending’ the scheduled meetings on the phone even though they occurred in the evening in Brussels.
On the positive side, David was stranded in Frankfurt by the same “no fly” ban that had me stranded and decided to join me in Brussels, so we were able to reconnect after not seeing each other for 8 years. I also met Jenn, who stopped for a night on her way back to York. David is an excellent cook and when he was tired of writing his dissertation, he would prepare a really nice evening meal for us, so that I had home cooked dinners for a week. David, you are welcome anytime!
My sister was stuck in Houston, without a way back, without a husband, who could fly to Canada, and without a hotel room. Fortunately, all this happened on the day that I was supposed to arrive in Houston, so one “O” became another “O” and she took advantage of my reservation – she was impressed by the service, and the room - I am a ‘gold’ member of the hotel and get preferential treatment. I believe Michel described her room as the “Presidential Suite” – I ended up in the same room, and agree that it was very nice.
Several colleagues of mine were also stuck in Houston after a big conference in Galveston. They trickled in two by two as seats were available. However, the first to arrive indicated that there was a lot of reluctance on the part of passengers to get on the very first plane to fly from Houston to Amsterdam. The 40-seater plane, business only, was only 30% full, if that much. Apparently, news coverage in the US focused on the fact that European countries had only reluctantly agreed to restart flights under the insistence of airlines even though they (the countries) were not convinced it was safe to fly. I think that would make me hesitate to be the first too.
Two friends were stuck in Singapore. They are probably the ones who started the volcano spewing all that ash just so that they could spend a little extra time there. What a place to be stuck for an extra week!
There were indirect effects too. One cousin had to host the two daughters of their friends for a few extra nights as the parents were detained in Paris. Three nights turned into 8 or 9, and young children can be difficult about that.
Things are now getting back to normal, until the next time that “mother nature” feels the need to remind us who is really in charge here!
