Vang Vieng

Or, "how NOT to let a town develop in SE Asia." It's infamous for backpacker partying, TV bars with American sitcoms and of course, tubing.

To be totally honest with you, it wasn't as bad as I thought. Yeah, the town itself with the tv bars was a total hole and not Laos, but the scenery really is breathtaking. There's a reason folks started coming here in the first place! I woke up early and rented a bicycle. Sitting well in order to smite the sounding furrows, I quickly realized that city bicycles were no match for rocky back country roads. I soldiered on for a beautiful ride through villages set among massive limestone mountains. I dodged puppies, chicks, children and cows until I reached my destination only 7km away - Poukam cave.

Never really fancying myself the adventurer, I approached the cavern with some trepidation. The climb up had me scampering over rocks and trees until I was too high to look down. Inside, the cave opened up into two HUGE rooms with gorgeous rock formations. There was even a Buddha set up for contemplation. I chickened out of squeezing into any of the back rooms though when I heard others say it was too difficult.

On the way back I cycled past a couple of women by looms making scarves. Unable to resist, I stopped and bought a cotton scarf and a silk scarf. I watched one of the women sit at the loom and thread the rocket back and forth.

I also stopped for some cheap noodle soup with chicken. There's nothing quite like eating with chickens and puppies underfoot :). The kids too loved standing thirty feet away and making faces at me. One little boy stood tall and through air punches at me. When I returned with a kick he giggled and ran away. Defeated!

Refreshed, I ducked into another cave. There was a ten or twelve year old by the entrance that served as my guide. If I thought the last path up was hard, then this was terrifying. I had to channel my inner child's fearlessness to believe this was a good idea. Oh, but the cave was worth it. The stalagmites and stalactites were huge and strange. Some were shaped like tentacles, and others like elephant ears. Some stretched up up up like whale's ribcage.
The boy then gestured me down into a small hole. I swallowed hard and reminded myself that I may never be in Vang Vieng exploring caves again. Down into the rabbit hole, up into another massive 'room.' I slipped and slid only to see the floor twenty feet away was a steep 45 degrees down as far as the eye could see. Well. That was going to be it for me! The little boy looked disappointed but I could not imagine how anyone could get back UP such a decline. Nevertheless, the formations were again stunning, and I stood panting and sweating buckets just to look for a long while.

The guide moved down the mountain so very quickly that I could barely keep up. I practically slid down propelled only by adrenaline. I think I deserved my swim in the gorgeous blue lagoon at the bottom!

And if that's true, then after the dusty bike ride back I deserved my tubing trip. I went at possibly the latest time to finish before dark, so I dodged most of the craziness. After I drifted past the bars (~45 minutes) it was just my tube, the lazy river and limestone karst kissing the horizon.

Simply spectacular.

Katie

More pictures of LP

Tamarind Cafe Lao Food

Luang Prabang Days 2-3

I'm failing to update more often because I feel like I have so much to tell you! So I have new agreement for you... I update more regularly but only tell a good story or short summary, or pictures! It only scratches 10% of all that I'm experiencing but any more is a fool's errand (or a full time job).

With that out of the way, I want to tell you about a highlight of LP for me - food! After saying goodbye to my travel companions, I took a shower and dressed myself up the best I could. Dress, scarf, mascara, these new leather sandals I bought in Chiang Mai... (nothing ruins a nice outfit more than these damn comfy chacos!).

I wandered off in search of a nice restaurant that served Lao food like an experience. My dawdling meant I was trying to eat at around 8pm, and I actually got turned away from several places. I think in Laos they don't use a wait list - nothing like being told a place is "full." My stomach persisted though, and I wandered back by this famous one called Tamarind Cafe a second time. I asked if I could please just wait ten minutes, thirty minutes, anything to eat there. The host relented and sent me across the street to a little bar table and stool. It felt like time out sitting there all by myself, watching the others eat delicious delicious food. "Here Katie, you want some food? You want some Lao food? No! Go sit over there until you feel sorry for what you crave!"
Maybe I looked pitiful - he soon brought me roasted peanuts with garlic and bamboo shoots and I was happy :)

On to dinner. To consider Lao food one must immediately think of sticky rice. How to describe? It sticks together and rolls into a ball (or any other shape) very nicely. You pick up a good clump with your left hand and pass a bite sized portion to your right. Then you use the rice to scoop up whatever delicious food you're eating. It's positively addicting.

