First Impressions: Luang Prabang, Laos

No more Bangkok johns.  Back to squatting!

Luang Prabang, Laos.  I've finally made it.  Worth it?  The jury is still out.

As the last country I'll visit in Southeast Asia, it's hard not to compare.  The coffee was better in Vietnam.  The food was better in Thailand.  Cambodia had more interesting eco-tourism.  What's it gonna be, Laos?  You're already more expensive than any of those three.  Even renting a motorbike is $20/day!  What gives?

While changing some Baht into Kip, I received a 5000kip note at the bottom of the stack when I should have received a 50,000kip note.  It would have been easy to take what she gave me and dash off but I noticed it, so I said "shouldn't I get..." and she quickly smiled and said "woops!  Sorry about that!" And gave me the 50,000 note.  Just avoiding scams left and right!

What I have enjoyed about Laos is the laid back atmosphere.  I still haven't seen anyone give a hoot about anything except bottle cap checkers and lunchtime dramas on the tube.  The vendors don't even care when you walk away from their booth after talking to them for five minutes.

No cops, security guards nap in front of ATMs, and no one yells at you to buy things.

The night market in front of Haw Pha Bang Temple

A definite highlight of Luang Prabang happens at 5pm every day.  The night market is one of the best I've seen, with art, crafts and souvenirs unique to Laos.  There was only one item that I had already seen in a different country, everything else was new and tempting.  I kept my purchases rational, picking up a traditional Laotian-style skirt and a bracelet.  There are sooo many other things that I wanted, though.  Scarves, dresses, necklaces, notebooks with hand-painted covers - they're all so beautiful.


Another thing Laos does well are yummy fruit shakes and crepes.  I ordered a mini lime shake and a  banana-nutella crepe.  Drool.  Perhaps I haven't given Laos enough of a chance.  I may stay in the country a little longer than planned and re-route my way back down to Bangkok.

80 Amused Passengers and One Baby Monkey. Mekong Slow Boat Day 2

Pakbeng, Laos

Remember when I almost didn't get a seat yesterday?  That wasn't happening today.  Bleach blond girl was still in bed when I cinched and clicked my pack tight and headed out for an early morning at the dock.  I stopped by a bakery on the one main road through Pakbeng and made it down to the boats at
7:30am.  We were scheduled to leave at 9:30am.  You can't be too prepared for these things... today was going to be a potentially grueling 8 1/2 more hours of slow boat on the way to Luang Prabang.  So for about 30 minutes, it was me and ten other overly prepared locals, hangin' out on the boat.  The rest of the passengers slowly started rolling down the hill to claim their seats.  As some of the travelers were settling around me, someone mentioned "yeah...she's bringing it on the boat!"

I look up and a girl about my age is stepping into the boat and what is riding tightly on the back of her neck?  A baby monkey.  The girl-half of me was melting in sheer cuteness and the other logical-half was thinking... I've seen "Outbreak," I know how these things end...

All Templed Out? A Walk on the Crawly Side

Since I was enjoying myself so much, I allotted an additional day in Siem Reap to splurge one last time on what ended up being the most fun day of my trip.  After temple trekking, there aren’t too many activities advertised to do, especially in town, so I started exploring other eco-tourism outings.  Through a random tripadvisor link, I happened upon a beautiful picture of a caterpillar.  So entranced, I read through the description and reviews

Dani Jump in his playground

(all of which were five stars).  It described a nature tour, led by Dani Jump of Bees Unlimited to explore the creatures and forest life of the Angkor Archaeological Park.  Through very prompt email correspondence, Dani and I arranged a tour that would depart from my hotel at 7am and return some time mid-afternoon.  At this point I was feeling pretty strapped for cash, but it was a private tour with a Cambodia nature expert so how could I resist?

The tour was $35 itself and $10 for the tuk tuk driver, which would have been waived if I had found another participant. 

Morning Wholesale Market

We started out in the wholesale market, bustling with the sale of morning produce, meat and seafood.  Large silver bowls with all kinds of wild market food lined narrow, muddy pathways.  It was difficult to squeeze past hagglers and peek into every stall while averting the dreaded sandal slop of mud, but interesting to experience busy morning life.  

