Yes I know - I'm in a wonderful country with glittering temples, a rich culture and a stunning landscape and all I'm thinking about are earrings. Not earrings in general but this one spacial pair I'm searching for so long.
It started in Berlin many months ago; wooden, spiral shaped - quite simple but fucking expensive. 3 days before flying to Bangkok - and these are typical backpacker earrings - I thought I could wait and that I'd find more of them than imagined in my wildest dreams. Oh so true - Khao San road in Thailand is a paradise for thinks like that and for 100 bath they were mine - for exactly 2 days.
Being invited for lunch and meditation by monks and a lovely family in Khon Kaen
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Lazy Days
God, we are so exhausted every evening - it's unbelievable - especially because we are doing nothing! Coming back to Laos felt like the weeks after finishing High School - no more pressure, no more challenges, nothing to do. Nobody would shout at us if if we'd spend the whole day in bed or start drinking beer at noon. But still, we are every single evening totally exhausted.
OK, of course we are doing things - eating noodle soup in the morning, going to the beach, reading, studying Spanish vocab and playing badminton.
It's like being old; sitting at the table in front of our Guesthouse, watching the street life, talking to strangers who made the mistake to sit next to us and bore them to death, drinking cup of tea and being forced by Mama to eat tons of bananas.
Sounds boring to you? Forget it, it's great!
Sarah
OK, of course we are doing things - eating noodle soup in the morning, going to the beach, reading, studying Spanish vocab and playing badminton.
It's like being old; sitting at the table in front of our Guesthouse, watching the street life, talking to strangers who made the mistake to sit next to us and bore them to death, drinking cup of tea and being forced by Mama to eat tons of bananas.
Sounds boring to you? Forget it, it's great!
Sarah
Friday, December 12, 2008
Jars on a plain...(he he he)
So a couple of days ago Luang Prabang was hit by a 48 hour power cut due to what the Communist Party claimed was for "maintenance work" to the national electrical grid...Of course what really happened is anyones guess. Too much Lao-Lao maybe?
Anyway, so with no electricity we decided we may as well go and make the 8 hour bus journey to Phonsavan to see the mysterious plain of jars.
The plain of jars are basically jars...On a plain! Really (REALLY) big stone jars that you can climb in, scattered on a plain. That in itself makes them amazing.
But the mystery lies in there origin. That is, no one has any idea why people built them over a thousand years ago and to what purpose. Archaeologists have been no closer to providing the answer after decades of excavating and study..."Can somebody get these motherfucking jars off this motherfucking plain!" he he he...(i'll get my coat ;))
Some theories have been thrown up; Some say they were for storing the ashes of the cremated dead and acted as giant urns. Others say they were just for storing water (a boring unimaginative theory) whilst the locals think they were just used for stashing large amounts of rice whisky and wine and don't really seem to see what all the fuss is about!
But actually we both loved the jars! A lot of people seem to give it bad press, hence why I chose to skip it on my previous trips to Lao, but for us it was well worth the long bus journey.
Phonsavan, the provincial capital and closest settlement to the jar sites sucks, but the surrounding landscape is so totally unlike the rest of Lao. Yellow grass plains with hills in the background, at times it felt more like the national park near my home in England than South-East Asia! Except for the huge bomb craters that dot the landscape left over from America's bombing rampage during the Indo-China war, and all the war junk used as flower vases scattered across Phonsavan's few resturants, a constant reminder that this region in Lao was one of the most heavily bombed regions, in the most heavily bombed country in the world...ever.
More bombs were dropped on Lao than in both World war one and world war two combined...And considering Lao only has a population of just over 6 million, that's well over a tonne of explosives per person. And consider further that over a third of these bombs (mainly cluster bombs) didn't detonate on impact, this gives you some idea of how all the unexploded ordanance scattered around the country is causing dozens of fatalities and serious injuries every year by farmers and kids stepping on or playing with these bombs. It's a huge huge problem. Villagers being subsistence farmers cannot expand there plots of land in fear of being blown to pieces by UXO. So this keeps hundreds of thousands of people in poverty.
