Stop #13 Vang Vieng, Laos

To view all 45 our pictures of Vang Vieng, check out: http://picasaweb.google.com/kersti.miller/200904VangViengLaos?authkey=Gv1sRgCKrHmor59NyQlQE&feat=directlink

Sunset from the deck of our hotel

A 4-week old monkey! (I know, a bit risky - so if I die of some mysterious disease, perhaps tell the doctors about this encounter.) But who could resist holding a baby monkey?! It did smell bad, though.

We went caving and inside were amazing stalactites. Being Laos, and not a state park in the US, they let you do whatever you/they like. One example was this... our guide showed us how to hit the stalactites in the photo with a stone to make noises like an organ. It was really cool.

We also went into this cave... via intertube! Quite amazing to be deep in the cave on a river.

Billy demonstrating how it was done... you just pulled yourself through the cave by the rope. Once we were deep into the cave our guide had us turn out our (1950-era) headlamps and to let go of the rope. We just drifted unknowingly for a few minutes... and then when we turned on our lights again, we were all surprised to find out where we were in relation to the others. You couldn't really tell you were moving at all. (I of course head a death-like grip on poorBilly's wrist, so I was quite confident he was still next to me.)

En route to the caves we wandered through fields and tiny villages。

What else did we do in Vang Vieng... TUBED DOWN THE RIVER, of course. An extremely popular event with the 18-22 crowd, we also found it to be a good time. You rent a tube, jump in the water and drift between the various bars along the river. When you feel so inclined, you visit a bar and try out whatever rope swing or water slide they have on offer. Most of them we didn't try for safety reasons (yes, they were extremely sketchy and we were shocked we didn't see people go splat on the rocks).

Once away from the main bar area we encountered some cooler places... One had stone picnic tables in the river, so your legs got wet but the food was dry on the table top. There the owner gave Billy a shot of whiskey from a bottle with tons of things in the bottom. We asked what it was and he said, 'Very good for the manhood!!!', while pointing to Billy's waist. Billy (being a proper amateur) took a large sip only to realise that it was horrific stuff. I took the smallest of sips and my mouth and throat were on fire for minutes. ICK. So after that Billy ordered a 'Jim Beam on ice.' The owner said, "with coke?" No... just with ice. So the guy came back with a highball glass with ice in it, with bourbon filled to the top. The cost was $1.20 US. We couldn't understand how he would expect any living person to be able to drink that much alcohol and still successfully navigate down the river!

We had some other food mishaps in Vang Vieng... I ordered a Mixed Fruit Salad (and I even pointed to the Lao translation on the page under 'salads', not smoothies) and was given a smoothie containing a mixture of fruits. At the same restaurant I ordered Ice Milk Tea and got another damned Lipton Lemon tea (iiiiiiirgh). Anyway, vang vieng will never be known for their food. It is not good.

In other adventures... we went to the hospital because Billy was violently ill. Perhaps the drink that was 'good for manhood'? Nah, it was something worse. Anyway, the doctor, after a thorough examination which included the most ridiculous check up on his vitals, recommended rehydration salts and diahrea stopper pills. Exactly what we've been told NOT to take when you have a real infection! (not the rehydration stuff, but the stoppers). So we quickly left without taking him up on his prescription meds! It was only $8 US for the visit, but I felt robbed！！

Stop #12 Luang Prabang, Laos

All 54 of our Luang Prabang pics are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/kersti.miller/200904LuangPrabangLaos?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ3J88-ZuIvMLA&feat=directlink


Our first stop in Laos was the lovely town of Luang Prabang... a UNESCO World Heritage site. We were enamoured by the 2-story french colonial style architecture, the quiet streets, the pleasant river, the nice people and the delicious food.



The main street is lined with cafes/restaurants, internet cafes, small shops selling silks, massage places and travel agencies. This town definitely relies on tourism, which appears to be its most critical economic activity.





We walked down to the river just after sunset.

Okay--we had some delicious food, but we also had some non-palatable food. This green chilli dip was so hot that I could barely handle it. It's my own fault for ordering it (!) so I ate it until I could handle no more. It was served with fresh veggies, which didn't help take away the heat!

We tried the Lao Lao Whisky! With a little water, we thought it was quite good. That huge glass was about $0.90 US (and I opted for the more expensive one).

