water & fire

29 novembre 2007

Ready to go… to Laos

It’s been almost 4 weeks since my sabbatical has started. It’s been amazing to realise how it can be at the same time hard and easy not to work.

I’m leaving for Laos next week, on Wednesday. It was the only affordable flight still available: all the Dutch are going to celebrate Sinterklas and did not want to spend their evening in a plane! I cannot wait to get there and discover this country, its culture and its people, the life around the Mekong River. This river crosses the 3 Indochina countries: Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. I have been to India and China this year; I was still missing the middle bit.

For Christmas Eve, I will be arriving in Angkor Wat in Cambodia. A dream comes true.

For those who want to know a bit more about Laos, here a brief description:

Rich in Buddhist traditions and beliefs, this ancient landlocked land called Laos was controlled by Thailand (Siam) through most of the 19th century until becoming a part of French Indochina, a federation of French colonies and protectorates in Southeast Asia.

In 1953 it declared its independence from France, and in a somewhat typical manner of a new nation, civil war and internal conflict followed, and in Laos it lasted for about twenty years.

Thrust onto the world stage during the Vietnam War, it suffered through heavy bombing and the subsequent loss of people and infrastructure.

It emerged from that conflict as one of the poorest countries on the planet, as most of its citizens were lacking in education and useful training.

Over the last few decades some levels of economic and governmental progress have occurred, and underneath it all, Laos has great natural resources, including tremendous potential in the mining and timber industries.

The lifeline of the country, the Mekong River, is its major corridor of transportation for goods and services, and the source of its electric energy.

Looking into the future, with much-needed change in its restrictive tourism policies, and overall improvement in manufacturing and technology, Laos may finally emerge as an important force in the Southeast Asia.

This link has some good maps to give you an idea where Laos is on the world map (just in case)

http://worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/asia/la.htm

21 octobre 2007

Plus que deux semaines

Plus que 2 semaines et ces grandes vacances tant attendues vont commencer. 5 mois de liberté, pour respirer et me retrouver. C'est un luxe inoui que je m'offre pour mes 40 ans.

Je vais repousser les limites de ce cercle dans lequel je me sens en confiance: j'entreprends des études pour apprendre à ressentir les energies. Et puis je vais voyager. Trop de destinations m'attirent, c'est tellement difficile de choisir. Je pense opter pour des pays que je n'ai pas encore visiter: Nouvelle Zélande, Sri Lanka, Tahiti, l'ile de Pacques...

Ce blog, je l'espère, me permettra de rester en contact avec tout ceux que j'aime.

Cette année, j'ai déjà fait deux superbes expériences de voyage: le Rajasthan et la Chine (Pékin et Xi'an). Une bonne occasion pour publier quelques photos