January 30, 2007
February 01, 2007
Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign
One of the things we love about traveling is signs; some well intentioned but semantically mangled, others just symptoms of cultural differences. Here are a few to date.
Hong Kong is very clean - not much litter, no cigarette butts on the streets, etc. Below are two reasons why ...... and they aren't kidding. Perhaps we should consider such draconian measures in an increasingly littered Toronto:
The following sign on a beach in the Hong Kong harbour may be our all time favourite sign.....depending on how you define "Inconvenience":
One of those charming verbal juxtapositions:
This sign brings new meaning to the threat of PMS:
Just in case you didn't know, carrying a gun when you come to visit the Thai King is discouraged. The NRA must be appalled.
The following is self explanatory ......... sort of:
One is expected to remove one's shoes on entering a Thai temple. They provide racks at the larger sites. The Thais are incredibly polite, so we were perplexed to find separate Thai and Foreigner shoe racks. Our guide explained that the intent was to make clear that any thefts of Foreigner shoes was due to other foreigners, and not the Thais:
We're always on the look out for more - will add them as we collect them!
February 09, 2007
A "Long Tail: Digression
Southeast Asia employs a small boat configuration that they universally call a "long tail". Because the rivers and estuaries are very shallow they can't use an inboard shaft, a stern drive or an outboard - nix on anything that extends below the bottom of the boat. The solution is the "long tail" - a 10 - 16 foot drive shaft that extends behind the boat, putting the prop is clear, shallow water. The motors (and we've seen everything from chain saw engines to 6 cylinder Toyotas - although 4 cylinders are more popular) are mounted on gimbals. The whole mechanism floats (generally with exposed water pump and generator belts) at the end of a control rod that your driver takes great delight in using to do the nautical equivalent of wheelies. They are wonderful craft and we had much fun riding them everywhere in Cambodia, Lao and Thailand. Georgian Bay might have fun with long tails! Following are some shots from various locales:
February 18, 2007
Laos? Why are we going to Laos?
Cambodia has Angkor Wat, Thailand has temples and food......why Laos? Because it is one of the most interesting, welcoming, relaxing, great food, service and civilized places we've ever been. We loved Laos. We would go back in a heartbeat.
Liz found a charming french colonial hotel with 14 foot ceilings, a wonderful restaurant, adoring staff and a balcony that looks over one of the tributaries of the Mekong River (the juncture is a mile to our left - the town is on a peninsula between the two rivers), and - of course - the hotel is owned by an ex pat Brit who looks like Peter Sellers - it's perfect!
Oh yes, the town is called Luang Prabang. It has more good restaurants per capita than NYC, interesting temples and is just a marvellous place to relax. We, of course, eat.
Walking down a side street after a crawl past the "big" restaurants (remember, the french were here and you can still get a croque monsieur at the local bar), Liz announces that "Cafe Toui" looks good. We begin a love affair that lasts for the duration of our stay in Luang Prabang.
We start with River Weed - an algae harvested from the river and deep fried with micro thin slices of garlic and peppers. It comes with a unique condiment - crushed chilies, garlic and water buffalo skin (we couldn't make this up). It is to die for - Laos needs to bottle this flavour and export it - we would order large bowls of it and smear it on everything.
This is the river weed opened up to show the preparation
Then some of the best fried rolls ever, some fresh rolls and some local sausage....and when you order a Johnnie Walker Black they make a significant contribution to the Scottish economy
A charming happenstance - as we were dining we met an American Musical Anthropologist who was delightful, intelligent, worldly and didn't vote for Bush. Everything America should be.
Luang Prabang doesn't have a single major attraction equivalent to Angkor Wat....it just has many wonderful pieces. You get the feeling sitting in the cafes that if you wait long enough everyone you know....and wanted to know.....will wander by. One night our surround consisted of an American buddhist nun, a Thai fashion designer who lived in Italy and NYC and an Asian film star, plus two retired North American consultants! LP is an eclectic place!
The temples of LP do not have the glided opulence of Bangkok but we tended to like them better. They are somehow more sincere. The monks still do a 6:30am alms collections which is lovely to see. Following are some temple shots (including our favourite multi headed snakes) and the haunting early AM monk walks. Most Lao men is a monk for at least part of his life - a week, a month, years - we close with a young monk and his Gameboy - Asia will adapt.
And here are the monks....................