So, I ordered a sampler platter and an 'entree,' which is a bit of a misnomer because Lao don't have courses - they eat everything at once. Pictures will follow in the next post. Here are my tasting notes. First is the Lao name, then the English description from the menu, and lastly a note or two with my reactions.

Drink: Tamarind cooler with Lao Lao whiskey.
Snack: dried bamboo, garlic and peanuts
Sampling platter, clockwise starting from top left:
- Som Pak Gat: leafy green vegetable, pickled. Tasted bitter and vinegary, but decent with a lot of sticky rice
- Jeow Nor Mai Som: pickled bamboo with a hint of ginger and a light kick. The ginger was very strong in my opinion and the bitter taste was overwhelming. The only dish I didn't finish.
- Sai Oua: Luang Prabang sausage. I was excited about this one because I love sausages, but it was somewhat disappointing - dry and with only a light flavor.
- Sinh Savanh: 'heavenly' dried buffalo meat, sweetly flavored. This was indeed sweeter than I expected, but not overly so. Chewy like you'd expect but not dry. Addicting.
- Miang parcels: delicate flavored pastes of rice and aubergine (little eggplant), & lemongrass and noodles in a leafy wrapping. The first also contained lime and peanuts, a combination that was divine. The second had a very delicate flavor indeed and suffered from mushy texture problems.

Oua Si Khai: Fragant lemongrass stuffed with chicken, kaffir lime & coriander, and a side dipping sauce. Wow. You gotta check out the picture for this one. I got conflicting instructions on whether or not to eat the lemongrass cage, but either way this was delicious. No flavor was too overwhelming, and the dipping sauce was perhaps a sweet chili? Nice complement.

After dinner I ordered a Lao Coffee, which was mixed with tamarind juice and served in a glass with sweet condensed milk heavy at the bottom. I dodged most of the milk but otherwise a perfect end to way too much food.

Final bill? Only 92,000 kip + 8000 kip tip (not expected here) = 12.5 USD. Mission accomplished.

My food budget has just exploded - I think I'm hooked. Bad backpacker.

Oh, and funny side note:
while I was walking to the restaurant in the dark, I passed by half a dozen novice monks on the other side of the street (a common occurrence, I assure you). Usually they're silent and focused on their destination, such that they almost become part of the scenery in Luang Prabang. Yet these broke the fourth wall and shouted kindly at me "you look lovely!" I blushed and replied, "khop jai" as I walked by them. They continued to giggle and say nice things. Then someone asked, "do you remember me?" with a lot of laughter. I was already passed them and so embarrassed that I just laughed too and hurried off. Were these the novices I caught showering the previous day??

Now every time I see one of the young novices with their muscular arms and cheeky grins I blush and feel embarrassed. I feel like such a schoolgirl, and yet they are just schoolboys themselves! Monks aren't even allowed to take something from a female hand; to exchange an item one must set it down on the ground and step away. Yet these mischievous novices make it clear that they're still teenage boys. Hilarious.

I actually befriended a novice briefly at a different Wat while I was walking around. He was super nice and corrected my horrendous pronunciation of Lao cities. I also met a German girl to whom he was teaching Lao, and she teased him for 'collecting' westerners. He blushed and grinned so big that I felt rather vindicated for my own embarrassment. Cheeky bastards :)

With all my love and full stomach,

Katie

Luang Prabang, Laos: Day 1

Friends! My soul has found a quiet place to rest here. Luang Prabang is an French colonial town nestled in a valley between two rivers in the middle of Laos. In 1995 it was designated a UNESCO world heritage site and has somehow managed to preserve its relaxed, beautiful character. The joke goes that Laos PDR actually stands for "Laos, Please Don't Rush." If you've known me for ten minutes at all you know this might as well be my motto also.