Anyway, we were going to visit the second and third sites but on the way I managed to crash the motorbike after not seeing a big patch of sand in front on the road...Oops! So had to trudge back to Phonsavan and pay a nice 20$ fine in damages to the bike and now i'm hobbling around back here in Luang Prabang like an old man feeling very bruised and like someone who's just been run over by a steam roller! Luckily though we survived without serious injury, which is of course the main thing.
So so far we've survived a recession, three robberies, a motorbike crash and so feel pretty confident we can survive pretty much anything now! What will be next I wonder? Only God knows!
But for now it's back to the life of chicken sandwhiches, 5,000 kip buffets and the easy life...I do love it.
Peter
Anyway, so with no electricity we decided we may as well go and make the 8 hour bus journey to Phonsavan to see the mysterious plain of jars.
The plain of jars are basically jars...On a plain! Really (REALLY) big stone jars that you can climb in, scattered on a plain. That in itself makes them amazing.
But the mystery lies in there origin. That is, no one has any idea why people built them over a thousand years ago and to what purpose. Archaeologists have been no closer to providing the answer after decades of excavating and study..."Can somebody get these motherfucking jars off this motherfucking plain!" he he he...(i'll get my coat ;))
Some theories have been thrown up; Some say they were for storing the ashes of the cremated dead and acted as giant urns. Others say they were just for storing water (a boring unimaginative theory) whilst the locals think they were just used for stashing large amounts of rice whisky and wine and don't really seem to see what all the fuss is about!
But actually we both loved the jars! A lot of people seem to give it bad press, hence why I chose to skip it on my previous trips to Lao, but for us it was well worth the long bus journey.
Phonsavan, the provincial capital and closest settlement to the jar sites sucks, but the surrounding landscape is so totally unlike the rest of Lao. Yellow grass plains with hills in the background, at times it felt more like the national park near my home in England than South-East Asia! Except for the huge bomb craters that dot the landscape left over from America's bombing rampage during the Indo-China war, and all the war junk used as flower vases scattered across Phonsavan's few resturants, a constant reminder that this region in Lao was one of the most heavily bombed regions, in the most heavily bombed country in the world...ever.
More bombs were dropped on Lao than in both World war one and world war two combined...And considering Lao only has a population of just over 6 million, that's well over a tonne of explosives per person. And consider further that over a third of these bombs (mainly cluster bombs) didn't detonate on impact, this gives you some idea of how all the unexploded ordanance scattered around the country is causing dozens of fatalities and serious injuries every year by farmers and kids stepping on or playing with these bombs. It's a huge huge problem. Villagers being subsistence farmers cannot expand there plots of land in fear of being blown to pieces by UXO. So this keeps hundreds of thousands of people in poverty.
Anyway, we were going to visit the second and third sites but on the way I managed to crash the motorbike after not seeing a big patch of sand in front on the road...Oops! So had to trudge back to Phonsavan and pay a nice 20$ fine in damages to the bike and now i'm hobbling around back here in Luang Prabang like an old man feeling very bruised and like someone who's just been run over by a steam roller! Luckily though we survived without serious injury, which is of course the main thing.
So so far we've survived a recession, three robberies, a motorbike crash and so feel pretty confident we can survive pretty much anything now! What will be next I wonder? Only God knows!
But for now it's back to the life of chicken sandwhiches, 5,000 kip buffets and the easy life...I do love it.
Peter
Friday, November 28, 2008
Chicken and fruitshakes
If it comes down to food LP is definitely the capital of Lao. No wonder that Pete and I are getting lazy and fat :-)The reasons are diverse and of course really tasty.
Let's start with breakfast; you can have -as the locals do - a big bowl of soup with rice noddles, vegetables and thin sliced meat or -and this is definitely our favorite - a sandwich. Thanks to the French you can get here baguettes that will make you feel like god in France. Pete normally goes for ham and mustard - I prefer chicken, omelet and sweet chili sauce.