Lunch at the 3 Nagas
LP is overrun with good restaurants - we can't figure out how they all survive. Many of the most highly recommended serve classic French cuisine. We decided that if we wanted escargot or coq au vin we should have booked Paris. We tried to eat Laotian food, which we were coming to love. So off to the 3 Nagas
Really good meal - different foods and flavours. Following is stuffed bamboo shoots - we really need those on our menu at home
Great fried rice, with an egg. The egg is a wonderful condiment that occurs frequently in SE Asia, and really munchy little pork tenders. Yes Pork still has fat here and tastes really good .... not like the white styrofoam they serve the diet crazed in North America. All enhanced with some pepper sauce
Then some stuffed peppes and stuffed banana leaves. We loved this food and would go back to 3 Nagas in an instant
A construction side bar
There is a lot of construction in LP (go soon!) and it's beautifully done - straight grain teak, morticed and tenoned. They build houses out of the wood from which the rest of the world makes furniture
The Night Market
For shoppers and just tourists like ourselves the LP night market is a must see experience. The ladies from the country bring in their silk weavings and carvings and other handicrafts. It is a wonderous panoply of colours, shapes, personalities and patters......following are pix with some weaver shots at the end
Luang Prabang 2
Some random shots of Luang Prabang
Meat drying on a doorstep
The starter plate at the best French restaurant in town......we only had the starter as we were commited to Lao cuisine! The view was lovely and the wine superb - it was a lovely afternoon
The sidewalk vendors are photographic gems
These are rooms at one of the most expensive hotels in town - Maison Souvannaphoum - we prefer our rooms to have walls and a/c!
An excellent meal in a scenic location
We wandered around the riverside and found a restaurant overlooking the river. great food - sour pickled pork Luang Prabang style -- like grilled head cheese....tough to imagine but wonderful to eat. The restaurant was a gem - note creative plumbing
Luang Prabang 3 - Riding with Elephants
Walking with tigers was revealing - why not go for an elephant ride? Not a wander around a loop in a park, but a few hours through the jungle. We, with our usual luck, find a great guide - Ta - who sets up the whole excursion.
First off is "The Bridge". Since the rivers rise and fall by 10s of feet, most bridges are temporary. To get to the village whee our elephant awaits we need to cross the engineering triumph below - erected all by hand from light canoes. Somehow it looked easier when Harrison Ford did it. We make it across, but later in our hotel we both admit that waltzing across the Mekong on what feels like bamboo place mats without handrails definitely focused the mind and tightened the sphincter.
Then....the village. We loved and respected the Lao people. The village is actually a tripartite arrangement - Lao, Khmer and Hmong. They get along now, but are still separate in many ways - they don't intermarry, their housing styles are different, they speak different languages. They have an inspiring school - minimal resources and an optimistic teacher. We bought pens for Ta to take back to the school and plan to continue to send necessities. We were obviously enchanted by Laos as shown below
And that universal thing kids do when somebody takes their picture - show their tummy!
The Elephant Ride
Her name is "Oh", she is 25 years old and weighs in at approx 1600 pounds. She is working the tourist circuit because she is too small to survive in the timber business (although carrying Richard and Liz may not be her idea of small tourists!)
It's good for her because her life expectancy in tourism in 100 years but in the more arduous timber trade only 50 years. We of course immediately fall in love with Oh and decide we need one. Unlike a tiger cub, we can't even fantasize about hiding her in our back pack. Following are pix as she comes into the compound expecting food - note Ta - our excellent guide
Then we mount up.....using a convenient 8 foot high mounting platform. Lesson one occurs.....when you ride an elephant, plan to be up there for the duration until you reach the 8 foot high dis-mounting platform at the other end! The only option is falling off.
The ride is a delight. Our mahout (he's 25 years old) doesn't speak English (and our Lao is pretty bad!) but is charming, seems to care deeply about our comfort and carries a large knife which he uses to prune vegetation that might brush against us. If pressed we sense he could prune a lot more than just vegetation. You can see the knife scabbard next to his elephant goad as he directs Oh by pushing the back of her ears
We discover lots of things about elephants...
- they can walk up and down very steep slopes
- they can step over large fallen trees
- they can mow down a 4 inch diameter tree when the mahout wants to widen the path. Missed the photo of this for obvious reasons. Oh is not a caterpillar D-9, but she's very impressive at clearing brush.....hey she clears brush....she's obviously Presidential material
- she eats as she goes. That trunk is amazingly dexterous
- you can feed her as you go. Tear off some foliage - the mahout makes the right sounds and that marvellous trunk snakes up
- here's a big lesson - elephant snot dries a bright yellow colour and did not accessorize well with anything in Liz's travel wardrobe
Mostly we learned that we need an elephant to go along with the tiger. We also learned how beautiful the Laotian hill country is
The adventure continues. A climb down a rickety ladder a very slippery slope and into our awaiting long tail boat. A quick jaunt up the river to where.....of course after listening to our whining, Guide Ta has celled ahead to have a cooler of chilled beer delivered (it was hot!)
Then a jaunt to the waterfall. It is low water season, so things are relatively tranquil. Pleasant, but not as much fun as elephant riding!
Then back to LP for a late lunch at Cafe Toui with Ta. On the way we picked up an American Trekker on his mountain bike. We took him to the nearest repair shop and Ta helped him with his repair. We made him promise he had never and would never vote Republican.
We loved Laos.
Luang Prabang Travel Info
This is a placeholder page for hotel/restaurant/guide contact information - info to come
