Kayaking

We kayaked about 18 km today in Nam Tha conservation area.  The weather was nice and cool, which alone is edging Laos ahead to be our favorite country in Southeast Asia. Plus, it has scenery.  The other two were dry, brown, flat and dusty.  Here, it’s green and luscious with small mountains (or tall hills, depending on whether you’re from Colorado or Arkansas)… and water! 

It rained again last night, which made the river doable with a few areas where we actually had to pay attention or get moored on a rock.  We paddled for most of the six hours. The inflatable kayak was too small for us.  Rob was steering in the back and I’d turn around and see him hanging off the back, sitting on the water.  After each set of rapids, we’d be in about six inches of water.

Along the river we stopped at two villages to meet with the village leader.  One was a Khmu village, a tribe that settled in Northern Laos after migrating from Cambodian lands a few hundred years ago.  The Khmu make Lao Lao – a whiskey from sticky rice.  It’s up to sixty percent, less than a dollar for a half liter, and has a green tint from the plants harvested from the jungle.  We weren’t able to get a straight answer on what those plants are…

The other tribe was Tai Dam, coming from China hundreds of years ago.  They are known for dying fabric a dark indigo using a plant found in the jungle. 

The village leaders smiled when they talked about their festivals.  There are new year and harvest celebrations.  Once a year multiple couples get married between the villages.  The tribes save their animals – chickens and pigs – to be eaten during the celebrations.  Otherwise, they stick with sticky rice and vegetables from the jungle, like bamboo shoots.

The leader is elected by the people every three years.  He’s the liaison with the Laos government and settles disputes between residents – usually the couples.  He speaks Laos and the tribal language and manages the village’s day-to-day affairs.

After the kayaking, we rode in the back of a truck to return to town. As I was walking to the guesthouse, Rob zipped by me riding on the back of a moped, a clear head taller than our guide, headed to the outskirts of town for some Lao Lao. 

Tomorrow we’re off to Udomxai.

First days in Laos

Yesterday, crossing into Laos…

Rob and I just finished crossing the border at Huay Xai in northwestern Laos and are on the bus to Luang Nam Tha.  The bus is less than a third full, so I have some room to type a blog entry until I get sick. [note: i did a few minutes later -- the roads oscillated every hundred meters between newly paved and loose gravel and the bus was starting and stopping way too often]. 

Last night we stayed in Chiang Kong, Thailand, not much more than a border town.  It is a three minute ferry trip to get to the Laos side, but we’ve read that a bridge is due to come soon.  Once in Laos, you apply for an on-the-spot visa and in an hour or so, you’re on your way. 

At this border crossing, most tourists take the slow boat to Luang Prabrang, southeast of Huay Xai.  Ideally the boat ride takes two days, 8-10 hours each day, with an overnight stop in Pak Beng (if your boat makes it that far).  We saw our first throng of Americans since New Zealand at the visa window.  They were loud and making a scene, but the boat ride will dull them. Rob and I vowed no more long boat rides after Cambodia and opted for the rickety bus ride and a different route that will take us northeast and then south instead.

Nam Ha

We’re in Luang Nam Tha, a small mountain town in northern Laos.  The start of the wet season came early this year.  It rained here last night, so the heat was bearable today and the nights are cool. 

Today we hiked in the Nam Ha conservation area, about an hour’s ride outside of town.  Rob and I went with a guide and another American girl.   

We waded nearly waist high through a river to reach the start of the hike, and then followed the trail cut by hunters from the nearby villages. It was narrow and steep with lots of slippery red clay from last night’s rain. Each of us took turns falling and sliding down in the mud. 

In parts of the conservation area, there are black bears, elephants and tigers, but the animals are quite a distance from us.  They migrated to the areas close to the Chinese border to escape the village hunters.  In recent years, the government asked (demanded?) the villagers to stop hunting, so there would be some wildlife, especially birds, left for the tourists to see.  Now the villagers lay woven bamboo traps for squirrels.

The jungle is dense with bamboo, sandalwood, galangal, rattan and other palms.  Our guide stopped often to talk about the plants, giving us leaves and roots to try.  Some were better than others.

At lunchtime, he and one of the girls from the village cooked over a bamboo wood fire.  We had bamboo shoots cooked over the open flame.  You have to peel back their layers and they taste a lot like a slightly bitter, sour artichoke. 

