Day 159: Hello! from Thailand

Hello indeed -apologies for the rushed nature of this post - after quite the ordeal (I promise to explain this at a later date) we have made it into Thailand! Hurrah!

Now the reason I cannot stay and chat longer is that Team 365 is taking itself on a 3-day action-packed trek into Chang Mai's glorious hillsides - as ever, we will endeavor to keep you informed of all that ensues.

Must dash! x

Food For Thought

Well Laos has been, as predicted, a culinary delight to say the least; and so with the help of 365's honorary member - here are our all-star menus for Laos.

Rob's Menu

BREAKFAST

3 fried eggs and a loaf of bread (Ban Na Him)

ELEVENSES

Chocolate &banana doughnut (Si Phan Don)

LUNCH

Fried noodles with pork (Mama Pap's Si Phan Don)

AFTERNOON SNACK

Omlette & bacon baguette (Vang Vieng)

DINNER

Elephant Camp Dinner: Cucumber soup with fried mixed veg,chicken curry with steamed rice & fried spring rolls (Elephant Camp &Si Phan Don)

Dessert

Banana pancake (Jasmin's Pakse)

Drink

Lemon juice (Buddha park, Vien Tien)

Kat's Menu

BREAKFAST

Mixay Guesthouse buffet; fried egg, toast, coffee, unlimited salad buffet (Vien Tien)

ELEVENSES

Cinnamon whirl (Si Phan Don)

LUNCH

Creamy coconut curry with potato & veg (Si Phan Don)

AFTERNOON SNACK

Cappuccino shake with haribo-sweets in (Tha Kaek)

DINNER

Khua maak kheua gap moo (aubergine fry with tofu) & a Luang Probang Salad (Cooking course, Luang Probang)

Dessert

Banana Pancake (Jasmin's Pakse)

Drink

Glass of Red Wine (I know, I know...yes it was Chilian but as my first in 5 months it was indeed my favourite drink)

Jeff's Menu

BREAKFAST

MixayGuesthouse Buffet (as above)

ELEVENSES

Cashew nuts (before the ants got to them) with an Oreo Shake (Vien Tien & Tha Kaek)

LUNCH

Feu Khua (deep fried noodles with egg and veg) with a Luang Probang Salad (Cooking course, Luang Probang)

AFTERNOON SNACK

Duck & Vegetable kebab (Vang Vien)

DINNER

Po's Dinner; Vegetable curry with grilled fish, pork cutlets, chips, sticky rice & fresh spring rolls (Tat Lo)

Dessert

Lemon & sugar crepe (Luang Probang)

Drink

Mint & Lemon Shake (Vien Tien)

Day 153 - 155: The Elephant Whisperer

For the last three days I have been staying at the Elephant Lodge, just outside Luang Prubang, learning what it is to be a mahout. I have succesfully learnt that a mahout is someone who keeps, trains and looks after elephants, and my three days mostly consisted of walking, washing and feeding elephants. Sounds like a short list to fill three days out with, but I had an unforgetable time and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone.


On my first day I spent a short amount of time learning how to 'drive' an elephant with my other trainee-mahouts. We got the chance to put into practice what we had just learnt almost instantly by taking the elephants out for a walk. We yelled (or at least not whispered) commands - walk, turn left, turn right, spray water etc - to our elephant from atop their neck with mixed results.

My elephant was named Thong Khun, which loosely translates into diamond or precious stone, but was known as TK as there was no way I could properly pronounce it.

Riding the elephants through thick jungle was incredible, and although TK did show some response to the commands I gave, I felt pretty sure that she knew the route well enough to not have to rely on me. Probably for the best.

Our walk was nearly constantly interrupted by at least one elephant wanting to snack on a tasty looking tree or two before we moved on. Considering that the mahouts give each elephant 250kg of food a day, and that elephants spend most of the night eating more food on top of that (they only sleep 2-3 hours a night) it did seem extravagant. Still, it added even more excitement to the journey and I was surprised and amazed to see how dexterous elephants are. They're able to snap trees and bamboo into bite sized chunks with their feet and trunk, and can strip a branch of its leaves and bark.

