Chiang Mai: Kingdom of Vegetarians

Chiang Mai is a smallish city in Northern Thailand, about equidistant from Laos and Myanmar. Jenny and I spent longer than we anticpated there, because there is so much to do, both in the city and in the surrounding countryside. Actually let's be real: we wanted to stay because there was too much delicious food to pass up. There were more vegetarian restaurants in Chiang Mai than I've ever seen in any city. Ever. Just from walking around the city we passed at least 12 to 15. The most tragic part was that there weren't enough meals in one day to eat at all of them. There were vegetarian restaurants of every class and variety: one had outdoor garden dining and waterfalls, one was run out of a Buddhist university behind a major Wat, one had a cooking school attached (which we also attended), one served only organic ingredients and was also an organic market. It was unbelievable. We had pad thai, tom yum soup, spring rolls, fried rice and every sort of curry you can imagine. This was green curry at the Buddhist university cafe. Mmmm.

We did some other things besides eating (and getting loads of Thai yoga massages). The most exciting was a trip to an elephant training village. We were nervous about going with any tour company advertising elephant rides, because of the stories we've heard of mistreatment and exploitation of the elephants. The place we went had 5 female elephants, which we learned to control by certain Thai commands (Yud! = stop, Buay! = go forward) which I struggled to pronounce and keep in order. We learned how to make the elephant turn left, right, go forward, go backward and stop. Then we rode two per elephant to a watering hole and a river where we gave them a bath and had a waterfight (they had an advantage becuase of the water holding capacity of trunks). Jenny and I rode Nongmai, who was the young (8 year old) and naughty elephant, becuase the Mahout (elephant trainer) said we were the best at commanding the elephants. I think it was because we shouted the commands really loud whereas everyone else was quite timid. I figured she might not understand my Thai pronunciation, so the louder the better, right? She wasn't so naughty, just very hungry and self-determined. She was adorable though. These are my new elephant friends.

Three days en route to Thailand

We heard the slow boat from Laos to Thailand up the Mekong River was a beautiful journey, well worth the 2 days of 10 hours on a slow, slow, slow boat. The boat can't travel once it's dark outside, so in between the 2 days we spent a night in Pakbeng, a small port town where all travellers to the Thai border and to Luang Prabang in the opposite direction stop. Electricity was only available from 6-10 pm. Some restaurants and homes had generators to provide electricity after hours, but not our guesthouse (at 30 kip-$3.5 /night I wouldn't have expected it). The boat we travelled on had mostly hard, wooden benches for passengers to sit on, but Jenny and I managed to get 2 of the 10 cushioned bus seats (tragically out of place on a boat). It wasn't so bad, I read about 300 pages of my new book. The second night we arrived at the border too late to cross into Thailand so we spent another night in Huoyxai, another travel stop town. We had to splurge on our hotel room, and spent 50 kip ($6) for one night stay. The next morning we crossed the Mekong river which divides Laos from Thailand. We took a "ferry" which was a tiny wooden boat, only wide enough for one person per seat. We walked up a sand dune to get to the immigration office, which was more official looking than the Laos side (a man sitting under a tent with a typewritten sign declaring "immigration"). This is Jenny at Thailand immigration:

Laos

For a country of only 5.6 million people, there are probably about a million tourists here. Laos is the backpacker's paradise of Southeast Asia it seems. We spent 2 weeks here in 3 different towns. We crossed the border from Vietnam and ended up in Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. It's a pretty small city though and less frequented by tourists than its Northern counterpart, Luang Prabang. The first day we visited the Buddha Park, which is a statue garden filled with different style Buddha statues. I'm not sure why it exists or what it's purpose is (besides to take silly pictures next to the statues), but there were a few monks hanging around (also taking pictures). We sipped on fresh coconuts and played dominoes looking over the river. The next day we decided to be more adventurous so we rented a motorbike and ventured to a national park, Phu Khao Kwai National Protected Area, supposedly an hour and a half from Vientiane. After a few rough starts on the bike, I finally got it going pretty well, until we got lost, and lost again, and lost again. The only directions we were given were to bear right at the bus station, go 87 kilometers until we see the stuppa (temple) and take a left. Naturally we were lost in about 15 minutes and it took us almost 2 hours of pulling over and shouting to random people along the side of the road "Phu Khao Kwai?" ("poo cow quay") and hoping they'd point us in the right direction (which surprisingly they all did). Eventually we arrived and went on a 5 km trek to the elephant tower, where there is a nearby salt lick where wild elephants hang out. What we didn't know is that they only come around in the evening, and we had to leave by 4. So no elephants. But an adventure nonetheless.