The guide skewered buffalo meat for the others.  He also cut a large piece of bamboo, chopped the remaining meat and added rattan shoots, chilis, salt and water, scooped the mix into the bamboo, and propped the bamboo over the fire until it boiled.

Tomorrow we’re going kayaking.  I’ll backtrack and write about our visit to Thailand soon. 

More photos on Facebook

Here

Photos – Cambodia and Singapore

I switched from flickr to facebook, since the latter uploads faster here. 

Singapore photos here (we were in town for an overnight layover):

Cambodia photos here (more to come).

Cambodia – pt. 3

It would be a real shame to wrap up our visit to Cambodia with the last post, so here’s the rest…

You’ve got to love a sense of humor.  Hundreds of Cambodians sell souvenirs or tuk tuk rides in the tourist areas.  One girl at the temples asked us to buy water from her.  Rob said, ‘no we have some now, but maybe tomorrow.’  Without hesitating, she replied, ‘then you pay today and I give you tomorrow.’ 

While we were in Siem Reap touring the temples, a small Cambodian girl ran up to Rob and laughing, pointed to him, “me small, you big.”  He may have been more than twice her size.  

Another boy asked us to buy a set of postcards, $1.  When we said no, he smiled and said, ‘ok, $100’.  He was loving his joke.

Siem Reap to Battambang

There’s a river that runs between the two towns.  Nine months out of the year you can take a boat ride that lasts 3 to 4 hours and carries you across the Tonle Sap Lake, then through more than a dozen remote river villages and along miles of jungle. 

During the hot season (now) the boat ride is a level of hell – a deeper inner circle punishment in hell.  The river, more like a creek, is way too low for boat travel.  The trip took 11 hours. That’s 11 hours of sitting in hot sun, on short fiberglass seats, with little breeze and one bathroom stop, sitting on a thin lifejacket with a metal bar lodged into your back in a boat crammed with 30 other people who are equally as sweaty and sticking to you while the boat alternatively breaks down and spews fumes and oil.  Our butts are still recovering.

The river villages were pretty incredible though (will post photos soon).  Most of the families get by on fishing, but some operate full general stores or fuel stations. 

The water was light brown from the mud kicked up from the river.  Especially as we moved closer to Battambang, Cambodia’s second largest city, the trash piled up on the river bed and was floating in the water. 

The people used the river to brush their teeth, take baths; wash clothes. We saw dozens of children swimming, spitting the water at each other and waving so hard at us that their whole bodies shook.  Animals were also swimming, drinking; using the river as a toilet.

As we got closer to the big city, the houses moved from the river to its bank.  Stretching between them and the river were long, light blue PVC pipes.  We’re fairly sure that the pipes brought water to the homes.

Battambang

In Battambang we stayed close to the night market in the city center.  It is a quiet town.  Many of the stores were closed, although it may have been quieter than usual since we had arrived a few days before the Khmer New Year. 

Most tourists stay in the City to visit the countryside villages.  In the neighboring villages they still make rice paper and fish paste (prahoc – fermented fish ground with rice and salt) by hand.  We took a day to drive around, visiting a temple and sampling some great food. 

We also rode the bamboo train – a 30 minute ride on train tracks traveling through rice fields. As the cart moved forward, every few seconds we’d hit a gap in the rails, which felt like someone punching you in the butt and the blow resonating up your back.  The pain goes away for a second before you hit another gap.  Needless to say, we didn’t understand the draw, but many tourists say it’s the highlight of their trip (which probably means they didn’t like the country).

Khmer Food

…is really excellent.  The best known dish to Westerners is Amok, a fish curry with lemongrass, coconut milk, lime leaves, chilies, garlic and some other spices cooked in banana leaves. There are lots of curries, hot soups and barbequed food. 

We loved the thick fruit shakes.  Our favorite combo was banana, lime and coconut. Bananas are smaller and sweeter and the coconuts are green and smooth – also much sweeter and the meat creamier than the ones I’ve tried in the States. 

We tried jackfruit, a fruit with a hard knobby skin and underneath a yellow fibrous pulp that tastes somewhat like a banana and is wrapped around a hard seed about the size of a middle toe.  The oranges have a green skin.  The mangoes are smaller and often eaten when they’re still green and sour. 

