Photo Thursday: Glasgow

Glasgow gets such a bad rep but it's one of my favourite places in the world.

I went to university there, made ace friends, and had heaps of good times.  It's July.  It should be summer, and sunny!  I can't get used to this.

I miss hanging out in Kelvingrove Park on a sunny day.  On the big hill with pals, and the rest of the Westend.  Everyone would chill on that hill.  Drinking, chatting, and waving at the polis.  I miss the Westend in general.  I found these photos on my phone so I thought I would share.

The Kelvin 

Love this. I think these guys were singing out their window

Great Western Road

- It's Winter in Auckland. They don't have central heating here... 

I did not pack for a winter in NZ when I left on my trip but this working holiday visa. It's working out okay eh...

A morning in Luang Prabang, Laos

I cruised down the Mekong for two days to get to this little gem of a city.
Two days because I opted for the cheaper and safer slow boat.  It takes literally a quarter of the time if you want to take the fast boat. I actually saw a few zoom past. The passengers wore motorcycle helmets. The fast boats only seated about 5 people, it's a speed boat. Meanwhile, the slow boats can squeeze in like 100 people- rows and rows of small wooden benches. Minimal leg room. Wooden, numb bum but at least you don't have to wear a motorcycle helmet, and if you were to crash into a rock, the whole boat would not crumble.  A speed boat would, warned my hostel owner in Chiang Mai.  Oh it would, he said.  Safe! You can read about the slow boat journey here.

Once locating your backpack, and climbing up the small hill, you'll be greeted by a small group of tuktuk drivers.  The city is a UNESCO world heritage site, making all big vehicles forbidden.  It's a real religious city- about 90% of Laotians are Buddhists- and it's forbidden to be higher than a monk so no buses!  It was really quite refreshing being in a town without heaps of traffic.

Monks do not have any possessions- although sometimes you see them in big cities with mobile phones, and shopping which I can't really understand... anyways, in Luang Prabang, every morning, the monks walk down to the main street to collect alms.  They each carry an alms bowl which they use to collect goodies and which they all share out later in the temple, and that's their food for the day.

I was with my friend, Pete, and we got up at 530am to get ready to go hand out alms.  There was already a lady there setting up a stall with baskets of sticky rice so we bought a couple from her. You can also buy packs of biscuits if you are into that.  It was still dark at this point but a few people had started to gather. Once it started getting light, more people arrived, tourists and locals alike and we all lined up at the side of the road. Soon we saw the bright orange robes of the monks walking down the street in single file. They walk alongside us and open their bowls each time they pass someone with an offering.  There was a local next to us, and she would pinch some sticky rice, and roll it into a ball before popping it into the monk's bowl, and whispering a prayer. They come by really fast so I probably only managed every 3rd monk but they all share the food anyway. It was a good experience.

There were a couple of homeless families on our side of the road too, and a lot of the monks would donate all their alms to them.  One of the woman selling alms across the road had one of her kids with a box on our side of the road, and the monks would hand over all the biscuits and treats into the kid's box, and I guess the goods would get sold again the next day... huhh.

The only thing that annoyed me were the tourists that chased the monks down the road to snap photos! It was crazy, running after the monks like that.  Very disrespectful, and embarrassing seeing falangs (foreigners) disrupting the morning ritual like that.  I took a photo from afar...

Pappin the papz

We went along to the morning market after. Lots of treats!

Baskets for sticky rice alms

Colourful veggies

Rice, rice, rice

This little kid was actively involved in choosing dinner. The ducks were freakin out.

Catch you next time,

Sue

Public baths

We were staying in Kyoto, and our host, Nao, kept suggesting we visit a public bath to help relax. We put it off for a few days because all I knew about it was that you strip naked and sit in a bath with a bunch of other people. I was nervous.

Before we set off Nao warned us, 'watch out for the electric one!'. Electric, how does that work in water I wondered. 'Don't worry, its the best one.' he called as we left, hmm.

We followed his directions, and realised we had past it several times during the day. There's no huge signage or anything. There's a foyer area for shoes, and then a male and female door. The woman looking after the place, and collecting the money sits in the middle of these doors. I paid her and then went in and started getting undressed. She was watching telly but I was still felt very self conscious when I was getting undressed. Through the glass slide doors I could see steam rising, several wash stations with a bucket and tap, several bath tubs behind that. I had a long face cloth type thing which was good for keeping my privates, private.

I took a deep breathe, and thought f*ck it, let's just go. Pulled open the slide door, and the 3 woman that were in there didn't even look up. Nothing to worry about at all. I grabbed a stool, and bucket and picked a station which didn't intrude on anyones personal space too much but also so I could make sure I was doing things correctly. The main tubs aren't for cleaning yourself in, but rather for soaking in and relaxing so the purpose of these wash stations is to scrub yourself clean.

The locals really do scrub. Until they're like red raw some of them. The woman I was sat near was washing before I started, and was still at it when I got up to go to the baths. Its cute, the locals often have their own bucket which they take with their own toiletries, and toothbrush, hairbrush etc.

Ok, so I was ready. I think there was 5 baths altogether. I didn't pick the one closest to the washing stations but 3rd up. Popped my foot in, and got this tingling sensation. It was hot, hotter than I would normally have my bath but I just eased myself in. Then I felt like these kinda like vibrations which would make my muscles wobble. Of course, I jumped straight into the electric one!!! I didn't want to seem like the silly foreigner so I just sat there and soaked it up for like 5minutes before coming back out... It was actually ok when I was side on, ie when the zaps were on my side but when I turned and it was on my tummy, it was too much. It felt nice on my back, but the tummy was too much.

Next I tried just the hot bath, which was nice. Next to that was the very hot one. It took me a while to get into it because it was so hot. I couldn't really stay in it for too long because it was that hot. There was a bubbling one which I thought I would save for later, and a green one which a lady was already in so I choose the last one which was ICE cold. Dipped my toes in there, and then sat in slowly. Tried the green, herbal one, as soon as it was free. Nice, tingly but in a herbs kinda way not electric shocks way. Then I went back in the cold one- not sure if that's good for my body but it feels good to go from one extreme to the other. Then bubbles where another lady was but it was the biggest one so I joined her. She tried to chat to me but I can't speak Japanese so just smiled and told her 'Scottorando'. (Scottish) I really need to learn some Japanese, they are such friendly people.

After you've had enough of that you get out and wash yourself again. I don't take as long as the first time but still have a scrub because of the baths that other people have been in. When I went through the slide doors, I didn't care at all if the woman was watching tv or not. I was so relaxed, and felt kinda comfortable with my body. I'm never one for walking around a changing room naked but I felt good about myself.

We spent the next 3 weeks traveling West of Japan to Kagoshima and eventually back to Tokyo. I will write up about others we visited, including several onsen (natural hot springs), spa visit, and being buried into a sand bath...

STAY at Roujiya Guesthouse, Kyoto