We finally took the rickety local bus the hour-drive south to Xieng Khuan, or the Buddha Park. Though the Hindu and Buddhist sculptures look ancient at first, the whole park was actually the vision of one man back in the 1950′s. A large reclining Buddha overlooks the area.
Yes, it’s been over 9 months in Southeast Asia. Nine months of walking around whatever city we’re in, shopping at the local market, walking back to the current apartment, enjoying the sights and sounds of the neighborhood, cooking up whatever we purchased. (We perplex the tuk-tuk drivers. We always say “Sabai Dee! Hello!” We rarely accept a ride.) All this walking gives Ian lots of time to say interesting things.
Our current neighborhood, in Vientiane, Laos, is around the corner from Patuxay, featured in the first panel. It’s a giant Arch du Triomph-style monolith, built out of cement the USA donated for an airport runway back mid-century. The rest of the neighborhood is a mixture of government office buildings and family-run restaurants that are buzzing at lunch time when all the offices empty out. Lunch is serious business here. In the evening, the restaurants double as open air living rooms as the families relax, wash dishes, and play cards.
And, a doodle of the two of us, wearing our hats. We look a bit perplexed, like we’ve just arrived somewhere new.
New! I’m posting short comics of stories from our travels.
I am still working on the main Maggie Paints the World Comic. And that will begin updating regularly very soon. In the meanwhile, there are so many other little stories that have happened while travelling. The truth is, if I was’t such a sucker for color, the main comic would be much further along. Instead, it’s coming along slowly, but beautifully.
Now, you will have the best of both worlds.
Several hours outside of Ho Chi Minh City is a mountain surrounded completely by flat rice field countryside. During the war, the Americans controlled a base at the top of Nui Ba Den, and the Viet Cong controlled its slopes. Ian’s dad was stationed near here, so the mountain was a constant landmark.
He came out to visit us in Vietnam, his first visit back since the war. The modernness of Ho Chi Minh City amazed him, as did how little of the countryside had changed. Except for the mountain. What had been a place of bloody confrontation was now a temple, and what could be best described as an amusement park.
Here is a painting of one of the temples, with the misty mountain behind. To get there we rode a ski-lift style gondola up the mountain through a torrential downpour. To get back down the mountain you could choose the gondola, or the roller-loge.
Our favorite hotel in Ho Chi Minh quickly became the Blue River Hotel. It’s a small guest house in a back alley of Pham Ngu Lau, a part of the city where many travellers end up.
The best thing about this little guest house? The staff.
This is our friend Hien. After watching me work on my comic she asked me to draw a portrait of her.
Ian had purchased an English-Vietnamese picture dictionary. Hien sat with us for hours, teaching us to say a few words in Vietnamese. (This is a tough language to pronounce!) She enjoyed the book so much that we gave it to her. We’ll have to go back for more lessons next time we’re in southern Vietnam.
