Treasures from the trip

There's not a great deal of fun to be had opening up a suitcase on return from a trip, especially one which has been delayed in transit. All that washing and stuff that was carelessly pushed in at last minute is hardly something to look forward to seeing, the more so when it's covered in the contents of a bag of purple sticky rice which has burst in transit...

A good job then, that some beautiful treasures were purchased and stashed away at the bottom.

Some things don't travel well and we are not generally souvenir hunters, preferring the practical, the edible and the photographic kind of product to bring home. Items found on markets are often cheap, imported goods from China and I am wary of buying things without sufficient knowledge to discern the genuine from the fake.

Whilst shopping in the night bazaar in Luang Prabang however, I had the benefit of a conversation with Mr Morn in the weaving workshop, had learned a little about the Hmong textile tradition from observation of the Hmong lady working on her batik and read up more in "Legends in the Weaving", a book I bought whilst there. So when I spotted these bags, I recognised the fabrics immediately and knew they had been made from Blue Hmong clothing. What treasure! (My foot is in the picture above so you can get an idea of size and scale)

After all, a girl can't have too many bags, can she? (Dont answer that, Mark) The combination of indigo and scarlet is a classic, isn't it? The geometric batik patterns are intricate and seem to be individual to the piece - I don't know if each woman had her own, personal design or if a family or tribe used the pattern to identify themselves. All I know is that hours and hours of work must have gone into the creation of these wonderful fabrics and that I, for one, am a very appreciative owner.

The scarlet cotton applique has been applied by hand with absolute geometric precision. Mitred corners are beautifully neat and there is little or no bulk. Traditionally the base fabric would have been hemp (as the Hmong woman in the workshop was using) but I am not sure that the fabric of my bags is coarse enough to be hemp. I don't know.

In places, the lengths of fabric have been joined, creating interesting intersections between the patterns.

And those batiked patterns underneath the applique continue to delight and amaze me with their precision.

The hours of work spent on the batik and applique do not complete the process, however, for there is the cross stich section too. This is worked in a variety of fibres in the samples I have - some stranded cotton and some thin woolly thread, worked on an evenweave cloth with slightly less precision as the applique! Fuchsia pink, lemon yellow/lime green and white seem common to all, with hints of emerald green, teal blue or primary blue here and there. I understand the Hmong women work the cross stitch from the back of the cloth and having watched a couple stitching, have no idea how they can produce such elaborate embroidery with such apparent ease. I guess it's practice!

They work four or five arms lengths of fabric for a skirt and may only make one or two in a year. The beauty of their skirt reveals their personality - if they are not full of beautiful batik and embroidery, the woman may be thought of as lazy!

And on each of my bags (ooops, yes, I did buy - ahem - more than one) there is a large red rectangle in the cross stitch panel. On one of them, there's a couple more appliqued squares too, though I didn't see that elsewhere.

To put all of this into context, here's a photo I scanned from the Legends in the Weaving book, showing a Blue Hmong woman making the pleats in her fabric to create a skirt. Sadly, these skills are disappearing and we spoke of this with Ming, our guide. Young people want to wear the same blue jeans and T shirts as their counterparts worldwide - why not? For those who do want to keep links with their heritage, cotton cloth is purchased and synthetic dyes used rather than the traditional plant materials.

Workshops such as Ock Pop Tok are doing a great job in educating visitors about the skills and traditions of the Lao people. I felt privileged indeed to learn from them and feel ambivalent about my bags: sad to think a woman has cut up her beautiful skirt to create a product to sell on a market stall but happy to own such a treasure and to share a few details about its background.

Some wonderful photographs and more information about these people and their fascinating textile traditions can be found here.

Everything you wanted to know about the Hmong people (and possibly a little more) can be read here

A few more good things from the trip

Uploading photographs from our trip, I came across a few which didn't quite fit in earlier posts but which I think are interesting in some way, for example, these shampoo and shower gel bottles in an hotel.

What about the "odd" tile in the Cao Dai temple? To illustrate that only God is perfect, perhaps.

Is buying rice a simple purchase? A market stall in Saigon, Vietnam.

I loved the way the yellow building brought this Saigon view to life.

On the Mekong, in Laos, the flowering teak trees of the forest are doing fine above the high water mark from last weekend's flood.

