Floating down the Mekong

Ryan and I just returned from an amazing 10 day trip to Laos, a SE Asian country just East of Thailand. The country is noticeably poorer than Thailand, and the small villages, basic homes, and dirt roads winding through the hills of Laos reminded us somewhat of Bolivia. We were overwhelmed by the natural beauty of Laos. The French influence in food and architecture throughout the country was also something we didn't expect. You will hear more about that in a later post...

Our first major stop was Luang Prabang, a UNESCO World Heritage city tucked away in Northern Laos along the Mekong river. However getting to Luang Prabang was a wonderful adventure in itself, since we decided to take a two-day slow boat down the Mekong to get there. The Mekong is massive--it is the tenth longest river in the world and goes through Tibet, China, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam...basically every single country in the region. Laos is a land-locked country and the Mekong and its tributaries are central to their culture, food, and economy.

We started by first taking an eight hour bus ride from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong, a Thai border town on the Mekong where we caught the slow boat. We were pleasantly surprised by the great guesthouse we stayed in. We got a nice room with a big deck overlooking a picturesque garden and the Mekong river with views of Laos on the other side!

The next morning we began our two day journey down the river to Luang Prabang, stopping halfway in Pakbeng, Laos, where we stayed overnight. The river trip was a great introduction to the beauty and relaxed nature of of the country. We met some great friends along the way, played cards, read, played a little ukulele, and just stared out of the boat soaking up the views.

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The view from our room in Chiang Khong, Thailand.

The Mekong River at Pakbeng.

Playing rummy with our friends Dawson and Sherri on the first day. We were not as lucky with the boat situation on the second day, where they decided to combine two boatloads of people into one...

Two boys on the back of a boat checking out our boat full of "farang" (aka white people).

Special delivery mid-ride...chickens and a puppy!

The Laos version of trying to squeeze between two SUVs parked in the compact parking spots.

Land of elephants

This past weekend I went on a great overnight hike NW of Chiang Mai in Huai Nam Dang National Park. Ryan was still in Cambodia for the week, so I ended up going with another American traveler, a Dutch brother and sister, and our guide. It was so nice being in a small group and we were friends instantly. On the first day we visited the Mokfa waterfall and went swimming, then relaxed in the Pong Deod Hot Spring pools before beginning the 9km hike through the woods. We visited rural villages along the way, which included cute little kids and puppies at each stop! The next day we bathed elephants and rode them down the Mae Nam Taeng river, then went on a bamboo rafting trip where we went over fairly substantial rapids and almost flipped over a few times into the icy cold water. This jam-packed 36 hour trip was a perfect combination to see all that Northern Thailand has to offer. My sisters will definitely have to do this when they come visit us next month.

Ryan had our camera for his trip to Cambodia, but I did snap a few shots with my phone. More photos will come at some point on Facebook once my fellow travelers upload their pics, so look for those too!

Fire and water

This past weekend, Chiang Mai had massive celebrations for both Loy Krathong and Yi Ping. (For more on Yi Ping, read Ryan's recent post here). During the Loy Krathong festival, a small raft is made out of banana leaves, stalks, flowers, candles and incense, and then released into the water. In Chiang Mai, all of the Krathong float down the Ping river, the main river in the city. The holiday is meant to symbolize letting go of negative thoughts and habits, and many Thais also believe that releasing a Krathong brings you good luck Near the river you could also buy small bags of live fish, eels, or turtles, and release them as well.

Loy Krathong is also seen as a way to give gratitude to the goddess of water. During this celebration they give thanks for the life that water brings the people, and it's also a way of saying "I'm sorry" for using and polluting the water. It's interesting that it takes place at the beginning of the dry season in Thailand...I think usually the Thais want to please the water goddess in hopes that they get a short dry season in return! However this year, I'm sure the water goddess heard lots of prayers for no more floods in Southern Thailand.

Chiang Mai was crazy this past weekend, with tons of extra visitors, lanterns in the sky, Krathong rafts floating down the river, parades...you name it. Despite the fact that most of the fireworks here are homemade and tend to explode at or just above eye level, it was a pleasant and beautiful weekend!

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Buddhist novice monks helping us light our lantern.

Parade + watching lanterns float up in the sky + foot massage along parade route = best combo ever!