A typical Khmer breakfast is a baguette topped with either jam/butter or cheese, or more commonly meats and veggies.  There are food carts everywhere selling bread throughout the day.

Some of the best rice in the world comes from the Battambang area.  I especially liked the fluffy short grain white rice.  It was light and not chewy.  This time of year the rice fields are dry and dusty.

Cambodian Education Center

While we were in Battambang, we spent a day volunteering with Children’s Action for Development/the Cambodian Education Center.  It’s an organization run by a local Cambodian, Racky Thy, who is teaching Khmer and English classes to rural children who cannot afford English courses at the schools down the road ($8/semester). Most of the students are poor orphans or scavengers (collecting plastic bottles and cans from the trash and at the dump to trade in for little money).  Learning to read, write and speak English gives the kids opportunities for work.  We were really impressed by the great work that the Center is doing. 

In the morning Rob and I taught two classes of 6-9 year olds.  We reviewed pronunciation and handwriting.  Both of our classes wanted to hear us sing songs, so we reached deep into our brains and pulled out the ABC song, ‘head and shoulders, knees and toes’ and “do your ears hang low?” (The tune of the latter has been set to Khmer lyrics.  It’s now a popular rap song sung by a sexy Cambodian pop star.  If they only knew…)

In the afternoon we were guest teachers for two older groups of students.  My kids were about middle school age.  They asked questions in English and I gave them simple answers, like ‘what time do you wake up in the morning?’  One student asked how old my husband was.  I said, ‘30’ and he cried ‘13’!!! The class exploded into laughter. 

It was a gratifying day.  The children knew the value of the education they were getting.  They were absorbed in the lessons – about as much as any 8 year old could be – and didn’t take class time for granted.  Education can be their ticket out of the harshest poverty we’ve ever witnessed.

So, if you hear of anyone taking a trip to Cambodia, please encourage them to spend a day or even a week teaching at the Center – of course, they’re always in need of volunteers and donations.

Khmer New Year

We left for Thailand the first day of Khmer New Year.  Shops, except for those that cater to tourists and others in the heart of the City, close for three days.  On the first day, families go to the temples and offer food to the monks. 

I set out at six that morning to bring a traditional cake to the pagoda.  Inside the temple chanting played on a set of speakers.  The large room was decorated in colorful streamers and strings of lotus flowers.  There were long tables, lined with Buddhist monks on either side.  In the middle of the tables were large bowls of boiling water.  As people came in, they either added vegetables to the pots to make a soup or gave sweets that were then stacked between the pots.  Each monk had a bowl and soup spoon. 

My exchange with one of the monks was a little awkward (women are not supposed to come in direct contact with the monks), but he was gracious.

Over the three days of the New Year, Khmer families spring clean their houses, they visit the graves of their families, and they return to the pagodas to play games.  They play for hours – tug of war (girls vs. boys), duck-duck-goose, etc.  There’s one game where you pop your neighbor’s knee with two large, hard seeds.  That one sounded very painful.

…so the morning of the first day we loaded up our bags and made the drive to Poipet at the border.  And, now we’re in Thailand.

The darker side of Cambodia (pt. 2)

Khmer Rouge

From 1975-1998, the Khmer Rouge waged a war on their own people, torturing and executing an untold number of poor, elderly, children and women – some say as many as 3 million.  To understand modern day Cambodia, you must know about the genocidal reign of the Khmer Rouge.

Landmines

Cambodia has one of the highest concentrations of still activated landmines in the world.  We’re talking millions still out there.  Many of the mines were dropped by the US during Vietnam.  Many were then laid by the Khmer Rouge in the following decades. 

The mines are scattered in fields and throughout the endless expanses of dry jungle.  They would be very tough, if not impossible to spot if you’re walking along, so most folks tell you to stay on the well worn paths – even around the temples and even if you’re walking along and have to pee.

We saw a few landmine victims in homemade wheelchairs begging around the markets.  We heard that many more are in the countryside.  Landmines are especially bad because they detonate to wound, not to kill.  The thought is that wounded soldiers require more resources than a dead soldier.  Now they’re wounding kids playing in the fields next to their houses.  Pretty sad really.