After leaving Vientiane we went to Vang Viang, which is about 3 hours north. Vang Viang is a super laid-back town, whose main attraction is the infamous "tubing." I put tubing in quotes beacuse mostly it means going back and forth across the river (with or without an actual tube) to the bars on either side, each of which has a rope swing, a giant slide or a zip line to propel you into the water. Not to mention that on either side of the river are huge limestone mountains and forests...absolutely georgeous location. We also went swimming in a swimming hole right next to the bungalow we were staying in with a whole bunch of Lao children. The boys were doing flips off a platform and the girls were taking their long skirts that they were swimming in and fill them up with air to make a little floatation device. It was genious. Jenny and I also went rock climbing along the limestone crags; the highest climb was 18 meters, which is about 60 feet. I've never really been rock climbing before so when the guide pointed to the top of the rope we were heading to, i had a small moment of panic. I did make it to the top (and back down again) without hurting myself.

Next we took a bus to Luang Prabang, which is a super cute city in Northern Laos. There are dozens of Wats (Buddhist temples) within and around the city, some of which have really intricate wood carvings, engravings and mosaics coating the outside and inside walls. Here we took a tuk-tuk to a waterfall (it was way too cold to swim!) called Kouang Xi and there was also a rescue center for Asiatic Black Bears, also called Moon Bears, who had been taken from poachers. Traditional Chinese medicine uses the bile of these bears for something or other. They keep them in tiny cages and remove the bile. Eww, I know. We also took a 6 hour trek to 2 ethnic minority villages North of Luang Prabang. One was a Khmu village (aka Khmer, ethnic Cambodians) and the other was a Hmuong (aka Muong in Vietnam). Neither village had running water, although there were a few satellite dishes sprinkled throughout. The people are mostly farmers, growing everything from sticky rice (Laos staple food) to corn to herbs, and raising chickens, pigs and cattle. Our guide told us we hiked 35 km (21 miles!) but I don't know if I believe him. We woke up early one morning to watch the Monks receiving alms. Monks from each Wat in the city line up to accept food donations (usually sticky rice, sweets and other stuff) from local people. As the monks walked past, there was a second line of young boys, maybe 9 or 10 years old, who were standing with cardboard boxes or plastic bags to accept food donations from the monks. Anything the monks either didn't want or could spare they would toss to these boys, who actually seemed to be making out pretty well for themselves.

23 hour bus ride to Laos

Yes. It was just as sketchy as it sounds. The first "sleeper" bus left Hue city in central Vietnam at 5:30 in the evening. I say "sleeper" because it may have been a sleeper for some people, but Vietnamese people are a lot smaller than I am. The bed only fit up to my mid-calf, and since there was another bed right in front of me, I was pretty crunched up. Not to mention the window next to me was ajar, so cold mountain air was blasting in my face all night. Still, that was the comfortable part of the journey... At 1 am the bus drops us off at a "rest stop" in the middle of the mountains somewhere along the border to wait for another bus to take us across the border to Laos. The rest stop consisted of a little restaurant and a parking lot. After the bus driver promised Jenny he would wait until the second bus arrived, he hopped back on the bus and they drove off into the distance. Fortunately the second bus did arrive; unfortunately it was a sitting bus that would have had enough leg room for someone 5'2" and shorter. Not to mention the fact that the luggage space underneath the bus was filled with bricks (I think there was some sort of border smuggling situation going on, but I can't be too sure), so our 50 or so backpacks were either piled in the aisle, or in some passengers' leg space. I think I must have slept at least 18 of the 23 hours though, so I can't really complain.

Seriously though, I am a giant in Vietnam. At one of the rest stops a woman stood and measured herself next to me and then all her friends giggled. They also laughed because my pants only came down to my ankles and they thought I was too tall for my pants.

