Oh dear, where have I been?
Pedalling out of Vang Vieng - bratpacker capital of Laos - past rice paddies and limestone karsts, receiving high fives in the saddle from little girls as I go. Scrambling round caves with glittery stalactites. All with lame back (cares to the wind, etc) which has finally stopped giving me grief.
Inadvertently gatecrashing a Laotian couple's valentine's dinner... at a bustling restaurant I spy what appears to be a communal table where people are waiting for it to be cleared. I wait too. The tables are cleared, separated, and there are two couples, two tables... and me! I share a table with the gracious Seng and Vern (who look about 12 years old but are, in fact, married with a six and seven year old!).
Bumping along potholes where roads should be, in sawngthaew (literally, 'two rows', in the back of a small truck). Trips are invariably long, hot, dusty and shared with whole communities, bags of rice and fresh produce, including live fish flapping in plastic bags. Eating en route is a prerequisite: street vendors shove bunches of radishes inside the truck anytime it slows and serve full-bowl meals during short river-crossings by barge. Old ladies chew betel and small boys pee on your leg (who needs nappies when your floor is dirt?) while the whole truck talks about the 'falang' (you) in Lao/Khmer, with much giggling. Still, this is first class compared with travel by motorbike, where whole families with sleeping babies, pigs, bookshelves and birdcages squeeze aboard.
Adventuring 'in the sticks' in southern Laos. After visiting the country's most significant ruins, a Canadian traveller and I baulked at a $10, one-hour return trip by chartered sawngthaew (a case of becoming accustomed to the local economy, the trip out there costing $1.50) and hoofed it before eventually flagging a lift in the back of a ute with some Chinese tourists - gratis. Ha!
Making my own (faltering) way off the beaten track... the Bolaven Plateau where I found my own private waterfalls and swimming holes replete with bamboo raft. There, after finally finding the only guesthouse in town, I drank beers with 'Bang', a teacher on the plateau (the only English speaker in town?) and a couple of Spanish blokes. After sharing his frustration at kids' lack of literacy/attendance at school etc, Bang gratefully received the books I bought in Luang Prabang for just this moment.
Hammock swinging in 'Four Thousand Islands' in the south of Laos with the emerald Mekong at my bungalow door. Bouncing along shady dirt paths by bike, dodging chickens, pigs and tail-less cats to gush over South East Asia's largest waterfalls before taking a quick dip at a river beach. Kayaking through the islands with a bunch of Spanish travellers. Sampling the national pride (BeerLao) as the sun sets over rice paddies where water buffalo graze.
Marvelling at crumbly Khmer ruins flanked with frangipani while propping the Cambodian economy with rampant spending after the glory days of low-cost Laos. Thankfully, options for 'conscientious' spending abound; I've directed my riel to support landmine victims, former street kids and people with a disability to support themselves. Also visited a wildlife conservation centre where I met the cutest ever baby leopards.
Continuing the food tour... organic mulberry pancakes with honey, butter and fresh lime; MYO spring rolls w loadsa herbs and dipping sauces; double espressos (AM) and BeerLao (PM); lychees, pineapple, mango, rambutan, dragonfruit etc; amok (steamed fish w lemongrass and coconut in a banana leaf); banana flower salad; pork, pineapple and coconut curry soup... too many temptations, too few mealtimes!
Ah, and Vietnam awaits. Bring on the nem (spring rolls)!
PS: have finally started downloading photos - to DVD, but of course can't find an internet cafe with a DVD reader I can use, so the wait for pictorial evidence that I've actually left Australia continues!
03 March 2008
11 February 2008
slow boats, fried worms and doughnuts
Am in Luang Prabang in Laos. Gorgeously crumbly colonial town on the Mekong with basketloads of charm - which, as I write, is sadly being eroded by the tourist trail. Anyway, here's a grab-bag of goings on since Chiang Mai:
Spending an afternoon with a set of watercolour pencils, colouring in pictures for children's books in Laos (more here).
Lao and Buddhist design appreciation via endless wat wandering and visits to local weavers and silversmiths.
More chatting with novice monks (they are really very clever at capitalising on western curiosity for their converstational English practice!).
Rhapsodising about life in general since my reunification with coffee (glory of worldly comforts) in Luang Prabang.
