Strut-packin' the streets of Bankok |
Sidewalk in Vietnam = Parking |
Namo Amida Buddha |
Strut-packin' the streets of Bankok |
Sidewalk in Vietnam = Parking |
Namo Amida Buddha |
The Tortoise Pagoda, Hanoi |
Halong Bay |
My dress fitting! |
The War Remnants Museum |
3. Walking to the rent-a-tube station to rent your inner tube and to catch a ride with other tubers to the river
4. Piling on the back of a truck with your tube and heaps of other backpackers to bumpily make your way the 2km to the “starting point” of the tubing expedition
5. Taking a shot at the first of 15 bars along the river
6. Getting on your inner tube
7. Floating a few feet to the next bar
8. Drinking a beer
9. Floating a few feet to the next bar
10. Sharing a bucket of mojito with many new-found friends
11. Floating a few feet to the next bar
….I think you get the idea. The various bars are loads of fun, each with a different theme and pumping music. Tubing In Laos is a great way to meet people and certainly a backpacker “must-do” of the region. The end of the day is also pretty standard: after making it the end point of the river, everyone heads to one of the many TV bars of the small town. Every bar/restaurant is a sit-on-the-floor hangout place, with multiple TV’s playing either Friends or Family Guy! Whoever came up with the concept is a genius, and TV-deprived travelers spend hours lounging, ordering BeerLaos and stir-fry.
A relaxing day in Laos..
The next day we made the seemingly short journey to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Only about 100km away, the journey took 5 hours because of the horrible quality of the roads. I have never seen such a dysfunctional road system; pavement is simply unheard of! Finally in Vientiane, we checked out the night market and river walk, and ended up at a nice, quaint restaurant to test some Laotian food. A unique mix of French and Thai, food in Laos is unique; however, the cuisine is not yet very established and it is therefore difficult for it to truly make a culinary statement.
Our time in Vientiane was very relaxed, as it is a quiet city and all bars/restaurants are required to close at 11pm. We enjoyed exploring the town on foot, gathering Laotian souvenirs, and taking a little day trip to the Buddha Park. The Buddha Park is somewhat like the concrete world of Buddhism – giant, concrete replicas of the Buddhist religion have been donated to this park, including a huge pumpkin-like structure that is supposed to represent hell, earth, and heaven within. We got an eerie feeling when inside, as the bottom section is full of disturbing statues representing tortured souls in hell. Add to that, a little boy started subtly following us with a slingshot in one hand and a dead lizard in the other…after that instance we were done with the Buddha park and rushed to the safety of our tuk-tuk! Oh, the everyday life in SE Asia…
Buddha posing!
We had booked a flight from Vientiane to Hanoi, Vietnam, as we had heard horror stories of the 24-hour bus ride between the 2 cities. Eager to get to our last country of the trip, we boarded the plane excited and oblivious to the fact that continuous sweating would be replaced with continuous shivers in the chilly, northern region of Vietnam…
I couldn’t resist. In spirit of the recent Oscars, I wanted to emphasize my favorite city that I have visited so far in SE Asia (although right now I am in Hoi An, Vietnam, and it is catching up fast).
Chiang Mai is the second-largest city in Thailand after Bangkok, and is located about 600km north of the capital. Abbie and I took an overnight bus to get there, which was so much better than expected (however, I thought there was a snake-like bug in my chair for one second and then realized they had turned on the odd seat massagers – that was weird). After a perfect night’s sleep, we got off the bus ready to explore the city! Our first day was packed – tigers and exploring and cooking, oh my!
Before my trip, I wrote a list of must-do’s (so unnatural of me, right?) and seeing tigers at the Chiang Mai Tiger Park was number one. They have always been my favorite animals, and having the opportunity to get up-close-and-personal with them was one I was not going to pass up. The Tiger Park is extremely touristy, but unlike a zoo, visitors get to choose which size cat they would like to interact with, and how many. Trained from an early age, the tigers are calm and sleep most of the day, and there has never been an instance of biting or mauling (we checked). They cleverly make the baby tigers the most expensive to hang out with, and we opted to see the babies, the “mid-sized” (5 months old) and the big mommas. The babies were the most playful, and we had fun watching them rough-house and bounce around. The picture opportunities were perfect, and definitely one of my favorite parts of the whole experience – posing with the big cats, lying with them, high-fiving with them. It was just so amazing, and like the elephant expedition, I found myself smiling from ear-to-ear and excited the whole day.
Best high-five award
The next activity on the list was a cooking class! Abbie and I hadn’t even considered doing one until an elderly couple told us about the one they did in Chiang Mai and completely convinced us. My love for Thai food has multiplied exponentially since I arrived here, and I knew very little about the cuisine before, so this was the perfect way to understand the ingredients and unique cooking techniques. In a group of 8, we all sat cross-legged on the floor at a long, short table while our instructor began the course. She then led us to the local market, where she taught us about the different spices, vegetable extractions, meats, noodles, and curry pastes that are used in Thai cooking. Many of the ingredients are impossible to find in other countries, such as “elephant mushrooms” – long, slimy, brown mushrooms that resemble elephant ears, used in many stir-fry dishes. I won’t go into much more detail, as I am concocting a scrumptious post on food of the region and want to go into much more depth about the components and methods of the cuisine here. (so more to come!)
We were brought back to the house and kitchen, and spent around 3 hours cooking four different dishes! It was so much fun and I was definitely in my element. I chose to cook fried cashew nut with chicken, spring rolls, hot and sour prawn soup, and Chiang Mai noodle with chicken, which is the typical dish from the city, and my absolute favorite Thai food! Abbie and I have concurred that this was by far the best meal we have had so far, and we couldn’t believe that we were actually the ones to make it! I have always found that bike tours are an amazing way to experience a new city and culture, and now I am convinced that taking a cooking class is another unique, perfect way to learn so much more about a new destination.