Trying some more food -- this was at Tamarind restaurant (quite nice!) . We had delicious strange drinks... Billy had a bael fruit drink w/ cinnamon and I had some type of dried plum fruit w/ coconut milk. Lao people eat sticky rice and then dip it into smaller, communal dishes. So you grab some sticy rice and kind of squeeze it together, and then grab some other food (in this case, sausage, dried buffalo, noodles wrapped in lettuce, pickled bamboo, and some green veggies.) We also had some barbecued pork -- the skewers were bamboo and quite ornamental. Anyway, I'm a big fan of sticky rice! It was fun to eat and I just wanted more. I imagine children love it.

This is when we tried the dried river weed with chillies, garlic and sesame seeds dried in it. Then they fry it for a few seconds to make it crispy. They serve it with chilli paste and PURPLE sticky rice (seasonal only, my friends). This was DELICIOUS. I wanted to cart back barrels of the river weed, but I quickly realised it would break into one million pieces. So sad. I did get a small package that will probably endure the trip, but it won't last me 10 seconds. I loved that stuff.

And you know the red tea that Thai's drink? It's called 'Thai Ice Milk Tea' at some western restaurants? Well they serve it in Laos too - with lime or milk, but it's so hard to find. No one seems to know where it can be purchased either.

Some pictures to show the architecture and sites!

This was the royal residence, built in the 30s but abandoned in 1975 when the family went into exile (and were never heard from again). But we had bad luck and it was closed for the day.

I'm modelling my new thai pants... they are very interesting and have to be fully removed if I want to go to the toilet. The first time I wore them was at the water festival in Chiang Mai. As I got drenched during the water fights, I looked down and saw black dye running down my legs and discoloring my toes. Nice! That's what you get for $5.

This French patisserie was gooood and Billy really liked the idea of eating at a desk.

Cruising the colourful markets... we picked up two small items for ourselves, but for some reason neither of us have felt a strong urge to shop. I want to help people by giving them money, but I don't want what they are selling! I already have too many things as it is. I'm usually most intrigued by the food stalls ;)

So yes, we mainly relaxed in Luang Prabang and ate food. That was pretty much it. Billy did hike up a 100m mountain while I checked email... Anyway, sometimes you just need to re-charge.

Pai - Mountain Trek

Jungle Trekking... this was one of those adventures that I signed up for, knowing full well that it would not be fun, but that 'in the end I'll be glad I did it'. Now that the pain and discomfort is a distant memory, yes, I am glad I did it. But I assure you in no uncertain terms, I was not a happy camper during the 2-day trek.

We left Pai in a truck... I had the creme de la creme passenger seat, and Billy was in the bare bed of the truck with 4 israeli military guys (who were all very nice and interesting). The drive was quite long (2.5 hours) and I thought of Billy every bump of the way ;( The only consolation was at least he could enjoy a breeze!

We started our hike at 11am (nice hot time!) and went up and down a few mountains. The terrain was extremely steep and slippery. We were wearing our keen's (those outdoorsy closed toe sandals that are quite popular) and we should have been in hiking boots! No matter... all I had to do was dump out the sharp objects from the footbed every so often.

The guide made us all bamboo walking sticks (modelled below). Without those, I think I would have fallen off of one of the myriad steep cliffs. They were mazing.

One person at a time, please.

Enjoying some cool water on his feet at lunch time. We had fried rice in plastic baggies and tangerines ;) Best part was we didn't have to carry them!

There's Billy in the waterfall.

Much of the landscape was recently burned, or still burning!

We stayed the night in a village with a hill tribe family - the children escourted us down to the river so we could quasi wash the dirt off of ourselves!

They invented a game where the used our bamboo walking sticks to move themselves between squares.

The front yard of the house we stayed in.

Preparing breakfast

This is where we ate and slept!

The village is behind Billy

Tart!

A TARANTULA'S HOUSE

This is a banana tree... and the conical shape at the bottom is the BANANA FLOWER. We had banana flower salad in Pai that was delicious.

Emerging from the jungle we trekked across dried rice paddies... the rainy season will come in a month and that's when the farmers will start planting again. It was in this village where we stopped our trek and got back in the truck for the drive back to Pai.

