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Published: December 31st 2009
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Luang Prabang has an unmistakable French influence. Baguettes, croissants and wine cafes line the main street and half of Europe are on vacation here.
Monks and Novices wander the streets in burnt sienna robes. The temple drums sound at various times of the day, beginning at around 4am. With the locals waking before dawn to prepare offerings for the alm. The entire town is rather early to bed and an 11.30pm curfew ensures everyone gets a good night sleep.
The tuk-tuks here are huge. Like sawn off dirt bikes with a wagon welded on the back.
“Tuk-Tuk....Waterfall ?” is the most commonly heard phrase when walking the streets.
To be honest, we're a little bit waterfall, hilltribe trek, elephant ride and river cruised out!
The Laos BBQ is one of my new favorite meals....They stick a big clay pot of coals in the middle of the table and whack a round grill plate on top that has a moat around the edge. In the centre you grill your own chicken, beef (or some sort of brown stuff) squid and prawn. The moat around the sides is for the soup broth, tofu, greens, cabbage, glass noodles and egg. Somewhere
in between you fry a little lard (big blob of pig fat) garlic and hide a few birds-eye chilis.
This DIY cooking was so much fun we had it 2 nights in a row.
On the last day in Luang Prabang we had organised a cooking course and a trip to the market to see the local produce all was part of the fun. Fish heads bobbed about in brown smelly sludge, piles of meat were hacked into smaller portions upon wooden benches. Dried Mekong River weed was stacked neatly beside tiny bags filled with spices.
There were chillis from arsehole to breakfast and live fish in buckets overflowing with brown river-snails.
The aromas were thick and some, a little nauseating.
Back at the cooking school we threw our mostly unattractive green chef hats on and set of with our huge chop-chopper ( I don't remember the name)
So with our little round chopping board on stilts and our huge chop-chopper, we were supposed to make a rose out of a tomato and some leaves out of cucumber. I failed miserably at the rose, my cucumber was a success.
We cooked Lemongrass chicken, stirfry rice noodles, catfish with
coconut in banana leaf, Laos fish cakes, Tofu and vegetable curry, Laap (Laos miced meat salad mixed with gorgeous herbs) and we mastered how to cook sticky rice.
And for those who do not know, sticky rice is not just rice that is sticky. It is actually a completely different kind of rice that needs to be soaked for 4-8 hrs before steaming in a bamboo basket. The Laos use their fingers to eat, they make a little ball out of their rice and dip it in the other dishes. Apparently it is bad manners to double dip or to drop a grain of rice in the communal food....I think I need some practice.
I don't believe that Craig learnt a lot as he spent the most part of the course on the toilet and by the end of the morning I was feeling quite crap as well...Unfortunately we were both so sick we had to leave before we go to eat the meals we prepared. We spent the next 16hrs at the guesthouse. Craig on the loo and I, projectile vomiting. Better out than in they say!
Funny thing was that we had eaten at expensive eateries the day
before... Bring on the street food I say!
I left Craig in Luang Prabang to catch his flight to Bangkok and head back home.
I took a tuk-tuk to board the V.I.P bus to Vang Vieng. Fortunately I had seat number one....not the best seat in the event of a crash, but certainly the best if you're feeling a bit off or get motion sick. The distance we travelled was only 290km but took us a good 7 hrs due to the serious mountain range we had to cross. We beeped our way round bend after bend, warning other traffic to get out of the way as they won't fit on the road as well. At one small village, which of course was on the side of a mountain, we got jammed between a truck and a cliff....Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place! It took us 30 minutes to mauevere past, which gave a few passengers time to get off and throw-up.
The villagers along the way were preparing to re-hatch the roofs on their huts. Bunches of grass lay drying in th sun. Enormous rusty satellite dishes on every hut seemed glaringly
out of place.
Vang Vieng is small, the main roads are sealed but the other roads are puddled, muddy red clay.....and I'm here in the dry season!
The backpacking scene here is huge and makes me feel rather old. Travellers laze in restaurants playing re-runs of Friends and Family Guy, so much for seeing the world?
I book a trip kayaking and cave tubing in hope that being dry season, the water will be low in the caves and I won't get too claustrophobic...Fingers crossed......
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