The Four Kingdoms Tour

• P a r t O n e •

The phone rang one Wednesday morning and 48 hours later I was on a plane to Bangkok for the start of an eleven-day, four-nation tour of unesco designated World Heritage Sites. We were booked to visit Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. A friend had had to cancel his booking at the last minute and Celia Lazaro of G & S Travel and Tours needed someone who knew something about museums and art history and could write to come along on her inaugural Four Kingdoms Tour. The itinerary was ambitious, but the sites chosen were all too tempting to pass up. Each destination was renowned for its wealth of monuments and art treasures as well as its important role in the history. What I was not told was that I would be traveling with eight feisty, fun-loving Filipina matrons.

I was a bit intimidated as we gathered in the departure lounge of Manila’s Centennial Terminal ll. These ladies were no Rough Guide tourists geared up for an adventure to the hinterlands of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. They were smart-and-casual, armed with pashmina shawls and more finely set diamonds than I had seen in a long time. They were definitely A-crowd, intelligent, well-read and very well traveled. Traveling as a group on a tight schedule through four different countries is challenging. The fact that everyone was consistently on time, good natured and supportive of each other was a testament to our leader Celia and the responsible and affectionate nature of all concerned. We ended up having a lot of fun and saw some truly wonderful sights along the way.

Our first stop was Bangkok. After shopping and catching our breath we headed for a Thai dinner at one of the city’s many celebrated boutique restaurants, the Baan Khanitha, in a renovated private house near Sukhumvit Road, an excellent example of adaptive reuse of a rambling 1950s tropical bungalow. We avoided super hot chili dishes but still had plenty of appetizers and entrees delicately flavored with aromatic Thai basil, lemon grass, mint, ginger, coriander, green and red curry paste and coconut milk. For those with sensitive palates there was plenty of fish and sizzling roast chicken and heaps of steaming jasmine rice. Our first dinner in Bangkok was undoubtedly one of the most memorable of our trip.

The next morning we caught an early flight to Sukhothai, one hour north on Bangkok Airways, a new regional airline which has been promoting cultural tours within Southeast Asia. By noon we were settled into a comfortable resort hotel a few kilometers from town set in a landscaped garden with lotus ponds and a swinging bridge.

At one o’clock our Thai guide picked us up in a small bus and we proceeded to Sukhothai’s famous historical park, across the Yom River from the modern city set on Thailand’s flat central plains. The park and the surrounding 13th century ruins have been designated a unesco World Heritage Site.

In 1238 two Thai generals rebelled against the Khmer Empire, which controlled most of present day Thailand at that time. They built the first independent Thai capital at Sukhothai and quickly expanded their holdings to included large areas of Thailand, Burma and Laos. By the end of the 13th century, Sukho-thai’s most famous king, King Ramkham-haeng, had introduced the Thai alphabet, converted his people to Theravada Buddhism and laid the foundation for much of what we think of as modern Thai culture. Willowy, androgynous figures of Buddha with an extended flame of wisdom emanating from the top of his head have become an internationally recognized motif of Sukhothai style.

In 1978 the Thai government started a massive restoration project at Sukhothai with the help of unesco. The jungle was cleared and a vast historical park was created with manicured lawns, ancient trees and beautiful reflecting ponds. Parts of the crumbling city walls and many of the ruined stupas and religious images were restored or at least stabilized. Unfortunately, the palaces and private homes of the original capital were built of wood and these have completely disappeared.

We visited three or four of the major sites ranging in style from early Khmer to purely Thai Buddhist. Before converting to Buddhism the Khmer Empire had practiced Indian Brahmanism and their architecture was strongly influenced by Southern Indian designs. Their chedi or monumental religious towers were square and depicted stories from the Ramayana and other Hindu myths and legends. With the arrival of Theravada Buddhism from Sri Lanka the stupas became bell shaped and images of the Buddha in various iconic poses came to dominate the architecture.

Probably the most impressive image at Sukhothai is the huge seated Buddha at Wat Sri Chum. The white stucco image is 15 meters high and peers down benevolently as one enters the walls of the shrine, which tightly confines it. One of the remarkable features of this Buddha is its elongated right hand reaching down gracefully to touch the ground. This pose represents the moment in the life of the historical Buddha, Gutama Siddhartha, when he overcame all earthly desires.

Devotees have embellished the tips of the figures with gold leaf while delicate green moss covers upper parts of the image. Religious charlatans have occasionally hidden in the walls behind this image and tricked gullible worshipers into believing the Buddha was actually speaking to them.