Lantern speks at a distance

Lighting and releasing my Krathong (which I made here!)

Baggies of fish and turtles ready for release

and this is the point of my daily walk where I hold my breath...

Durian: the most vile fruit on earth
Chiang Mai, Thailand
November 15, 2011

Lotus bundles

Warorot Market
Chiang Mai, Thailand

Lantern festival

We're super lucky to be in Northern Thailand during the annual lantern festival called Yi Peng. Over the past couple of weeks there have been a few different events involving these "sky lanterns" made of rice paper with a giant circular wick at the bottom. Two or three people would hold the outside of the lantern while one person lights the wick, and then they all hold it up for a couple minutes until the hot air fills-up the lantern, and then they let go and the lantern floats up into the sky.

I went to a big Yi Peng ceremony a couple weeks ago, located on a huge field (like the size of the main stage at a big outdoor rock festival), and there were thousands of people with these huge lanterns. There was an announcement over loud speakers and some kind of Thai music started to play, then everyone got down on the ground for a prayer, and then everyone got up, lit the lanterns, and then they were all released in unison. Once they were all in the air, a big fireworks show started. It may have been the most beautiful scene I have ever experienced.

Below are several photos from the event, and at the very bottom is a video that I found on You Tube, taken by someone at the same festival last year. The photos don't really do it justice, but the video gives you a good feel for what it was like when all the lanterns went up at the same time.

Here's the video...

Tasty Thailand

Khao Soi--a Northern Thai and Burmese dish that Chiang Mai is known for

Pork noodle soup

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Grilled bananas

Unidentified BBQ...likely some sort of sea creature

Food wrapped in banana leaves

small eggs

juices

An odd combo, but not too bad!

And of course, let's not forget about these....

An offering

Making krathong for the Loi Krathong and Yi Ping celebrations.
Chiang Mai, Thailand
November 10, 2011

Daily juice and wheatgrass stop

Chiang Mai, Thailand
November 9, 2011

Eating bugs

Chiang Mai, Thailand
November 6, 2011

A cultural hodgepodge

After two weeks on Bali and the neighboring little island of Gili Trawangan, my parents, Ryan and I headed to the Kuching area for a few days, which is on the Malaysian side of Borneo, and then West to Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia was a mix of cultures unlike anything we have ever seen in our trip so far. After spending a large amount of our time in Japan and China where the population is largely homogeneous (at least to our untrained eyes), the diversity in Kuching and Kuala Lumpur was very obvious to us. The people, food, shops, and feel of these cities are largely a mix of Malay, Chinese and Indian, but there are also smaller influences from Indonesia and the rest of Southeast Asia all around.

Malaysia was also the first country we have spent time in where the majority of the population are Muslim (not counting Indonesia here, the world´s largest Muslim country by population, because we were mainly in Bali, which is primarily Hindu) and it was interesting to notice a lot of the little things: signs outside of restaurants state whether the food is halal; the main TV news channel was Al Jazeera (which, by the way, didn´t seem much different in terms of content than BBC News or CNN International); in most hotels there is an arrow on the ceiling that points in the direction of Mecca; and in airports and other public buildings there is always a prayer room.

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One of the many cat sculptures at a round-about in Kuching. Kucing means cat in Malay, and this city is obsessed with them! Unfortunately (ok, lets be honest, fortunately) we did NOT visit the massive cat museum while we were in town. I guess we'll have to come back another time...

Kayaking trip in the Borneo jungle

Ordering coffee and tea in Malaysia is an art...when you order a standard coffee or tea, it's served with sweetened condensed milk (too sweet for me!). You can also order coffee and tea with evaporated milk, or with a wheatgrass shot at the bottom in case you want to cancel out all of the negative effects of the caffeine and sugar all in one drink--that's the drink I'm pointing to!

My mom with our extremely nice and informative kayaking guide

Ryan hanging in a jungle hut, checking-out the Sape, a traditional Borneo instrument.

The Petronas Towers of Kuala Lumpur

A Ray Rice knock-off jersey in Chinatown....random!

Big thanks to our friend Steve for letting us stay at your place for a few days (and for hooking us up with Treme season 2!). We met Steve on the Lares Trek in Peru back in May...and now he just so happens to teach in Kuala Lumpur.