We went to a landmine museum outside of Siem Reap.  It was founded by a former soldier in the Khmer Rouge who one day decided to deactivate explosives instead.  Over 10+ years he’s deactivated close to 50,000 mines.  Attached to the museum is a home and school for young landmine victims.  They have their bios posted on a wall in the museum.  One wants to study to be a doctor.  Another wanted to sell souvenirs.

People (Not) Partying

The last elections were in 2008 and the People’s Party of Cambodia once again received the slim majority of seats in Parliament. On paper, they run a “socialist” platform, but in such a poor country it is tough to see a government presence beyond the empty military training grounds scattered throughout the countryside, signs everywhere with the heads of the three Party leaders, or the sparkling new houses for administrators and their offices. 

USAID has more of a palpable presence here.  There are so many NGOs from the States and Europe.  Today we passed the offices for World Vision and Habitat for Humanity. We have heard that they aren’t doing much due to the economic downturn overseas.

Cambodia – part 1

Although Cambodia was our first stop, while we were there it was tough to find time to sit down and write a post.  I took some notes along the way, so this might sound disjointed, but hopefully interesting…

Siem Reap

When we stepped off the plane, Cambodia smelled different.  It was a combination of incense, ginger and dust.  And it was hot. Hot with no clouds, all sun and no wind hot.  Wet shirt, open pores, glasses falling off my nose hot.  Hard to breath, humid and very very dry at the same time hot.  I’ve never experienced a hotter hot.  Rob says it’s a lot like Texas.

We took a tuk tuk ride to our guesthouse from the airport.  Tuk tuks are scooters hooked to a covered cart built to seat up to four. (Every country in Southeast Asia has a different version.  In Thailand, there are mini trucks with a covered bed for seating.)

On the first day we sat under an awning of a restaurant, drinking 50 cent pints of Angkor beer, adjusting to the time zone change.

Angkor Wat

Angkor is the reason that tourists visit Siem Reap.  It’s is a huge temple complex about 7 km outside the town. You can walk the perimeter of the main temples if you put in 27 km.  Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in the world.  The Angkor temples were built between the 11^th and 13^th centuries by powerful Khmer kings.

We saw most of the temples over a couple days.  They were beautiful and impressive.  Visiting the temples is like stepping into another world (with dozens of Korean tourists snapping photos alongside you).  It’s incredible the temples were constructed almost a thousand years ago – especially in the Cambodian heat – they are just so massive. I’ll post some photos soon.

Bum Guns

Whether it’s a western-style or a squat toilet, nearly every one has a flexible spray nozzle, like the ones atop your kitchen sink but on a 2-3 foot hose.  After you go to the bathroom, you wash off rather than wipe.  Few places have toilet paper and if you find it, you throw the paper in the trashcan next to the toilet. Just an FYI.

Night Markets and Food Stalls

The market is the place to eat, watch traditional cooking over huge woks and pots, and see all of the unique fruits, veggies and herbs.  I am addicted to the night markets especially. 

More to come soon…

Happy New Year!

The Cambodia-Thailand Border Crossing

Rob and I have been traveling for a week and a half now – seems like a month.  Yesterday we took a taxi from Battambang, Cambodia to the border crossing at Poipet.  We had heard that the Thai immigration officers could be exceptionally difficult, but getting our 15 day entry stamps was a smooth process. 

On the other side we found a government-run bus to drive us a comfortable 4 hours to Bangkok.  Unless you’re in the mood for slow regional buses, it’s nearly impossible to get to Northern Thailand from where we were without connecting in Bangkok. 

We didn’t know what to expect in Bangkok. The Thai government is still encouraging tourists to visit while at the same time issuing a State of Emergency that grants the army and police “special powers.”  Just yesterday the US Embassy had released another Travel Alert. 

The protests in a nutshell:

For weeks there has been a clash between the Thai government and the “red shirts”.  The latter is a group of poor laborers – mostly farmers – who are demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister and the dissolution of Parliament.  It may sound like a lofty goal, but back in 2006, the military overthrew the former PM in a coup and instated the current PM without elections.  The Red Shirts want to the government to commit to holding democratic elections within the next month or two. 

