Neighbourhood Building Site

I have been watching this house being built, next door to my apartment block.  Bamboo is the scaffolding material of choice. The site office is the shanty on the left, which also serves as the laundry for the workers.  Some of them live on site and you see them cooking and living in the shanty and now in the front rooms.

Sunday Sunflowers

 Sunflowers at the front of a temple at Ban Thana on the edge of Vientiane.

Mekong Motorbikes - 555

Marigolds not Motobikes

5 is ha in Laos so 555 is Ha ha ha

Hopefully Gerard  you will open this expecting motorbikes - but see flowers before they can be deleted.  Just a joke

Graduation Week

Graduation was the focus in the secondary school last week. Preparing, practicing, then the awards dinner on Wednesday night and the Graduation ceremony on Friday night. My favorite part is the "Final Walk". On Friday morning the Grade 12 students walk out from the office, around the secondary courtyard and into the elementary school.  The other students line the path and cheer them out.  This year we finished with a group photo on the secondary lawn.

 

 

Rube Goldberg Machines - Grade 9

The  Grade 9s have been working on an Interdisciplinary Unit  (IDU) this term, Science and Design.  We covered Newton's Laws in Science and in Design they used these to design a Rube- Goldberg Machine (a contrapation to complete a simple task in a complicated manner).  Today the nachines were presented and there were some great machines - one with a Star Wars theme, another with a social media theme  and two with a bathroom theme - to put toothpaste on a tooth brush.

Here are some of my wonderul Grade 9 boys - Maxime, Harren and EJ with their multi stage contraption ready to put toothpaste on a brush via a vice triggered by a series of balls running down ramps and up pulleys.

Last Minute Visits - Haw Pha Kaeo

As I prepare to leave Laos I am visiting places that " I have meant to visit, but haven't quite made it".

The first of these was Haw Pha Kaeo.  I ride past the temple every time I come back from the downtown area, but have not stopped to look at the temple.  It has had a recent renovation so looks shiny and new, but in fact dates back to 1565 when I temple was first built on the location to house the Emerald Buddha.

The Emerald Buddha is a very small Buddha statue, now in a temple in the Grand Palace in Bangkok.

The temple was destroyed by the Thais in 1779 ( the year Captain Cook met his demise in Hawaii), and the statue taken to Bangkok. The current temple was rebuilt by the French between 1936 - 1942).

Buddha on a Diet

The Buddha statues at Haw Pha Kaeo were old and unusual.  They were extremely skinny and had pointy noses and extra long ears.

Many statues of Buddha have long ears.  It can signify many things, all linked to compassion.  He has the ability to hear the  sound of the world.

Bomb of a Barbeque

 

A very Laos scene.  Yesterday I stopped to stretch and rest a shady sala on the banks of the Mekong.  This is a very Laos scene - a bomb casing set up as a BBQ grill, the florescent light attached to the tree limb with the wires strung from tree to tree, a concrete picnic setting and men in the background working under a small shed, building rockets.

A good use of polypipe.

At the end of my bike ride this morning, I stopped to rest and stretch in the shade behind a temple on the banks of the Mekong.  A group of locals were there working on their rockets.  Gold foil polypipe - ready for gunpowder! From what I could understand I think the rocket festival will be next week.

Staff vs Student Basketball

Another event this week was the staff vs student basketball game, which the staff won. Here are the teams in their pre game poses. Notice Adam the English Science teacher in the background - not a player!

Grimm Tales

From my posts it may seem that I haven't been in Vientiane, but I have had a busy few weeks at school.  One highlight last week was the Envision Community Theartre play "Grimm Tales" based on a modern interpretation of the Grimms Tales by an English playright.  The kids (and two parents) were fantastic, (awesome to quote the US teachers).  Great acting, very atmospheric and owning their characters.

Monks Washing

Bright clean robes at a temple in Phnom Penh.  I liked the vibrancy of the orange against the textured green tiles.

Sleeping in Public Places

The purpose or symbolism of this golden bird statue in a public park in Phnom Penh is unknown.  However I mainly took the photo to show the man sleeping heavily in the limited shade of the statue.  At the airport as I was leaving there was a book of similar images from Phnom Penh titled "Sleeping in Public Places".  It must be a national pass time.

Phnom Penh

I visited Phnom Penh for the weekend, to visit a friend and to have a look around as I haven't had an opportunity to go there previously.  It is much bigger and busier than sleepy Vientiane.  More traffic and more flashing billboards.  This photo captures something of the dynamism of the city - traditional temples, modern builidings, electronic buildboards with images of scooters and scooters and tuk tuks on the road.

Tibetan doors

 As a change to windows here are some Tibetan doors.

More windows

More Tibetan windows from Ganze.  Love the flue through the pane and grill in the window above.

The young and the old

 The Tibetan people of Ganze in the Kham region of Tibet that is in the Chinese province of Sichuan.

Tibetan Windows

 As with prayer flags, you can never take too many photos of windows.  Here are two from Ganze.

Tibetan Homes

The Tibetan homes in Kham were made from local materials.   In the village near Ser Gyergo Nunnery were made of stone.  The outdoor laundry with the washing machine in the corner of the yard, attached to a very long extension cord was intriguing. 

The man below was proud that I wanted to take a photo of his home.

Prayer Flags and Mountains

I spent a wonderful afternoon walking on the plateau, heading towards a temple and a field of prayer flags.  While I didn't make it to the temple complex I had great time exploring and photographing the area covered with prayer flags. You can never have too many prayer flag photos - a good photographic motto!

An evening ritual

Ser Gyergo Nunnery is home to over 500 nuns and 100 monks.  The main focus of their day is to circle this stupa in the morning and the evening. 

 

Exploring with Kipper

 I stayed near a village called Tagong at the Khampa Eco Lodge.  It was off-grid, with turbines, solar water heaters and very warm doonas.  The owner Angela, from Colorado, is married to a Tibetan nomad.  The family dog, Kipper, accompanied me on my explorations of the plateau. She had personality and an adventurous spirit and always returned to me to check I was on the right track. You can see her above by prayer flags and below with some yaks near the lodge.

Choosing gthe right Trumpet

In the town of Ganze I popped into a shop selling Buddhis clothing and other items.   These two monks were trying different trumpets and being given lessons in finger positions  and techniques for the best sound by the salesman.  They happily let me watch and listen for a while. 

Yaks in the Mountains

Yaks are eating machines.  They are surrounded by magnifienct scenery, but seem to spend most of their time eating.

Mountains

After a snowy day I was blessed with a perfect sunny day in Kangding and walked up to the 'grasslands" behind the town.  The panorama of mountains (several over 6000m) was fantatic.