Dining for a song: steaming bowl of rice noodle soup w DIY herbs, 80 cents. Big bottle Beer Lao, $1. Chicken on a stick, $1. etc
Slow boat down the Mekong, which after two full days of wooden seat sitting made me really appreciate (or not) the 'slow' concept. Fellow travellers entertain, one going overboard in the quest to find a sunny spot on the roof, thus sending the whole boat rolling to starboard as 100 people rushed to see him go in.
Broken conversation with two Lao women where, despite a lack of common language, one of them tries to marry off her youngest to an English traveller's brother!
Entering another realm when crossing into provincial Laos from Thailand. People walk down the street in their jim-jams at 7 o'clock, food is sold on the street by candlelight, the tuk tuk drivers barely register my presence and Sing at the guesthouse does my laundry in three hours of daylight for $1. (I also became an instant millionaire on changing my baht to kip!)
Bizarre hour-long whole-body massage with toe cracking, facial compression and karate chopping moves. Laying there with my bazoombas in the breeze - not quite knowing what do to - while a Lao woman did doughnuts in my hair (you know the kind that was popular in grade five to piss your friends off by making birdsnests in their hair?). Nevertheless, it was an interesting three dollar donation to the Red Cross (followed by a $1 herbal spa).
Elephant riding (still not sure about that one and won't be doing it again) and rainforest trekking in northern Thailand to visit Lahu and other hilltribe villages. Dining on fried worms (another thing I won't repeat!) before retiring to a raised bamboo hut with pigs and roosters talking noisily underneath all night.
Hard mattresses, vertical stairs and other guesthouse hazards have resulted in lower back 'issues'. The upside is I'm catching up on this blog and other writery things!
Off south tomorrow to Vang Vieng which the locals call 'Vang Vegas' so I daresay it'll be a one night stopover on my way to Vientiane. Still no photos (cringe)... yes I know, must get my act together.
Spending an afternoon with a set of watercolour pencils, colouring in pictures for children's books in Laos (more here).
Lao and Buddhist design appreciation via endless wat wandering and visits to local weavers and silversmiths.
More chatting with novice monks (they are really very clever at capitalising on western curiosity for their converstational English practice!).
Rhapsodising about life in general since my reunification with coffee (glory of worldly comforts) in Luang Prabang.
Dining for a song: steaming bowl of rice noodle soup w DIY herbs, 80 cents. Big bottle Beer Lao, $1. Chicken on a stick, $1. etc
Slow boat down the Mekong, which after two full days of wooden seat sitting made me really appreciate (or not) the 'slow' concept. Fellow travellers entertain, one going overboard in the quest to find a sunny spot on the roof, thus sending the whole boat rolling to starboard as 100 people rushed to see him go in.
Broken conversation with two Lao women where, despite a lack of common language, one of them tries to marry off her youngest to an English traveller's brother!
Entering another realm when crossing into provincial Laos from Thailand. People walk down the street in their jim-jams at 7 o'clock, food is sold on the street by candlelight, the tuk tuk drivers barely register my presence and Sing at the guesthouse does my laundry in three hours of daylight for $1. (I also became an instant millionaire on changing my baht to kip!)
Bizarre hour-long whole-body massage with toe cracking, facial compression and karate chopping moves. Laying there with my bazoombas in the breeze - not quite knowing what do to - while a Lao woman did doughnuts in my hair (you know the kind that was popular in grade five to piss your friends off by making birdsnests in their hair?). Nevertheless, it was an interesting three dollar donation to the Red Cross (followed by a $1 herbal spa).
Elephant riding (still not sure about that one and won't be doing it again) and rainforest trekking in northern Thailand to visit Lahu and other hilltribe villages. Dining on fried worms (another thing I won't repeat!) before retiring to a raised bamboo hut with pigs and roosters talking noisily underneath all night.
Hard mattresses, vertical stairs and other guesthouse hazards have resulted in lower back 'issues'. The upside is I'm catching up on this blog and other writery things!
Off south tomorrow to Vang Vieng which the locals call 'Vang Vegas' so I daresay it'll be a one night stopover on my way to Vientiane. Still no photos (cringe)... yes I know, must get my act together.
31 January 2008
did I mention the food?