About a week ago the Red Shirts were marching and someone fired in/into the crowd.  A huge riot broke out.  Hundreds were injured and 23 people died.  In the past couple days, the Red Shirts have camped out the major shopping mall in Bangkok where they have set up a tent city with a medical clinic, free food, etc.  The government is reticent to forcibly move them since any actions will surely result in more deaths.  No one knows how long the stand off will last, but more and more Red Shirts are descending on the City.

Bangkok is a huge city – a sea of skyscrapers.  Some travelers we ran into had suggested that if we stay away from the protest sites, we could still see the famed wats (temples) and palace.  We were considering our options and then at the bus station we ran into an English guy who was leaving the city.  He crossed out the areas on our map where we shouldn’t go and they were sizeable (including the area where we were thinking about staying).  Rob and I decided to skip the City and take a local bus to the train station to head north.

Songkran Festival

We arrived to Thailand on one of the days of Songkran.  It’s the Thai New Year (and the new year across Southeast Asia under different names).  In Thailand, Songkran gives everyone license to throw buckets of water, and sometimes a water/talc powder combo, on every car, bus and person passing by.  So although the news that 23 people died during the riots is on constant rotation, a much quieter story is on the 114 people who died in one day from traffic accidents.

We saw groups of 5-10 people loaded up onto the back of pickup trucks with a dozen 10-gallon buckets of water between them.  They used the buckets to refill supersoakers or bowls.  When the trucks pulled up to each other in traffic, whole buckets were dumped on each other. Many of the people on the trucks and sidewalks wore Red Shirts, some waved red flags, and that’s as close as we’ll likely get to the action.

North and out of Bangkok

At the train station we took the commuter line to Ayutthaya, a small town about 2 hours north, that served as Siam’s capital hundreds of years ago.  We met a couple of expats on the ride and learned much about the current situation and healthcare in Thailand.  Last night we went to the night market near our guesthouse for dinner.  Incredible pad thai for two: about $1.50. 

…more to come (on Cambodia) soon…

Here we come…

Well, the rumors are true – Rob and I have decided to head home.  We knew it was time when Linda let us down. She was the second car to bite the dust on us in six months.  While we’re thankful that Christchurch has public transportation, waking up at 6:00am and standing in the cold rain for an hour long bus ride to a destination that once took 15 minutes to reach – it just wears you down.  

Linda was the impetus, but honestly we had been hearing Denver call our names for a little while now.  Back in August we took a leap and moved to New Zealand for chance to explore our dreams.  Rob knew that his was linked to brewing beer, and I was up for anything (and the universe hooked me up with chocolate).  We’ve both had the opportunity to discover and validate our paths and now we’re anxious to practice in a place where we will live on a more permanent basis. 

But not so fast!

Rob and I are gonna stick with the original plan to travel the rest of the way around the world before settling down.  The initial plan would have been cool — to catch a flight to Southeast Asia and travel to Lisbon by train. 

Our plans changed when we learned about the new Russian consulate here. Getting visas for Russia in New Zealand is much more difficult process that seriously involves risking thousands of dollars.  So, we decided to prioritize the countries we wanted to visit and ended up with a rough itinerary that over the next three months will take us by train and plane to:

Singapore (just a night), Cambodia (temples!), Thailand (food!), Laos (more temples!), China (a month here alone), Mongolia (fermented milk!), Germany (damn good beer!), France (hello, chocolates!), Belgium (more chocolates plus beer = heaven!) and Amsterdam(!!).

What this means to you –

The blog is about to get interesting again! Check back around mid-April for an update on our travels.  No promises, but I hear wi-fi in Southeast Asia may be easy to find than we think.  Also, we need your travel tips — this is our first trip to Asia.  We will have a lot of flexibility so if there’s a place/sight/food/beverage/etc. that we shouldn’t miss, please send those recommendations my way. 

We will be saying goodbye to this beautiful country on April 5^th.  Until then, we’ll be swamped with visa applications, studying maps of train systems, vaccinations, selling stuff on trademe (NZ craigslist/ebay) and saying ‘see you later’ to friends and colleagues (although we hope to see a few stateside before too long)… and of course, hours upon hours of bus rides.

Success!

 …but it’s 30 minutes into Saturday.  Croissant making takes a long long time.  a verrry longggg time. 

This is batch #2 — the first one is in our tummies with boysenberry jam…  

Also, new photos on flickr of croissants and Godley Head.