After a full afternoon of walking and riding the bus from site to site we were ready for merienda and a little shopping. Fortunately for us that evening turned out to be the celebration of the birthday of King Ramkhamhaeng. Crowds were gathering at his statue, which was festooned with countless garlands of flowers. Leis of marigolds and jasmine, pots of yellow chrysan-themum and a rainbow of tropical blossoms were arranged in countless ingenious shapes and patterns. A large street fair had been set up in the park; vendors were selling everything from designer cloths to street food. We snacked on Thai delicacies and took advantage of the bargains, much cheaper than in Bangkok. Indigo cotton shirts, Thai silk, incense, wood carvings, silver and handmade paper items were being sold by merchants from all over the country. We ate in town at an attractive open-air restaurant and were escorted back to our hotel for a much welcome good night’s sleep.

Next day we were off to Luang Prabang in Laos, less than an hour to the east of Sukhothai, once more on a brightly painted Bangkok Airways turboprop. We could have easily spent another day or two in Sukhothai visiting the ceramics museum or the outlying temple sights but we had to keep to our demanding itinerary.

Luang Prabang sits on a narrow peninsula of land at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Kham Rivers, nestled in a valley surrounded by dense forests and high mountains. We were happy to fly in on a beautiful clear late morning, long after the river fog and mountain mists had burned away. The city was much smaller than I had imagined, only 50,000 people and no high-rise buildings or unsightly development yet. The red and gold, hammer and sickle flag of the communist party fluttered gaily at the entrance to our luxury hotel as we arrived. I was not sure if the guard realized he had hung it upside down, or if he even cared. The next day I tried to explain the situation to him but he only laughed; it remained upside down throughout our visit.

Luang Prabang is a small, easygoing city. After the rainy season ends in October the city becomes lush and fragrant with flowers. It is no longer the remote and famously isolated capital of the "kingdom of one million elephants"; however, it still has an other-worldly quality. Gold topped Buddhist temples dominate the landscape and flocks of orange robed monks, many sporting black parasols, make their appointed rounds. In the early hours of the day they collect alms from the townspeople and in the late afternoon they gather from all over the city for chanting and meditation.

The international tourist trade has brought some changes. The Kodak outlets on Xiang Thong Road can now transfer your overflowing digital CF cards to compact discs in the wink of an eye and internet cafes and satellite dishes have sprouted all over the city. Cafes and restaurants sell fine wine, international cuisine and local delicacies. Several of the old royal residences of the now defunct Lao monarchy have been transformed into very expensive guesthouses, tastefully furnished with Asian antiques and offering all the standard amenities of first class hostelries.

The most important attractions in the city are the Laotian Buddhist temples and monasteries. These range in size from the small chapels and shrines on top of Phou Si Hill in the center of town to the beautiful 16th century monastery compound of Wat Xiang Thong. At sunset, from Phou Si Hill, one has a spectacular view of the city, its two rivers and surrounding mountains and forests.

The Xiang Thong monastery and several other temples in the city contain exquisite gold relief, cut glass mosaics and countless Buddha images created over the centuries. Lao architecture is unique. The temple roofs sweep down almost to the ground and the religious iconography is replete with indigenous legends and examples of local beliefs.

We spent three full days in Luang Prabang touring the temples and shopping in the extensive night market for textiles and finely made local crafts. On the second day we boarded a boat and chugged up the Mekong River for two hours to the sacred Pak Ou caves, which contain over one thousand antique Buddha images. I couldn’t help remembering that only a few short years ago this now verdant landscape had been overrun with war, revolution, landmines and American carpet-bombing.

The following day we were off to see the Kouang Si waterfalls. This entailed another long excursion into the countryside with stops along the way at hill tribe villages to buy souvenirs and see the inhabitants in their traditional costumes. The falls themselves were well worth the two-hour trip south. Surrounded by tropical rain forest, a clear stream spills over several ledges and cascades into a series of brilliant turquoise blue pools.

Our imaginative leader Celia had planned a sumptuous picnic lunch under the trees complete with china, glasses and maids to serve us. We had to shoo away a couple of back packers who tried to inveigle our helpers into giving them hand-outs. Our group was definitely not roughing it.

The next day we were scheduled to fly off to the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Vietnam, and a very different climate and culture. Luang Prabang was delightful and fascinating–one could spend a couple of days or a couple of months there and not be bored. The city has the climate and relaxed ambiance of Baguio in 1960s or 70s, with the addition of religious monuments worthy of the unesco World Heritage Site designation.

To be continued