A store selling handmade paper and books in Luang Prabang, Laos.


The outside of the same store




Rice cakes drying in the sun, Luang Prabang, Laos

Silk scarves, Luang Prabang Night market, Laos.

Bead store in the Night Bazaar, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Woven wall hangings for sale in hotel shop, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Three characters from the garden, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

In case of boredom, a basket of wooden puzzles from the bar, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

A circuitous route home

Little did we know, when setting off from Chiang Mai last night, that our route home would be via Osaka! But the BA plane which had developed an oil leak couldn't be repaired and so we gratefully accepted the alternative offered and flew JAL to Heathrow via Kansai. We arrived home at around 4.30pm this afternoon and our luggage landed at 6.30pm, having come separately on board a Thai flight today. Omar, the most efficient JAL baggage manager has worked wonders and has already identified our bags, collected them from the carousel and taken them to the baggage delivery people who will bring our suitcases here tomorrow and deliver Edward's to him in Finsbury Park too.

Sometimes, the easiest thing is to sit back, relax and let everyone get on with doing what they do best. Last night, of course, we had no choice but to do exactly that and I'm pleased to say it all turned out fine in the end.

It's good to be home.

Embroidery colours

I love the richness of the colour here. The rooms are rather dark during the daytime, shady and cool and the colours appear subdued and understated. But add a little light - sunshine or electric - and they pop out, bright pinks, greens and yellows all used together with, it seems, little or no "design". I would never have used these combinations and would most probably only stick to a very considered palette of carefully chosen colours.

The two parasols at either end of the enormous sofa are another riot of colour. They don't match but it doesn't seem to matter and that bit of gold "bling" makes all the difference.

I think it's really effective, proving that whole-hearted works better than half. What do you think?

A few interesting roof structures

coconut leaves, Mekong delta area, Vietnam

clay tiles, Luang Prabang, Laos

clay tiles with stencilled wooden battens, Buddhist temple, Luang Prabang, Laos

Irregular clay tiles on plain wooden battens, Luang Prabang, Laos.

wooden shingle on canopy, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Oh yes, the weaving workshop

In all the excitement of being here last night, I neglected to tell all about the weaving workshop. Suffice to say that it was hugely enjoyable and, as I feared, I could easily get hooked on weaving - fortunately we have no room for a loom!



My first task was to wind some bobbins of silk thread on the ever-so wonky swift. I needed five of black and two of pale green. Whilst I did this, I had an audience of my teacher Miss Lin, Mr Morn the interpreter and a charming "Blue Hmong" lady working in a corner of the workshop doing some indigo batik on a length of hemp fabric for a skirt.

They giggled as I negotiated various challenges, including snags in the thread, a loose traction belt on the swift and my sheer inexperience and unfamiliarity with the device. But they were very supportive and were as thrilled as I was by the end result!

The loom was already set up and my first challenge was to work 20cm of plain weave. First I watched Miss Lin go through the process slowly...two pedals, one shuttle, one heddle. Right pedal, throw shuttle, left pedal, beat, throw shuttle, right pedal, beat... Just when I thought I was getting the hang of it, Miss Lin would correct my hand position, remind me to beat a little harder...replace my hand into the middle of the heddle. And often, when I relaxed and lost concentration for a second, she'd giggle and put me right with the correct feet and shuttle position.

I was just getting the hang of it...lunchtime! I enjoyed a freshly cooked Lao-style lunch with Mr Morn and his colleague Mr Noy, both young students of English and glad of an opportunity to chat and relax a little. They explained each dish of food and how to eat it, tucking in themselves and joining me in enjoying a great meal. Clockwise from the front, a clear vegetable soup, a pork and bamboo shoot salad, fried tofu with chilli and leaves, a salad of spinach-type leaves and chillies, aubergine dip in the middle and green, purple and white jelly dessert with coconut. All accompanied by Lao sticky rice in the round cylindrical basket container and eaten with the fingers - except for the soup, of course.

Half an hour's break then, when Mr Morn and Mr Noy both had a nap and I took the opportunity to wander around the garden and enjoy the beautiful surroundings.