With all these millions of varieties it takes you ages to find out what your favorite is!
Around lunchtime the soup stalls vanish and the city is covered in smoke. BBQs everywhere ... and everything! Starting with tasty chicken breast over whole fish to more exotic and unusual stuff like aehm whole pig heads. But yeah, the chicken breast is great!
Mhm, dinner. Of course you can go to one of the many riverside restaurants, but yeah, on a tight budget there are better options. The best - unbeatable - is the vegetarian buffet at the night market. You have a big, big plate and can fill it up with all kinds of veggie and noddle dishes - for 5000 kip ( that's more or less 50 Cents)
Sweets are not really the specialty of this region but if you are craving sugar try an Oreo-Shake: Shoko cookies, coconut milk and ice mixed - sweeter than pure sugar!
The more healthy option are fruit shakes, you just show the vendor which fruits you like - and the choice between dragon fruit, mango and papaya is hard - mix it with ice and milk and ready is a more than delicious desert.
Sarah
Let's start with breakfast; you can have -as the locals do - a big bowl of soup with rice noddles, vegetables and thin sliced meat or -and this is definitely our favorite - a sandwich. Thanks to the French you can get here baguettes that will make you feel like god in France. Pete normally goes for ham and mustard - I prefer chicken, omelet and sweet chili sauce.
With all these millions of varieties it takes you ages to find out what your favorite is!
Around lunchtime the soup stalls vanish and the city is covered in smoke. BBQs everywhere ... and everything! Starting with tasty chicken breast over whole fish to more exotic and unusual stuff like aehm whole pig heads. But yeah, the chicken breast is great!
Mhm, dinner. Of course you can go to one of the many riverside restaurants, but yeah, on a tight budget there are better options. The best - unbeatable - is the vegetarian buffet at the night market. You have a big, big plate and can fill it up with all kinds of veggie and noddle dishes - for 5000 kip ( that's more or less 50 Cents)
Sweets are not really the specialty of this region but if you are craving sugar try an Oreo-Shake: Shoko cookies, coconut milk and ice mixed - sweeter than pure sugar!
The more healthy option are fruit shakes, you just show the vendor which fruits you like - and the choice between dragon fruit, mango and papaya is hard - mix it with ice and milk and ready is a more than delicious desert.
Sarah
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Southeast Asia FAQ
OK, I'm honest, apart from drinking fruit shakes, eating chicken sandwiches and sitting at the table I'm not doing anything. A lot of time to think about the little mysteries you encounter here in your everyday life. Some are easily solved - thanks to Google and Wiki - others need more contemplation.
1. What does the nest of the omnipresent Gecko looks like?
Geckos are everywhere - and I really mean everywhere. As soon as you realise that it is unlikely that they will fall on your head they actually start to seem quite cute. But I've never managed to find a Gecko nest.
2. What do monks do on their day off from work?
Well, at least in the case of the fortunate Sihanoukville-Monks they spend their day swimming and playing in the ocean, taking sun and going for banana boat rides - of course wearing their orange swim shorts, orange goggles and orange flippers.
3. Why do you always find exactly the one book you always wanted to read in your guesthouse - but in some obscure language you'll never be able to understand?
I guess it's bad karma or fate is just laughing at you when you try to plan your Thailand trip and - although you have 3 Guidebooks around you - are still confused. Of course one is in Icelandic; in the other there are all the important parts missing and the third tells you in length about what to do in the north - while your plan is to head for the south.
4. Why does the Lonely Planet Mekong book have a chapter on Bangkok when Bangkok is thousands of kilometers from the Mekong?