As well as walking and feeding the elephants twice a day, every morning the elephants were collected from where they sleep - about 2km from the lodge in dense jungle with plenty of food and space - and taken down to the river to be washed; which is probably even more fun than the pictures would have you believe - check them out here.

It was altogether an amazing experience and we're all looking forward for more elephant based adventures in northern Thailand.

Day 155: A day at the races

It was ladies' day at the races - but not quite as you may know it. There were no hats, no handbags and no horses - we were in Pak Ou for the provincial boat races.

The boat races themselves involve two teams of between 20 and 30 men in brightly coloured shirts rowing vigerously in longboats (very long boats) down a strech of the Mekong past the crowded banks of locals cheering, banging drums and drinking beer lao. But that is just the reason for the parties that were breaking out along the water.

Jeff and I, on thinking we'd found a bar set up on the river side - there was a large number of beer crates, a spit-roast pig, a huge ice bucket and chairs and tables under a gazebo - enquired after a beer. We were invited to sit down and thus joined the work-day-out of the local electicity board who did not thereafter allow our glasses to be empty; apart from, that is, after cheers-ing and shouting 'muut!' which means just that; empty.

We spent the day meeting the friends and families of our hosts and through one man that spoke the best English we were introduced to wives, daughters, sons, a friend that worked in construction ("he build that bridge!"), a man that made furniture ("you want chair?"), and a lady that ran a guest house in Luang Probang ("you stay with me now, na?").

It was such a show of the famous Laos friendliness. I think this will be the main thing I miss about travelling in Asia. Imagine turning up to the Thames on the Cambridge/Oxford boatrace day and spending the whole day eating and drinking with perfect strangers who insisted on not accepting any money ("your our friends, your with us, now you pay nothing") and even going on to drive us home and invite us to stay in their luxury guest houses. It just wouldn't happen, which is a shame.

We managed to drag ourselves away for just long enough to buy cakes for the children as a thank you and by the time it was dark and we were driving home it is safe to say we were pretty drunk - it was a truely unexpected and wonderful day.

Day 154: Cooking Laos, and lots thereof

So while Rob was off whispering to elephants (more to come on that, shorty) Jeff and I took ourselves off to a one-day food extravaganza of a cooking course. Laotion domestic goddesses we became - and very full ones at that!

The day began with a trip to the market with our two chefs, Leng and Phia - luckily we were the only ones on the course that day and so could fire all our cooking questions directly to our knowledgable hosts. After the market it was back to the kitchen to have a cup of tea - very important in the cooking process, don't you know?

Then we got stuck in with the first course! First we made a Luang Probang Salad (right) - basically lots of veg with a homemade (and very easy to make) mayonaise; prepare to see this again at every BBQ I attend in the future. You lucky things. Also a Feu Khua which involves frying noodles with egg and green asian veg in a delicous chili sauce. Then we ate!

Then Leng and Phia demonstrated 3 dishes and we were able to make 2 each - the best thing about this was that I got to try every dish in vegetarian, even dishes that I'd seen over and over again in restaurants but hadn't been able to order because they always came with meat.

Between Jeff and I we made a chicken and a tofu Larp - which is a traditional cold salad that come chopped up with all sorts of awesome herbs and spices, and a Kheua sen lon - which was all about throwing aubergine, soft, rubbery mushrooms (called woodear fungus) and noodles and lots of garlic into a wok.

Our last dish (for this round) was an Oh paedak - traditionally this is a soupy dish made with a particular fish sauce (paedak) that is made from fermenting the whole dead bodies of fish in an urn. For weeks. And then crushing it - bones and all - down with oil. The smell is pungent and even the Laos admit that you have to be Laos to really love it, we saw it in the market and honestly it looks like dead fish in a bucket of mud. Luckily nowadays most Laos use shrimp paste and thanks to my herbivorian tendancies we made ours with soy and mushroom oyster sauce. Yum!

You'd be forgiven for thinking that this was more than enough food to keep two travellers happy but the cooking did not stop there. Next up we made (Jeff's favourite dish) Khua maak kheua gap moo - it's as fun to say as it is to eat, an aubergine fry with tofu and a spicy oyster sauce. And our final dish was Geng phet, a creamy curry that was light relief from all the above frying.

I say final dish because even then there was more cooking to be done and we are now masters of sticky rice (which anyone who has been to Thailand will already know and love) and Jeowbong - a chili sauce that we served alongside ALL of the above and tucked in.

Just look at that happy face behind that mountain of food - what a glorious day!

Night 147: A near theft experience

Close followers of our humble 365 will remember the tale of a midnight intruder from our time in Goa - without giving it away, it was not what we expected. On this occassion, in Vang Vien, it most definitely was.

I'll start from the beginning; it's about 2:30AM and Jeff, Rob and I are all asleep in our room. I'm awoken by Jeff saying "What are you doing down there?" and hazily look around. By the time I've come to my senses Jeff is out of bed and the figure that was standing at the foot of our beds has ran out of the open door and into the night.

Jeff had thought it was Rob rooting around my bags (left closest to the door) and asked him what he was doing, then she'd realised that both Rob and I were still in our beds, and the man crouching by my stuff looked distinctly local, and as she got up - he made a dash for it.

We checked our things; nothing had been taken but the question remains how he got through a locked door? We don't know but this story could have ended a lot worse, for sure.

We'd heard from other travellers that locals robbing westerners while they slept deeply in drunken stupors was common in town - a more than weekly occurrence in some specific hostels. So we stayed away from them. From then on we used our own padlocks to double-lock the door while we were both inside and out.

It's a horrible thing to wake up to so this is just a warning for anyone who is going to Vang Vieng, apart from the obvious good times to be had; only stay in a room that you can double lock and however drunk you get, make sure you do.

Day 145-150: River + Tyre = Good Times

Apologies for the delay in posting; for 5 days now we've been in Vang Vieng; where the internet is outrageously expensive and the booze is far far too cheap.
It is, admittedly, not the culture capital of Laos but there is much partying to be done so we figured it'd be rude not to get stuck in...the name of the game here is tubing and the rules are as follows;

1) Get a vest with the word 'tubing' printed on it at least twice
2) Take this vest and a tube - an inflated inner-tyre (massive rubber ring) - north up the Mekong River to the aptly-named 'Bar 1'
3) Receive your first free Lao Lao whiskey shot of the day (note with shock that there are wasps in the bottle from which you are drinking....this will cease to matter later on)
4) Buy your first bucket / beer of the day
5) Mingle on the decking in the sunshine with some newly acquired friends
6) Slide down a flume with your tube (drink is optional here - but recommended) into the river and sail onto the equally-inspired-named 'Bar 2'
7) Receive another free Lao Lao whiskey shot...or three
8) Swing off a trapeze into the river, get hauled back in by grabbing onto a rope thrown out to you
9) Drink more, dance more vigorously
10) Sitting in your tube, float down to...yes...you've guessed it 'Bar 3'
11) Receive more free shots, better still; just cut the sting off one of the afore mentioned wasps and eat the wasp [equivalent to 2 buckets of alcohol, so we hear...]
12) Play drinking games with your new best friends
13) Drink more, jump of more trapezes and dance with less and less regard for the rhythm of the music
14) Locate your tube and set sail to 'Bar 4'
15) Eagerly receive another free shot of Lao Lao...
16) You get the picture
...
Try to make it back to the finish point (Bar 10) by 6pm to return your tube and continue the party well into the night

That's right dear readers; tubing is a day time activity but the fun does not stop there! When we weren't too hungover to party (roughly every other day) we were out and about meeting all sorts of wonderful people - Rob even bumped into a course mate from uni! - and dancing to what could have easily been a Saturday night in Bournemouth.

We were really lucky with the weather too and had glorious sunshine and blue skies all day, every day. Team 365 is happy to have left with everything (if not our livers) intact* and to have avoided the dreaded pink eye (conjunctivitis) which spreads through backpackers here faster than the Mekong does through the town.

All in all - it was awesome; everyone should tube!


*due to the responsible and safety-conscious matter in which we tubed, Mums, this was not a surprise