Different curry pastes at the local market
Because the first day was so action-packed, we reserved the next couple of days for sightseeing and exploring the city of Chiang Mai. The Old Town is enclosed in 4 square, stone walls, giving it oddly somewhat of a European feel. That feeling is immediately expunged when you walk into Old Town among the endless ornate Buddhist temples within. We spent a whole afternoon walking inside and around the various temples, and each one brings you such peace and leaves you in awe of the distinctive religious culture of the region. Another attraction is the immense night market lining the walls of the city. Packed to the brim of tourists buying souvenirs, locals slurping on noodles at food stalls, and street performers, the night market is much more than shopping. We spent a few hours just taking everything in, walking with a street beer and trying local snacks such as dumplings, sweet corn, and spring rolls. The nightlife in Chiang Mai is a blast as well, as many young Westerners teach English there and backpackers make it a “must-stop city”. We met loads of people from all over the world and had a great time at the local bars!
The final day was reserved for the Doi Suthep Temple, a sacred sight for many Thai people, located in the hills surrounding Chiang Mai. The local tour agent convinced us of the trip in pitching “You haven’t been to Chiang Mai if you haven’t been to Doi Suthep”… gets me EVERY time. A van took us up the winding mountain to the “Temple on the Hill” and once inside, the atmosphere was immediately calmer, more serene, more peaceful. Wearing a shawl and long skirt, I purchased flowers and incense and walked three times around the temple for good luck and prosperity. After, I lit the incense and placed it below Buddha, bowed, then placed the flowers in the offertory, and bowed. This process had been explained to us by our tour guide, and it all felt very enchanting and soothing. Abbie and I wished for safe travels, especially that we would be traveling that night for 12 hours via mini-bus across the Thai-Laotian border
Another triumphant, meaningful day behind us, and we set off for our third country of the trip: Laos!
Before our trip, Abbie and I had allocated about 10 days to explore some of the hugely popular paradises in the south of the country. The greatest stress about it? Picking the right ones! We knew we would be on the island of Ko Pha Ngan on February 7th for the Full Moon Party (I will explain THAT in detail in a bit) so we planned to check out one other island before as well. We finally decided on Ko Chang, because it was “easily” accessible from Cambodia. Oh yea, and it has tons of elephants – sold!
Bang Bao Fishing Village
The positive elephant energy was greatly needed as we approached the next leg of our journey. We booked an overnight train from Bangkok to Koh Pha Ngan so that we could make it to the Full Moon Party and also have a few more days on the beach. On our way to Bangkok from Ko Chang to catch the train, I received an email stating that the train was full…no worries, we will just catch the next one or get another class bunk, right? WRONG. Once at the train station, we were informed that there were no more trains or buses for the next 7 nights! The travel fiasco ensued and we spent the next three hours in a hole-in-the-wall travel agency, booking flights and ferries and asking the agent all kinds of questions. I think we annoyed her enough because she ended up selling us quadruple-the-price one-way slow ferry tickets that she told us were round-trip fast ferry tickets. Being ripped off is as common as noodles in this region, and I knew it would happen multiple times, but it doesn’t minimize my frustration in the least! Tired, sunburnt, and defeated, Abbie and I accepted our loss and hit the streets of Bangkok for some yummy street food and beer before our flight the next morning.
Our next journey was from the south to the north...to a city called Chiang Mai. My favorite of the trip so far, so will update you on our adventures there oh-so-soon!
Receiving a blessing & bracelet in Angkor Wat
On a lighter note, Cambodia has really flourished, especially as a tourist destination, during the past few years. Angkor Wat is a vast temple complex, and now the largest religious building in the world! Covering many kilometers, Angkor Wat was built in the 12th century and only suffered mild damage from the Khmer Rouge. You can either purchase a one, three, or seven-day pass to see all of the temples, which is testimony to just how big the complex is. Abbie and I opted for the one-day pass, and even then found our tuk-tuk driver traveling up to 80 kilometers between temples! The most famous temple is Angkor Wat, which some have named one of the seven wonders of the world, and really is the true symbol of Cambodia. Abbie and I explored around 12 temples that day, inside and out, and the freedom to walk wherever you want left us excited taking pictures, walking through secret pathways, and climbing ancient ruins. We even re-enacted Lara Croft Tomb Raider, as one of the tombs (a massive temple with trees growing out of many of the entrances) was the sight of the filming of the bad-ass Angelina Jolie movie.
Second temple of Angkor Wat
Exploring the actual town of Siem Reap was another amazing cultural experience. Crossing the street was almost a death sentence – you have to take 2 steps, wait for a passing motorbike carrying an entire family and their dog (or their pig), take another 3 steps, wait for a passing tuk-tuk carrying some blond Scandinavian tourists, and then sprint to the other side. We tried some Cambodian food and beers, which is much like Thai food but not nearly as spicy. We also got a little “fish pedicure” – you stick your feet in a huge aquarium of carp ready to bite off all of your dead skin. Gross, and scary, and slimy, but AWESOME! You get a beer too and just hang out while the fishies eat your scum away. The markets and night markets boast hundreds of scarves, souvenirs, hats, paintings, etc. and every store-owner is yelling at you “lady, you want a shirt”, “lady, how are youuuuu” and barter for every little thing. We would haggle with a store owner for up to 10 minutes; they are ruthless but ultimately surrender once you get the price you want.