I know this is totally irrelevant but is bothering me somewhat this evening.Don't ask me why. I think they started writing the guidebook then realised that they didn't have enough material to justify the 25$ (yes, 25$) price tag so just copy and pasted the Bangkok chapter from last years Thailand guidebook. "Don't worry" said the editor "No one will realise"
5. How many travellers die every year due to falling coconuts?
That's really important! Seeing that the "Coconut palm-related injuries in the pacific islands" says that "Coconut palms are an integral part of life" and "Injuries related to the coconut palm are thus inevitable."
It is however not easy to find out the real numbers although some people say the numbers are as high as 150 casualties every year.
6. Which tree is more efficient - a banana or a coconut tree?
OK, this is a difficult one but on our 24h bus ride from Pakse to Luang Prabang I had more than enough time to think about this matter of life and death.
During on of the few (very few) statistic lectures I learned that categories are cute little useful things. So let's try it here:
- Fruit: Bananas are great but you get what you see - a banana. A different story with coconuts, definitely the multi talent: coconut water, coconut milk and coconut meat!
Looks like a clear victory for the coconut but wait, did you ever try to open one? It's nothing like peeling a banana; you first have to climb up a tall tree without branches to reach the coconut and then?! A machete is the least thing you need and a good coordination to prevent yourself from greater injuries. Not to forget how deadly coconuts are (See Question 5). Ever heard of someone being killed by a banana?
So the fruit point goes to the banana tree but what about the leafs, the wood, the ... and then the Valium kicked in and I guess we'll never know the answer to which of these trees is more efficient.
Sarah
1. What does the nest of the omnipresent Gecko looks like?
Geckos are everywhere - and I really mean everywhere. As soon as you realise that it is unlikely that they will fall on your head they actually start to seem quite cute. But I've never managed to find a Gecko nest.
2. What do monks do on their day off from work?
Well, at least in the case of the fortunate Sihanoukville-Monks they spend their day swimming and playing in the ocean, taking sun and going for banana boat rides - of course wearing their orange swim shorts, orange goggles and orange flippers.
3. Why do you always find exactly the one book you always wanted to read in your guesthouse - but in some obscure language you'll never be able to understand?
I guess it's bad karma or fate is just laughing at you when you try to plan your Thailand trip and - although you have 3 Guidebooks around you - are still confused. Of course one is in Icelandic; in the other there are all the important parts missing and the third tells you in length about what to do in the north - while your plan is to head for the south.
4. Why does the Lonely Planet Mekong book have a chapter on Bangkok when Bangkok is thousands of kilometers from the Mekong?
I know this is totally irrelevant but is bothering me somewhat this evening.Don't ask me why. I think they started writing the guidebook then realised that they didn't have enough material to justify the 25$ (yes, 25$) price tag so just copy and pasted the Bangkok chapter from last years Thailand guidebook. "Don't worry" said the editor "No one will realise"
5. How many travellers die every year due to falling coconuts?
That's really important! Seeing that the "Coconut palm-related injuries in the pacific islands" says that "Coconut palms are an integral part of life" and "Injuries related to the coconut palm are thus inevitable."
It is however not easy to find out the real numbers although some people say the numbers are as high as 150 casualties every year.
6. Which tree is more efficient - a banana or a coconut tree?
OK, this is a difficult one but on our 24h bus ride from Pakse to Luang Prabang I had more than enough time to think about this matter of life and death.
During on of the few (very few) statistic lectures I learned that categories are cute little useful things. So let's try it here:
- Fruit: Bananas are great but you get what you see - a banana. A different story with coconuts, definitely the multi talent: coconut water, coconut milk and coconut meat!
Looks like a clear victory for the coconut but wait, did you ever try to open one? It's nothing like peeling a banana; you first have to climb up a tall tree without branches to reach the coconut and then?! A machete is the least thing you need and a good coordination to prevent yourself from greater injuries. Not to forget how deadly coconuts are (See Question 5). Ever heard of someone being killed by a banana?
So the fruit point goes to the banana tree but what about the leafs, the wood, the ... and then the Valium kicked in and I guess we'll never know the answer to which of these trees is more efficient.
Sarah
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