Then back to work. Time for the pattern. The loom had been set up with the "hook" pattern, a traditional Lao motif and a new challenge was thrown into the pot. Not only did I have to remember the pedal and shuttle throwing sequence, I now had to manage the strings which created the pattern rows - having been warned that setting up a pattern on a loom took time and skill...and if I lost one of the strings or got it out of place, then it would create difficulties.

First was four rows black, four green, four black, four green and so on. Then a little introduction to the string business. Three more stripes and then into the pattern fully.

New respect for these skilled women who not only create such wonderful textiles but do it so easily, so quickly and so creatively...for they introduced different colours along the row, working instinctively to create the most beautiful effects.

A short time later, a cheer from Mr Morn - half way! Now the pattern strings, which I had been moving from pegs at the top of the loom to pegs at the bottom were going to move back up again, creating the mirror image of the design.

At the same time, distraction came in the form of shouts - the young men from the village were about to practice for the boat race on Sunday and my young teacher was eager to have a look and give a shy wave. They waved back and their antics created great hilarity as we all stood and watched them power away on the fast current. The Hmong lady stood and shook her head with a smile, as if to say "young people today...."

When I'd added another 20cm or so of plain black weaving to my masterpiece, Miss Lin finished it off with a few rows of cotton, ready to cut the fringe. As I worked on this last piece, another more experienced weaver came over and gave a little advice about my edges which I admit were rather less than perfect!

Miss Lin finished the weave and set up the loom for the next piece before cutting it away and twisting the fringe. She did this in the same way as we've seen Maori women make their skirts from phormium leaves - by rolling it down her shin - and tied the knots so deftly, I couldn't quite work out how she did it!

I was delighted with my "masterpiece", wonky edges and all. What a great way to spend a day!

Not quite Butlins

When it comes to hotels, we are not noted for slumming it. In fact, I'd go as far as to say, we enjoy a bit of the good life on holiday and we make no excuses for staying in some of the most gorgeous places in the world and consider ourselves very lucky indeed to be able to do that.

So, for our last two nights in Thailand we looked forward to returning to an old favourite - the Four Seasons resort in Chiang Mai. We reckon it's ten years since we were here, certainly Edward was more of a young lad than he is now!

As we arrived, we remembered exactly what it was about this place that makes it so special and looked forward to two days of peace, quiet and maybe a trip to the night bazaar to remind ourselves of the world outside. We'd booked two rooms, wonderful rooms with outside sala and our first glimpse of the pool was very tempting.

But wait...the receptionist asked, would we prefer a "residence", with two bedrooms and a large sitting room instead?

Show us and we'll decide.

Well...no brainer, as they say.

The description was somewhat understated, for not only have we two bedrooms and a large sitting room, the whole place is a dream.

We have a plunge pool to ourselves and three or four outside sitting areas.

In our bedroom there is a large octagonal relaxing area with drapes and a fan, where Edward felt immediately at home, claiming that this comfortable corner was bigger than his London flat...

From his room, there is access to a small raised area with outdoor, screened seating, perhaps for dining privately.

But if we wanted to invite guests, there is a huge dining table (seating ten or twelve) and several cabinets of antique china. There's plenty of comfy seating and a fireplace (even though it's 30C outside)...a huge cabinet with every audio visual bit of kit imaginable (yes, even an ipod dock) and the largest sofa we've ever seen with an umbrella at each end and twenty - yes, 20 - cushions with assorted local embroidery designs - photos of those tomorrow.

But the big surprise came when we explored a door we'd missed when we arrived - a little voice greeted us with "sawadee-ka" and there was Wan, our mae baan (housekeeper). Oh my goodness...

At hourly intervals throughout the afternoon she has enquired whether we'd like a snack...a drink...some fruit....a G&T....could she unpack our suitcases? (! better not.....at the end of a trip the contents of our bags are not exactly for public consumption!) Finally, after showering and changing for dinner, I realised that my linen skirt and top would need ironing - which brought a smile and joy to Wan's eyes as she whisked them away, returning them beautifully pressed some ten to fifteen minutes later.

So, after G&Ts, fruit and canapes, we're just about ready for dinner. She tells us she'll wait till we've gone out before turning down our beds and tidying up for the night and will then go home. She'll see us in the morning - she says at 7.30am but I doubt whether we'll see her then!

I'm already planning on how to get her home in my suitcase.