The French influence especially shows in the architecture and in the food! There's a fantastic coffee and croissant culture here intermixed with the Lao food. You -know- how I feel about coffee and croissants.

I decided to spend three full days here. On the first day, we wandered the streets drinking coffee and poking our head into shops with handmade Lao products. The guidebooks insist that "atmospheric temples" are everywhere, so around Mt Phousi we got lost in some Wat complex. I heard laughter and shouts from around the corner of this 'serene' place and my curiosity got the best of me. I gingerly stepped closer to the noise pretending to be looking at a particularly uninteresting building when a group of Lao men hollered at us, "Sabaidee!!"

Sabaidee might be my new favorite word. It's the greeting used for everyone and by everyone (cute kids riding with mom in the night market!) - and I humbly submit to general linguistics study that it's impossible to say without a smile.

So we grin back to the men, "Sabaidee!" and before you know it, we're joining them at their table and they're passing me shots of whisky Lao. It turns out that they're teachers for the novice monks, and they're celebrating international women's day with drinking games. I invite myself into their fast paced card game. Ms. Skovgard, it may be to your amazement that these men were playing a form of asshole! Despite your great skill at teaching me this game, I failed miserably and ended up buying a round of Beer Lao.

Now, after an hour of losing regularly I desperately needed to use the restroom. I followed pointed fingers around the uninteresting building and came face to face with a dozen young adult novices in varying stages of undress. I was at the shower! I can't remember the last time I blushed so hard and I fled back to the safety of my drinking buddies. When they caught on they bellowed in laughter and pointed me back. When I peeked back around the corner the novices were grinning and pointing me to the right door. I half ran saying "Sabaidee!" and "Khop Jai!" until I reached safety.

After several games it became clear to me that neither my liver nor my wallet would keep up. We bid adieu to our new friends with an invitation to visit them at Wat Xieng Thong the next morning for some sort of monk related religious event.

While the event was beautiful, we did not run into our friends again. Day 2 brought its own special adventures...

Katie

Leaving Thailand & Entering Laos

Tonight I say farewell to Thailand for a while. It's been a whirlwind of a trip heading North: Bangkok with all the bustle, Ayutthaya's hot hot cycling amongst ruins, Sukhothai's peaceful and intricate ruins, Chiang Mai's cosmopolitan flair and lastly Chiang Khong's sleepy & country riverside town.

Phew.

Tomorrow morning I cross the border into Laos and board the infamous "slow boat" in route to Luang Prabeng. It takes two days to lazily cruise the Mekong, with a stopover in a hole in the wall town called Pakbeng. I've already noticed it's become much harder to book a guesthouse/hostel in advance; most places don't have a website. Today we wandered around Chiang Khong looking at rooms until we found something suitable. In Pakbeng, I'm told most cut out electricity after 10pm. It will therefore be a few days before I'm in touch again, but don't worry! I will be brimming with stories I'm sure.

In other news, I have finally picked up a travel companion! As I got off the bus in Sukhothai, she approached me about splitting a room. Most places now only sleep two regardless if you're just one person, so traveling with someone can help you save. Plus in my case, it's way more fun! Our plans match up pretty well over the next week plus so I hope to keep her around as long as possible. We even picked up another lovely lady today in Chiang Khong, and I expect to make more friends on the slow boat tomorrow.

I know I've been withholding stories and trip reports from some cities - I'm sorry! I try to at least post pictures :). The cooking class yesterday was fantastic. We first visited the market and learned about common Thai ingredients, then cooked so much food I thought I'd burst. The pictures are of pad thai, papaya salad, hot & sour shrimp soup, and sticky rice with mango, with my finished panaeng curry in the background (I ate it all before any pictures!). We made the curry paste from scratch and well, let's just say I won't feel guilty buying ready-made back in the states!

Lots of love to all of you. Picture here is the chedi from the famous Wat Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai, located on top of a hill. Google the temple's history - the location story and relic is very interesting. I'd retell it here but I'm tired ;)

Baan Thai Cookery Class Pictures