Cole's Question of The Day #21 - Final Question

Today's question is.... Who is this a sculpture of? (13pts for 1st, 3pts for 2nd and 1 pt for 3rd)

The correct answer is Bruce Lee.

Amazingly, we have a tie! Anna and Erin both have 55pts EVEN THOUGH Michelle was the winner of the final question. It is written in stone that Linda will place third, Congratulations to our 3rd place "Most Valuable Guesser".

Make sure to check out our final final question!

THE FINAL QUESTION

21 questions, 13 contestants, 249 points and 6 months. Thank you for participating, it has been wonderful to  run this contest. I am pleased to tell you that first, second and third place will be receiving a special trophy!   With that out of the way... I give you The Final Question! 

Chilling at the beach in Thailand

 After spending a few weeks in Laos we are now in lovely Thailand for 2 weeks of beach time before starting the final leg of our journey.  We are at Koh Phangan, an island in the south of Thailand, near Koh Samui.  When we arrived it poured rain for 2 days...but thankfully the rain has stopped, the sun is shining and the rainy season has ended!  We are staying at a great hotel (only $36/night) - this is the view from our balcony.  We have been really lazy - just sunning, swimming, snorkeling, kayaking, eating, reading and sleeping  - a great beach holiday!





Koh Phangan also has a wonderful place to do yoga - Agama Yoga School. I have joined the beginner class for 3 days and will do 2 more days next week.  I have been busy collecting cosmic energy through my upturned hands, listening to music through my arms, breath holding to increase my personal energy and standing on my head!  Here I am doing sun salutations during sunset on our balcony.  

Chuck is obsessed with taking sunset pictures from our room.  We drink beer on the balcony and wait for the 'perfect' shot - this one is great!

 

Cole's Question of the Day #20

Today's question is...   what is this wooden mechanisam? (7pts 1st, 5pts 2nd, 3pts 3rd and 1pt 4th 5th etc)

The correct answer is a sugar cane juicer. I am turning the helicopter handle. This would be very hard with twelve sticks of sugarcane shoved in the wet bottom part!

Luang Prabang

We spent a week in Luang Prabang, a lovely city in the north of Laos.  There are many temples in the city and hundreds of monks can be seen walking through the streets.  Many of the buddhist monks are novices, young boys who spend several months to a year living with the monks and learning about Buddhism.  Unique to Laos the monks carry umbrellas to shade them from the hot sun.  I snapped this photo as 3 novices (ages about 13 and 10) walked down the street.  They are not allowed to get within 3 meters of a woman so it is hard to get a photo!  They live a simple life but we did see two of them playing a game on their i-phone. 



The streets of the town are lined with boutique hotels, restaurants, cafes and handicraft shops.  The night market is gigantic, we did lots of shopping - buying wood carvings, silver earrings and necklaces, fabric bags, aprons, t-shirts and toys that shoot up into the sky.  We also spent a few afternoons relaxing in the cafes enjoying cafe lattes, frappes and pastries. 

Kenna is trying on a traditional hill tribe necklace (no we did not buy it!).

This is the view of the city from the top of Phusi Hill where a small temple is located.  In Luang Prabang the Mekong and Namkhan rivers joined together, creating lots of areas for riverfront cafes and restaurants.  I even got to enjoy a yoga class on the riverfront during sunset.

There are many temples in the city.  This one is located on the grounds of the royal palace and the inside is full of intricate carvings that are completely covered with gold leaf. 

Every morning at dawn the monks wander quietly through the town to collect alms (food) and bless the people.  Locals and tourist alike line up to provide alms to the monks.  In this photo there are even monks from Thailand (on the left) providing alms to the Luang Prabang monks. 

Weaving Class

While we were in Luang Prabang Kenna and I took a dyeing class at the handicraft store - Ock Pok Tok.  It was a really fun morning as we picked leaves, dug roots, chopped bark and boiled it all together to make the dyes.  

Here I am smashing Tamarind root with a mortar and pestle to make the base for a yellow dye.  After the dye was created we soaked the silk skeins in the liquid for 10 to 20 minutes.




These are the silk skeins colored with all natural dyes.  I was amazed at the richness of the colors. 

In the afternooon we learnt how to weave.  Before we could begin our weaving we had to spin the silk onto the bobbins that would be used for the weaving. Here I am...slowly...spinning the silk. 



Ock Pok Tok employs 20 master weavers to create wall hangings, table cloths and scarves.  The quality of the work is impressive. Master weavers take about 20 years to learn their craft - starting with lessons from their mothers when they are about 8 years old.

We each made a 30 x 40 cm silk placemat.  It took about 2 hours to make one.
Here is Cole getting help from an expert weaver and the translator. 

 

 Kenna quickly got the rhythm of the weaving - slide the shuttle, press the foot pedal, bang the comb, repeat.  Over and over and over!  When we began the pattern the weavers helped us as each row had to lift the threads in a particular pattern. 

 

Vang Vieng

 After Luang Prabang we took a 5 hour bus ride through the mountains to Vang Vieng.  Unfortunately our bus broke down, and the ride took almost 12 hours.  Vang Vieng is known for it's natural beauty - karst mountains towering over the Nam Song River. 

For the past 5 years Vang Vieng has been known as a backpacker's party town, so we originally planned to give it a miss, but 6 weeks ago the government came in and closed down all the bars along the river.  The town is now quiet and the landscape, kayaking, rock climbing and tubing down the river are the attractions again.  We had a great 3 days.

This is the view from our hotel room window.  While we were there we had some clouds and rain - the mountains looked amazing shrouded in the mist. 





We spent a day walking around the town and the next day Cole, Kenna, and Chuck spent a few hours climbing the local cliffs.

 

It was a bit rainy but they still had lots of fun.

The next day the sun shone so we spent 2 hours floating down the river on the inner tubes.  The landscape was amazing and the river run was easy and fun. 

After the tubing we visited the "Blue Lagoon" - about 15 minute tuk-tuk ride outside of town.  The water was cold, clear and green.  We all took a turn on the rope swing.  Here is a picture of Chuck having a turn.



Along the river we saw lots of local kids making "mud balls" and racing them down the river bank.  These two boys proudly showed Chuck their handiwork.