We enjoyed noodles with a deep fried something or other for breakfast and then taste tested a few other goods as we walked.  Finally, we came upon an insect merchant and Dani urged me to try the big red ants that had been biting me just the day before.  Payback time.  As he is vegetarian, Dani didn’t partake, but he assured me they were sour.  Why? Red ants eat mango leaves so their bodies taste like a squirt of lime.  Delicious!  ...Really!

Siem Reap to Bangkok, the Easy Way!

From my transport research (because these transitions tend to stress me out) the legs from Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam) to Phnom Penh (Cambodia) and then from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap are relatively easy and hassle free.  It’s when you get to the Siem Reap to Bangkok (Thailand) leg where the fun starts.  The countless stories of near-death experiences and “I’ve never been more terrified in my life” statements start

 popping up.  I wanted to avoid feeling terrified while in Thailand, so I dug deeper.

VIP

Where’s the Hassle??

The problem with this route lies in the transfer over the border.  Many bus companies will take you to the border, and then when you cross to the other side, you then wait, sometimes hours, for smaller mini shuttle vans to pick you up.  These vans are on deadlines, and sometimes speed 130k and faster in an 80k zone.

These two problems – border thumb twiddling and mini shuttle vans from hell – are mostly solved with an bus company called Nattakan Co.  They have an office in Siem Reap just a few doors down from the only KFC in town.  I would recommend going a day or two ahead of time, just to make sure you get the bus/seat you want. 

Excuse me, but you have an Antenna in yo Teeth

Today was another long leg of the tri-country bus adventure.  I was going from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap (Cambodia) with Mekong Express (still highly recommend this bus line)  This leg was six hours and $12. Our fare included a bottle of water, a moist towelette and some bakery goods.  We also had a very sweet bilingual tour guide who gave us updates along the way in Khmer and English.  It always seemed like she spoke for a far lengthier time in Khmer than when she translated to English, but most of it was fluff anyway.  During our thirty minute lunch stop in Kampong Thom, I hopped off of the bus and walked over to a fruit and...insect stand where our guide was munching on something.

"What do we have over here?"

"Try it!" she says.  "You don't have any of this in your country?"

"Only for pets."

I stared down at a huge pile of crickets, and realized that someone was asking me to eat something, so I'd better agree.  I asked her if she'd video me eating my first cricket and she happily obliged.  It definitely looked like she was filming me as I grabbed the two back legs of the cricket and shucked the body away from them into my mouth.  As I'm chewing, I notice her fumbling with my camera.  A look of confusion replaced her smile.  ..Sigh..

Culinary Adventures in Vietnam

While living in Vietnam, I made a promise to myself to become more open with areas in my life that were too guarded.  One of those was my culinary variety.  Being from Chicago, my friends (who are not vegetarian), family and I are used to eating and loving delicious, tender BEEF.  There isn't a lot of great sea food in the Midwest that seems edible, or, I decided that if it smelled like seafood it wasn't edible.  So moving to Asia was a strong introduction to many types of food.  I tried "typical" food like shrimp, crab, muscles and other eats for the first time but in this post, I'll detail a few culinary adventures worth noting...

Lately...

I have been meaning to sit down and blog for the last couple of weeks.  Sometimes it seems that I just can't find the words for things that happen, so here are several snippets of happenings:

Thanksgiving:  Many countries have celebrations of their own for thankfulness, especially when connected with the annual harvest, so celebrating Thanksgiving in Vietnam wasn't so far of a stretch.  We also have a handful of American and other western expats living in Da Nang, so many of us came together for a traditional plate of delicious food at Bread of Life.  I had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, green beans and even pumpkin pie!  The one BIG difference between T-Day in America and T-Day here is that I had to go to work two hours later, feeling the full force of turkey pulling down my eyelids.  

My, my our time flies. 100 DAYS!

 Gettin my hurr did...

The last two weeks have been full of guests and warmth here in Nhà KelseyStacey.  For the first time since moving, I was able to play host and tour guide for DaNang and her surrounding cities.  It has been fun showing friends my favorite restaurants, going to the beach, hanging out in local bars and sharing our home.  Some of the smaller highlights of living here almost go unnoticed now that I am so familiar with them, such as ushering a frog off of the coffee table before we eat, or complimentary lounge chairs on the beach.  Guests help me re-appreciate these wonders as they experience them for the first time.  As much fun as I’ve had with the visitors, today I said goodbye to my dear couchsurfing friends, and realized how tired I was!  Time for a little much-needed pampering. 

