It is been so long since I last wrote a blog. At first, I didn’t think my blog still exist. I thought WordPress probably removed my site because I haven’t been posting anything for so long. Well, I wish you all a Happy New Year.
Wow!!! it’s been so long ago since the last time I’ve blog. Almost a year and half to be precise. I don’t even know where to begin. A lot of readers or followers probably wonder where I’ve been all these time. I took a break to catch up on my personal life.. I did a lot of travels and took so many pictures. So, stay tune for more rants from me…
Sabaidee 🙂
The nice thing about living in Northern California, there are so many Lao Temples all over Northern California within 1 or 2 hrs drives. Which meant the whole month of April is Lao New Year celebrations going on everywhere. Most neighboring cities always tried to avoid hosting it same weekend to maximize the potential profits :-). Lucky for me, I got to attend two different Lao New Year events this year.
On Saturday, I didn’t make it out to the temple til late afternoon. It was so hot, the first heat wave hitting the Northern California and I wasn’t ready for it. Once we go to the temple, first thing we did was to look for a shady spot to camp out at. There are so many venders setting up booths around the temple perimeters. I didn’t get a chance to walk around much due to the heat. I got a chance to captured few pictures from the beauty contest.
Since my mom and sister missed the Saturday “tuk bard”, they both asked if I can drive them on Sunday morning. Usually, I always slept in on the weekend.
It is been awhile since my last blog. First of all, I like to wish everyone “Sok Dee Pee Mai” (Happy New Year). Most of the Lao/Cambodian temples around Northern California are hosting New Year festivals this past weekend. This year, I only made it to the local temple to celebrate the New Year festivities. I didn’t make it out to Modesto temple because I was glued to the television watching The Master. Most people probably thinks golf is the most boring sport to watch on television, but that wasn’t the case on Sunday afternoon.
Anyways, back to the New Year celebrations… Such an event like this brings out a lot of people in the community. I ran into so many old friends and old neighbors that I normally do not get to see. Here are some of the pictures I took from the event.
Left: DaoDuangMai from Laos; Right: Ms. Darling from San Diego, CA
2 of the contestants show up late and miss out on photo session.
Wow! It is been so long since the last time I blog… Everything feels weird to me, I’m not sure if I actually knows how to publish this blog or not. I missed reading people blogs that I’ve followed and comments on. So this blog I’ll try to keep it short, while I am trying to familiar myself with this new WordPress.
Taken with Canon EOS 60D and EF 40mm f/2.8 STM Pancake Lens.
Taken with Canon EOS 60D and EF 40mm f/2.8 STM Pancake Lens.
Taken with Canon EOS 60D and EF 40mm f/2.8 STM Pancake Lens.
Taken with Canon EOS 60D and EF 40mm f/2.8 STM Pancake Lens.
Taken with Canon EOS 60D and EF 40mm f/2.8 STM Pancake Lens.
Taken with Canon EOS 60D and EF 40mm f/2.8 STM Pancake Lens.
Taken with Canon EOS 60D and EF 40mm f/2.8 STM Pancake Lens.
I finally got a chance to witness a professional bicycle tour up close and personal. It was quite an amazing to see how fast these guys are flying around the corner. These 128 guys are the top cycling of the world competing in this tour. The tour consist of 8 stages race from Northern to Southern California.
My co-worker and I took off from work little early to catch the race. The stage 3 start in downtown San Jose and finishing it in Livermore. It is about 115.3 miles (185.5 km) race for this stage. We waited for the race in this tiny farming town of Byron, the whole race lasted about 8 minutes after an hour of waiting. The two men breakaway group was ahead of the main peloton about 7 minutes.
The two breakaway group. At this point they both already ridden about 88 miles and have about 27 more miles to go to finish line.
Here comes the main peloton group.
Even those team cars are hauling ass around the corner.
Double clicks on the picture to view a larger size.
One of my must see destinations before I leave this earth just got crossed out. I have seen so many pictures and heard so many stories from people – But I finally got a chance to see it myself. Supposedly, there are three main Plain of Jars sites and the most accessible is site one shown below. The other two sites aren’t as accessible because of road conditions and long hilly trails of hiking to the site itself. So, I’ll pass on those two sites :-).
This site was heavily bombed during the Vietnam War – I am amazed that a lot of those jars survived the war. The bomb craters are scatter throughout this site. After 30+ years, the sizes and depth of those craters remained unbelievable large.
A short trail leading to the site.
The tallest jar on this site, it stand approximately 6 feet and 3 inches.
We picked the hottest day to be out touring the site.
She have to update her Facebook page... even from the middle of no where.
Typical size of bomb crater... The sign reads.. "Kome Bomb... bomb craters during war in 1964-1973.
On the background of this picture is a cave. It was used for shelter during the bombing, So many people died inside that cave according to the local. I walked in the cave but didn't stay very long.
I finally made it to Xieng Khouang after all these years I visited Laos. I am so glad I included Xieng Khouang as one of my destination on this trip. We decided to fly up Xieng Khouang instead of driving, I’ll take my chance on air versus those windy mountain roads. Even though it seems to be a bit expensive for 45 minutes flight. It costs us about 1.5 million kips ($180) each for round-trip tickets. The price was little high due to the changes departure location – we flew back to Vientiane from Luangprabang instead of Xieng Khouang.
This trip would be difficult if I try to do it alone. It is nice to have a friend that knows the streets around town and have a nice place to stay – especially when it is free of charge :-). I actually stayed at the Mulberries Farm just the edge of the town. Check out their website http://www.mulberries.org/.
Yep!! That is it folks... That is Xieng Khouang Airport.
The Melberries Farm
shop
Workers clearing the weeds..
Hours of labor before finish products
Love the foggy morning.. That is the farm house I stay during my visit.
pine trees
The view from the top floor of farm house.. Across all those rolling hills is the Airport... So peaceful and quite there... awesome place to relax and ponder about life.
We sat out there chit chat til the darkness falls... I miss that town... I miss that one person also 🙂
Stay tune for more pictures from Plain of Jars.
Sok Dee Pee Mai as all laotians throughout the world say to each other. I wish all my friends, families and readers a happy and healthy new year. There are several new year celebrations throughout the Northern California, but the weather might spoiled the parties. I hope to attend at least one of the festival, so stay tune for pictures.
Most of my friends from Vientiane have no idea where Bane Lard Kuay located or some never heard of it at all. It is about 18 Km Northeast of town center. This is where my cousin and his wife relocated to – they both retired early and decided they had enough of U.S. Sold the house and most of their belongings to start a new life in Laos about 3 years ago. They are both fortunate to inherited some nice chunk of land along Nam Ngeum River. But, they did a lot of clearing the woods and earth moving before the house can be built.
Personally, I don’t think I can live out there. It is kind of far from the city and it is middle of no where. Their neighbors are probably 1/2 miles away. The back side of property sits along Ngam Ngeume River, its the most peaceful view to ponder about life.
It is still early for dokchampa season. This picture was taken back in middle of February. It is probably full bloom right now cause it is close to Lao New Year. This champa tree is right on the edge of river bank.
up close..
It is not fully ripe yet.. I didn't get to taste it
Mark Kang..
They raises livestock on other side of property...I lost counts of how many type of animals are in this barn.
This dog likes to watch the fishermen from edge of river bank.
Life can't get any better than this...
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