What an adventure!

Stop #11 Pai (NW Thailand)

From Chiang Mai we took a minibus up into the mountains to the small, quiet town of Pai.

The drive wasn't that great. Billy and I shared the 1.5 seats next to the driver, who refused to turn on the air con (which of course we paid extra for), and the road was very, very windy. We were in one of those vans where the engine is underneath the front seat (very popular style here)... and so at one point, the window was down and I wanted to show billy how much heat was coming up from under the seat. As I was grabbing his arm and guiding it to the heat geyser, an entire bucket of water landed on my face and body. Yes, the Songkran festival continued. So I sat for the next 2.5 hours in my drenched clothes. The water was so dirty that as my shirt dried, a huge dirt stain became visible! Anyway, at least I had a moment's respite from the heat.

Once we arrived in Pai and checked into our lovely little bungalow, we were put at much ease.

This is our first bit of real nature of the trip!

I made Billy pose in front of our bungalow so I could capture a glimpse of the beautiful gardenia's outside.

Pai turned out to have some delicious food -- we ate Banana Flower Salad, Stewed mini Crabs in Coconut Milk, spring rolls, pizza, curries and lots of pad thai. All quite nice. Many of the restaurants were closed down, but we still ate well. We had a delectable banana roti (indian style crepe) from a street stand. MMMMmm!

Yeah, all we did was really relax and recenter ourselves in Pai ;)

Stop #10 Chiang Mai - Songkran Water Festival!

We celebrated the Songkran Water Festival in Chiang Mai -- it is the celebration of the new year and has turned into a multi-day, citywide water fight. You can't escape getting water either dumped or sprayed on you. So, rather than trying to fight it off, we joined them.

I (Kersti) had a pink elephant water gun backpack and Billy had a big water gun. We also had a bucket. We stood on the street by a bar with a bunch of other people. There were 2 big trash cans that were being continually refilled by a hose. And you could periodically purchase ice from a man across the road to bring down the temperature of the hose water. This was all well and good when it was hot - but in the early evening the wind picked up and it became quite cold! When you're covered in soaking wet clothes, you can't regulate your body temp as easily. Anyway, it was great fun.

We really enjoyed Chiang Mai. There were tons of temples to visit, lots of street stalls selling good food, heaps of markets to walk around at night and very nice people. It was also nice that our hotel was equipped with properly working air-con!

We took another cooking class (Baan Thai Cooking School) and we have to say that it was not a very good class. It was not nearly as good as the one on Ko Chang. There were too many people trying to cook too many different dishes. The instruction was poor and the recipe book they gave us has probably only 40% of the actual instructions. They also used a lot of ingredients that are going to be hard to find, and they weren't big on supplying substitutes. Here's what we learned to cook:

Billy: pad thai, red curry, deep fried coconut covered bananas, tom kha gai (chicken/coconut) soup
Kersti: green papaya spicy salad, chiang mai noodles (curry dish), sticky rice w/mango, tom yum spicy soup

At the cooking class we met a couple from Sweden whom we liked very much. We ended up going to a bar after the class to do some more water fighting and then joined them for a stroll around the night markets later that evening. Hopefully we shall see them again somewhere!

The food was really good in Chiang Mai - they even had a chocolate shop that we went to. I had the most delicious chocolate milk and a lovely molten lava cake. The waitress was a thai girl who had spent a year in Indiana. Her english was top notch and we enjoyed talking to her and learning about the festival.

We also had a few massages... we both had thai massages (after going to the chocolate shop) and then billy had another the next day while I opted for a foot reflexology massage. It was interesting to compare that foot massage to the one I had in Ko Chang because the areas that hurt the most were quite different (in ko chang they had been my head/sinus zones since we had just been scuba diving, and in chiang mai they were different -- though I don't know which zones they were since the poster was in thai and they couldn't translate!)

Anyway, thai massage is great for both of us because it's a lot of stretching and relieving muscle stress. It's perfect for billy who is notoriously tight. I think his bones are too big for his muscles. Anyway, he loves the cheap massages!

Here are all the pictures (they're combined with Bangkok):
http://picasaweb.google.com/kersti.miller/ThailandBangkokChiangMaiPai?authkey=Gv1sRgCPnFga_E857liAE&feat=directlink