Am utterly besotted with Thai food. Arrived in Chiang Mai on Sunday, where I fell in love with the grilled catfish which looks as appealing as dried catfood but is super delish. Am also v partial to mango sticky rice - in fact, any kind of sticky rice (esp banana). Have been sampling all kinds of street eats such as papaya salad with shrimp, rice noodle soup and fried sweet potato and banana and have even ventured into the realm of unidentifiable meat on a stick, though I draw the line at barbecued whole frogs! So far my digestive tract has held up remarkably well.
The food affair got a little heated yesterday as I whisked myself off to a cooking school - a tax deduction I guess, ha! - and learnt how to get the wok flaming. Also learnt to make curry paste and made (and ate) pad thai, fish cakes with a sweet-sour dipping sauce, all manner of curries and the much loved mango sticky rice. Round eggplant goes straight into the category of amazing foods I can't believe I've never tried til now (which also includes roasted salted broad beans - legumes pretending to be potato chips!). Was all pretty simple but loads of fun, though they had to roll me out the door ;) Will upload photos of me at flame once I start downloading pics.
Also did loads of wat wandering in Chiang Mai, had a marathon chat with a monk and exercised uber restraint at various craft markets including the very chilled 'Sunday Walking Street' - where the road is blocked to traffic, divided in two and people walk on the left - except when the national anthem is played and everyone stops! Also saw my first elephant walking down the street in CM!
I hooked up with a Canadian girl in the sawngthaew (little red taxi truck) from the airport and we did most of our sightseeing in CM together. We also met some Melbourne lads and joined them for a scooter ride into the hills of Mae Rim to see a rather opulent wat. The boys (yes, boys! I feel so old!) are pedalling through northern Thailand and biked the summit of the country's highest peak (just shy of 3000 metres). Which made me realise how soft my travelling style is. But their two-wheeled slog is a cooked breakfast compared to a kiwi lass I met who is travelling solo for eight months on her motorbike through south east Asia, Mongolia and Russia! I have met quite a few lone gals gadding about on extended trips while all the boys seem to stick together. Funny.
Today I got a bus up through the clouds to Pai, a hippy village north of Chiang Mai with thatched bungalows on the river, roosters and rice paddies. Tomorrow I'll head out of town to dip my toes in the hot springs and check out some waterfalls and a Chinese village. (Pai is close to both the Chinese and Burmese borders.) After Pai, I'll head further north east and perhaps do a hilltribe trek (the ones out of Chiang Rai are co-run with communities). I wonder what I'll eat there?!
Til then. x
The food affair got a little heated yesterday as I whisked myself off to a cooking school - a tax deduction I guess, ha! - and learnt how to get the wok flaming. Also learnt to make curry paste and made (and ate) pad thai, fish cakes with a sweet-sour dipping sauce, all manner of curries and the much loved mango sticky rice. Round eggplant goes straight into the category of amazing foods I can't believe I've never tried til now (which also includes roasted salted broad beans - legumes pretending to be potato chips!). Was all pretty simple but loads of fun, though they had to roll me out the door ;) Will upload photos of me at flame once I start downloading pics.
Also did loads of wat wandering in Chiang Mai, had a marathon chat with a monk and exercised uber restraint at various craft markets including the very chilled 'Sunday Walking Street' - where the road is blocked to traffic, divided in two and people walk on the left - except when the national anthem is played and everyone stops! Also saw my first elephant walking down the street in CM!
I hooked up with a Canadian girl in the sawngthaew (little red taxi truck) from the airport and we did most of our sightseeing in CM together. We also met some Melbourne lads and joined them for a scooter ride into the hills of Mae Rim to see a rather opulent wat. The boys (yes, boys! I feel so old!) are pedalling through northern Thailand and biked the summit of the country's highest peak (just shy of 3000 metres). Which made me realise how soft my travelling style is. But their two-wheeled slog is a cooked breakfast compared to a kiwi lass I met who is travelling solo for eight months on her motorbike through south east Asia, Mongolia and Russia! I have met quite a few lone gals gadding about on extended trips while all the boys seem to stick together. Funny.
Today I got a bus up through the clouds to Pai, a hippy village north of Chiang Mai with thatched bungalows on the river, roosters and rice paddies. Tomorrow I'll head out of town to dip my toes in the hot springs and check out some waterfalls and a Chinese village. (Pai is close to both the Chinese and Burmese borders.) After Pai, I'll head further north east and perhaps do a hilltribe trek (the ones out of Chiang Rai are co-run with communities). I wonder what I'll eat there?!