It has been four months since anyone has touched my hair, and boy did it need some attention.  I was really worried about finding a salon because, without a language barrier, getting across what you want someone to do with a pair of scissors is scary enough.  I would have to surrender all control over what I think my hair should look like.

Vietnam Autumn

This past weekend was the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival for China and Vietnam.  Some regions practice different cultural traditions but there are a few constants that you can always count on: Mooncakes, lanterns, and lion dances. 

I am disappointed in my lack of Mooncake tasting variety.  There are many different flavors from sweet to salty to savory but there was really only one mooncake for me: Sua Dua (pronounced soo-ah yeu-ah).  It’s a heavy round cake about four inches in diameter packed with coconut, magic, and in the middle?   Surprise!  A salted egg yolk.  Oooh man, I’m sad those are gone.

Pineapple and Dragon Fruit

Entrance to the Bodhisattva of Mercy

What a busy week!  I have a bit of a sporadic schedule with teaching, so it’s difficult to keep track of the days, but they whirl by anyway despite my constant efforts to slow them down.  I can’t believe I’ve been here for almost a month now, but many life components are thankfully getting settled.  I’m waiting for my “honeymooning” period with Da Nang to dissipate, but it is holding strong at the moment.  I’d say one of the only frustrating parts of living here is the immense red tape teachers have to slash through for work permits/visas/residency etc.  They don’t make it easy to start out, but I’m taking it one thing at a time, and hoping the paperwork and payments end soon.

Week in Review

It feels like I have been in Da Nang for months after recounting the events that have taken place in the last seven days.  I am going to attempt posting once a week from here on out as I’m sure some aspects of life here will fall into new norms and there will be fewer sights and activities to recount.

I started teaching this week and although I was nervous to take over classes, I knew that after a class or two, my beloved teaching instincts would pop through and nerves would calm.  Teaching art previous to this job has definitely helped me relate and motivate.  The kids love watching me draw on the board as they dictate monster body parts and adjectives to describe images in their vocab studies.  I have had as much fun watching them draw about their interests and explain them to me.  Their intense competitive nature and natural good sportsmanship make our language games very enjoyable.  There was a funny moment yesterday with the teens - I wrote a letter on the board which they had to then connect with an animal, food, country, and past tense verb.  For the letter D, one student wrote “dog” under the animal column, and for the food column?  …“Dog.”

Whaaa?

Since there are many “whaaa?” moments in the first couple weeks living in a new country, I thought I would take a minute to describe some of my recent favorites.

Drinks

Coming from a girl who likes ice in her (skim) milk, having ice in my beer is like a dream come true.  Ordering beer in America is like a race between money, toxicity and temperature.  Personally, I don’t favor chugging beer because I like the taste, I don’t like spending tons of cash on booze, and I don’t want to get drunk too quickly.  Here, all of these things are solved with ice.  Not to mention, Tiger (Singapore) and Heineken (Netherlands) are the main beers served and they are a mere 14,000 and 19,000 dong respectively (.60 and .90 cents - Helloooo running schedule that I've been meaning to make happen.) 

The Giant Hanoian Post

Since my stay in Hanoi was only three days long, I wanted to pack in as much as possible.  I have been learning the ways of Vietnam rather quickly which is good – fewer lessons learned the hard way.  I want to give no illusion of having it all together right from the get-go.  Every day I see things that are so unique from anything I’ve experienced, and to be sure that I improve my navigational skills, I walk to every destination in Hanoi – no taxis.   

In Transit

Let me first start off by saying that I have never had a more pleasant flight and airport experience.  Even with three security check points, a building change between flights and two attempts at putting my backpack in checked luggage (it was over 10 kilograms), I navigated through the international terminals of Ohare, LAX, Seoul’s Incheon and Hanoi’s Noi Bai airports with relative ease. 

Bi-Bim-Bab!

Also to note – up until this trip, Southwest Airlines had taken the cake in airline love, but my heart now belongs to another – swoon – Asiana Airlines was like royal treatment compared to any American flight experience I’ve ever had.  With a fleet of graceful attendants dressed in silk aprons and identical tight buns in their hair, my flying companions and I were treated to pillows and super soft blankets, individually screened blockbuster movies and games, two delicious full course meals, complimentary wine, coffee and tea, and numerous rounds of orange juice and water.  If you ever have the chance to choose this airline, I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment.