Sah ba dee my dear friends,
That's hello in Lao. King here....and I'm 4 days deep in my Asian adventures. The flight...welll. It was long. big surprise. And I'm gonna let you in on a wonderful little secret. Asian airlines really kick western air services' ass. Food, that thing we used to get on long flights, not the most appetizing dishes I must admit, but the stuff we now have to pay some cash monies for is FREE and plentifully supplied on airplane rides long and short here. We stayed one night in Bangkok after a grueling 24 hours of straight travel.Enough of that.
Let me tell you about Laos, my current residence until tomorrow. Wow we've done it up here I have to say. We're in Luang Prabang more specifically, the central region of Lao. Our hotel is fantastic and a real steal (The Maison Dalabua for anyone looking for a great place to stay for a great price). They've served us complementary breakfast every morning and the stuff is muy delicioso. We had This rice noodle soup with chicken our first morning. Its served with a DIY platter bar of lime juice and chili flakes (they love their lime and chili). Naturally the masochist in me loaded that bowl silly with chili. Fire in the hole!
Yesterday was the real meat and potatoes though. We booked a tour to go ride elephants, go swim in a waterfall and then kayak down the Nam Khan river (I know! triple threat). Our tuk tuk (a three legged mini car beast with two benches and an open back), on the way to the elephant camp I swear the thing wouldn't make it up the hill. I could walk faster than it was moving. Scrappy little bugger though. We met our elephant and our Mahout (elephant whisperer) and sat on a bench attached to her back. Our Mahout rode on her neck. He was a skinny little fellow clad in a faded flannel and ripped jeans. I had to stop myself from giving him a fist pump for a smashing outfit choice. Mel doubted I'd be let on our next flight if I tried to pull off the look. There were some steep inclines on our way down to the river where I seriously feared the elephant and all aboard would tumble to our deaths. Dexterous, one foot in front of the other, incredible for such a giant creature. Our Mahout grabbed a green berry from a branch and grinned back signaling for us to try one. Hesitant we were. Even wise yoda would say eat not that berry but the guy was a charmer so we did and hey, I'm still alive. We got down to the water and Mel and me both got a chance to ride on the elephants neck. This WAS NOT EASY and required a significant amount of balancing since there was really nothing to hold onto. For all of you out there that doubt my grace....I was great. A real mahout. Even our mahout confirmed this, he called me mahout number 1. You can ask him yourself (yes I know the likelihood of you reaching him is slim).
We took a boat down the river,a 3 feet wide wooden canoe, I think our brains are still shaking. We got to swim in the waterfall and ate some great fried rice and bananas. Ok here's the deal. American bananas are on steroids or some kind of sups (our bananas were teeny in comparison) but sometimes bigger isn't necessarily better. The flavor....unparalleled. I'm a southeast Asian banana convert. Sorry growers association of America. Our 3 hour kayak ride down the river was exhausting but so cool. We got to see these isolated families scattered along the river farming and catching fish with nets. Its refreshing to see people living so simply. It wasn't all picaresque and sweet though. We hit some rapids along the way and got a bit damp.
Our tour guide recommended a BBQ on a road in this new Entertainment district by all the bars. Lao Lao garden you have my heart!!! Please go there if you are ever in Luang Prabang. You walk up these stairs into the most amazing garden like hillside with hanging lanterns over every table and lights decorating the trees great tunes too. They greeted us with a shot of local rice whiskey (potent). We ordered our first beer Lao and the traditional Lao bbq which is a kind of make your own soup. They bring a pot of coals and a pan to your table and a tn of broth a late of veggies, meat and spices and you cook it right there.
So animals in this place are not the fat happy kind you see at home, but being an animal lover, their rabid appearance doesnt quite shake me (to Melissa's horror). I made friends with a cat who sat next to me during dinner. I didn't know whether to be pleased or horrified every time the thing looked up into my eyes.
Today we took bikes across the Meekong and biked through some pretty great villages. Cute kids, a few of them swindled some kip outta me and convinced me to buy some flowers to offer at the temple there. I couldn't say no. Neither could Mel. So we're 50 cents poorer now. The whole ordeal of carrying our bikes up a flight of 50 stairs really took it out of us so we retreated into the comfort of our air conditioned room and watched the classic Hook. On our way out we saw....A DOUBLE RAINBOW (shout out to Dylan Bowermaster and Eric Rueland).
PS: I thought I wouldn't find pumpkin but it found me. I don't think its through with me. There's a great deal of talk about it in my book and it was in my Lao tofu curry AND its being sold in the open air market which I'm about to go eat at. I think its safe to assume I will fold to its wishes. (Blair......great video miss you) Adios muchachos!
- King Kong
Creative title: by Melissa Mordell
No comments:
Post a Comment