Til then. x
27 January 2008
hot and bothered in kl
I'm in KL. It's about thirty thousand degrees. Or more. Last night I met up with Ren and J - friends from Brissie who are on the sad end of a Thailand beach holiday: aka they fly home tomorrow :(
What's cool about KL...
Dim sum and gigantic Tiger beer in Jalan Alor (a happy coincidence has me staying right behind the famed hawker food strip)
Donning headscarves in searing heat to see a mosque from the inside
The Islamic Arts Museum which I fled to escape the heat but which inspired with some really beautiful fabrics, ceramics, seals, metalwork etc from Asiatic cultures
Groovy kaftans at Little India night market
Food prep in Chinatown (except the stuff with the live chickens)
Dragging your toes through the grass where the old colonialists used to play cricket
Finally sitting down (preferably in shopping malls and/or taxis with air conditioning)
Taxi drivers who use the meter and then tell you the fare is 'whatever you want'
Bananas (very sweet)
Not so cool...
The heat
The headaches (see above)
Touts and dodgy taxi drivers
Strange beverages named Kickapoo Joy Drink
Petronas Towers... we snagged our free tickets to go up 41 floors to the skybridge but first had to sit through a propaganda reel which informed us that the opulent towers - headquarters of a devious oil company which apparently featured in some Connery/Jolie action flick I was disinclined to see - 'inspire Malaysia's young people to believe that anything's possible'. We suddenly felt like Bart et al watching Burns and Smithers give us the good oil about Springfield Nuclear Power Plant during a school-based screening of a corporate video. The three of us being marketeers in current or previous lives sacked their agency on the spot.
Fly to Chang Mai tomorrow (up in four and a bit hours... oh dear!)
x
What's cool about KL...
Dim sum and gigantic Tiger beer in Jalan Alor (a happy coincidence has me staying right behind the famed hawker food strip)
Donning headscarves in searing heat to see a mosque from the inside
The Islamic Arts Museum which I fled to escape the heat but which inspired with some really beautiful fabrics, ceramics, seals, metalwork etc from Asiatic cultures
Groovy kaftans at Little India night market
Food prep in Chinatown (except the stuff with the live chickens)
Dragging your toes through the grass where the old colonialists used to play cricket
Finally sitting down (preferably in shopping malls and/or taxis with air conditioning)
Taxi drivers who use the meter and then tell you the fare is 'whatever you want'
Bananas (very sweet)
Not so cool...
The heat
The headaches (see above)
Touts and dodgy taxi drivers
Strange beverages named Kickapoo Joy Drink
Petronas Towers... we snagged our free tickets to go up 41 floors to the skybridge but first had to sit through a propaganda reel which informed us that the opulent towers - headquarters of a devious oil company which apparently featured in some Connery/Jolie action flick I was disinclined to see - 'inspire Malaysia's young people to believe that anything's possible'. We suddenly felt like Bart et al watching Burns and Smithers give us the good oil about Springfield Nuclear Power Plant during a school-based screening of a corporate video. The three of us being marketeers in current or previous lives sacked their agency on the spot.
Fly to Chang Mai tomorrow (up in four and a bit hours... oh dear!)
x
23 January 2008
ouddahere
Counting down to take-off for KL (tomorrow) via Gold Coast (this arvy). Should be arranging global roaming for my phone but am trying to use up the last of my time in a rather cushy net cafe in downtown Melb... will try to post more on arrival.
:)
:)
04 January 2008
enter ye, the rural abyss
Happy oh-8. Apologies for lack of comms. Am over the grumps and been swallowed whole by the rural abyss (aka Bingi, aka south Gippsland). Since departing the boat pre-xmas, have been incapable of completing any task more involved than selecting the most appropriate drink for the level of heat (scorcher = g&t; melting = gin cubes; dribbling in a deckchair = pass me the icebucket, I think I’ll wear it as a helmet).
The brain fug has made it difficult to deal with pressing must-dos, eg, organising the trip to Laos, etc. Scored a breakthrough today though: rescheduled flight home so that I can join Pelican’s Bass Strait crossing in April. I’ll need my two months of swigging 20-cent beers from the backs of elephants to work up to the cooking frenzy required to fill 20 bellies across one of the most treacherous pieces of water in the world. But wait, there’s more. The recipients of my food-love will be paddling their way across the strait in kayaks, eg, unforgivingly ravenous at all hours, godly and otherwise.
Insane? Well, denial is a wonderful thing and here’s a quick segue to this week’s discoveries, titled Things to Love About the Rural Abyss.
1. After showering the video store with wanton custom, my late fees are now graciously waived when I’m unable to separate limbs from couch in time to duly return my stash. God love ‘em country folk.
2. Bulk billing is alive and well, which I discovered when updating my vaccinations. (The doctor, though, is endearingly old-school: “STDs, you don’t need to know about that muck, do you. It’s only people who go to Bali who do THAT sort of thing.”)
3. Country markets. It’s like finding everything you love about the city (coffee, fresh produce, glittery curios, guitar bands, etc) in a grassy corner on a Sunday morning for next to nix while pocketing already-underpriced retro finds for gratis (“Oh, you can take those love, I don’t want them.”). At Kongwak I found a cute vintage top, Nepalese woollen socks (eventually it will get cold here, maybe tomorrow?), some retro fabric patches (eg, Guiding is fun!), and a Michael Hutchence biography (swoon, young self, swoon).
4. My old relics have discovered broadband.
All up, big ticks for the country. (As I write, I’m watching rough-and-tumble between two kinds of rosellas; try that view on from your city apartment!). Will upload pics from Two Bays and the abyss when am over current slump.
The brain fug has made it difficult to deal with pressing must-dos, eg, organising the trip to Laos, etc. Scored a breakthrough today though: rescheduled flight home so that I can join Pelican’s Bass Strait crossing in April. I’ll need my two months of swigging 20-cent beers from the backs of elephants to work up to the cooking frenzy required to fill 20 bellies across one of the most treacherous pieces of water in the world. But wait, there’s more. The recipients of my food-love will be paddling their way across the strait in kayaks, eg, unforgivingly ravenous at all hours, godly and otherwise.
Insane? Well, denial is a wonderful thing and here’s a quick segue to this week’s discoveries, titled Things to Love About the Rural Abyss.
1. After showering the video store with wanton custom, my late fees are now graciously waived when I’m unable to separate limbs from couch in time to duly return my stash. God love ‘em country folk.
2. Bulk billing is alive and well, which I discovered when updating my vaccinations. (The doctor, though, is endearingly old-school: “STDs, you don’t need to know about that muck, do you. It’s only people who go to Bali who do THAT sort of thing.”)
3. Country markets. It’s like finding everything you love about the city (coffee, fresh produce, glittery curios, guitar bands, etc) in a grassy corner on a Sunday morning for next to nix while pocketing already-underpriced retro finds for gratis (“Oh, you can take those love, I don’t want them.”). At Kongwak I found a cute vintage top, Nepalese woollen socks (eventually it will get cold here, maybe tomorrow?), some retro fabric patches (eg, Guiding is fun!), and a Michael Hutchence biography (swoon, young self, swoon).
4. My old relics have discovered broadband.
All up, big ticks for the country. (As I write, I’m watching rough-and-tumble between two kinds of rosellas; try that view on from your city apartment!). Will upload pics from Two Bays and the abyss when am over current slump.
13 December 2007
cranky
I wasn’t going to post (if you can’t say anything nice, etc) but for the sake of all within mumbling range I really should vent. I’ve been a bit cranky. Those who’ve shared house with me call it wearing the cranky pants, though I prefer ‘Grumbellina’, it sounds a lot nicer. Can’t put my finger on it. Should be feeling up after visits from family etc and a sunny and moody grey non-work day on the Mornington Peninsula with an afternoon visit to a chocolatier and touring (ok, got me, lounging around) Merricks Estate. Here’s a few (trivial, indulgent) possible causes…
sticky flies
lack of sleep
overconsumption of wine
cabin fever
crazy dreams about boys who’ve left
award-winning pies that trick you into eating them and leave your digestive tract to deal with the aftermath
reality doom books
perennially split fingers and lips
boatloads of people people people
Find of the week: Merricks Estate pinot noir (hello santa!)
Coveting: free time and a very long bush track
sticky flies
lack of sleep
overconsumption of wine
cabin fever
crazy dreams about boys who’ve left
award-winning pies that trick you into eating them and leave your digestive tract to deal with the aftermath
reality doom books
perennially split fingers and lips
boatloads of people people people
Find of the week: Merricks Estate pinot noir (hello santa!)
Coveting: free time and a very long bush track
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