Wedding in Sóc Trăng

We got the chance to attend a wedding of one of Jenny's friends from Vietnam, Dao. She lives outside of Soc Trang, which is a small city in the Mekong Delta, which I never would have visited if there hadn't of been a wedding there. It is a very sleepy town and the only thing that stays open past 10 pm is the internet cafe (which closes at 11). Her house was a 20 minute drive from the town. Let me just say, Vietnamese weddings are nuts. I say this for a couple reasons, but first off because they last 3 days. There are 3 days of ceremonies until the bride and groom are officially married, she can leave her family and move into her husband's family's house. It starts out with a party at the bride's family's house, which involved a lot of eating, drinking Saigon beers (mostly the men), and an mc with a microphone singing songs with an accompanying keyboard player, who only really played the same techno beat at faster and slower tempos. There was nothing vegetarian for me to eat so an older Vietnamese lady kept feeding me candy and orange soda all night. Literally she was feeding me. If at any point in the night I wasn't holding either a piece of candy or my mug of orange soda, she would unwrap a candy and put it in my hand. Eventually the groom came to the house and brought some vegetarian pho (noodle soup) which was unbelievably sweet! I was already really full (and a little ill) from all the sugar but it was delicious anyways. At the end of the night Dao asked if we would sing a song before we left. Since no one was really paying attention to the mc, we thought we might be able to slip in and out without anyone really noticing us singing. Unfortunately Dao asked Jenny to make an announcement (on the microphone), which she then translated into Vietnamese for everyone (on the microphone). So that's how we got everyone's attention. We decided on "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" because we knew the chorus and one verse, and figured we could just keep repeating the same verse (no one would understand it anyways). After the song was over, everyone (everyone meaning Dao and the mc, who turned out to be her high school teacher) insisted we keep singing, and the next logical song was "Joy to the World," the one about Jeremiah and his bullfrog. We must have sang the whole song through 5 or 6 times. Then the mc and another guy got us to dance with them. The one guy started a conga line, but it was only him, Jenny, and me in line. All the other guests were just sitting and watching us dance and no one joined in. I have to say it was a pretty magical experience.

The second day was a luncheon reception at a restaurant, where the bride and groom did all the "traditional" wedding stuff, like cut the cake (which no one ate), pour champagne (cherry soda) into a cascading fountain and take obligatory wedding photos. The oddest part was that not a single guest at the party, except Jenny, Katie and I, was watching the bride and groom. The food had already come out and they were all busy eating. Also no one took any pictures besides us and the wedding photographer. When all the food was gone, the guests just got up and left. It was literally an eat and run type situation.

The last day of wedding was the big one, where the bride leaves her family's house, goes to the groom's family's house, and they are officially married. The first ceremony started at 6 am, meaning we woke up at 4:30. Before we got in the taxi we stopped for some street food breakfast. We tried this hot, creamy, super sweet soup with wide, flat noodles in it. The lady served it out of the cooking pot into small plastic bags, tied up with a rubber band, which we bit a hole into and sucked the soup out of. It was amazingly delicious. Since the ceremony started at 6 am, we arrived at the party by 9 am, and food (and beer) was served. There was a little competition between the older men's table and the older women's table over who could cheers the loudest. Vietnamese cheers is mot, hai, ba yoooo!, which means 1, 2, 3 drink, and I'm still not sure who won. This picture is from day 3:

Nha Trang, Dalat, Saigon, Long Xuyen, & Can Tho

It's been a while since I've written, mostly because there is too much to talk about. So here is a quick note about all the most awesome things we've done. Katie and I took an intro scuba diving course in Nha Trang, which was super sweet. A little intimidating at first when we were dumped out into the ocean with a tank of oxygen and some fins, but in the end it was totally not scary. We saw a ton of coral and reef fish, butterfly fish, clown fish, pike fish, lion fish, cuttlefish and a huge jellyfish. It was awesome.

Next we spent a day in Dalat, which the guidebooks call a quaint mountain town studded with French colonial architecture. It wasn't. It is also the Vietnamese honeymoon capital, which meant it was like a little version of Las Vegas, without the gambling. It seemed normal during daylight hours, but at night the neon signs were a little crazy. We took an EasyRider tour on the back of motorbikes throughout the countryside. (I didn't want to mention to the drivers that the movie ends with both riders shot and killed) We visited a fruit and vegetable farm, a coffee plantation, a rice wine (not wine at all, but super potent rice vodka) factory, a flower farm, a waterfall and a silk factory. Riding on the motorbike through the countryside might have been the best part of it all. I only wish he'd let me drive!

After an overnight bus ride to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), we met up with Jenny and wandered the steets of Saigon for a few days. It was unbearably hot and humid so a lot of the days were spent sneaking into fancy hotels to sit in their airconditioned lobbies. We also drank a LOT of Sinh To, which are fruit smoothies. So far we've tried pineapple, papaya, avocado, dragonfruit, mango, watermelon, strawberry, milk apple and some weird ones like Sapodilla and Rau Ma. I don't know if those are English or Vietnamese words but they were unidentifiable regardless. We also hung out with a man named Peter, who Katie and I had met getting off the bus from Dalat. We were (clearly looking) confused trying to find the hotel and he offered us a ride in his taxi. It only ended up being a block away and because of one-way streets I think it would have been quicker to walk. But it was sweet nonetheless. He had lived in San Diego for 25 years so his English is very good and he works helping foreign investors to plan new developments in Dalat and other smaller cities in Vietnam. He took us out one morning for lunch at an upscale traditional Southern Vietnamese restaurant. We tried all sorts of new foods, and for dessert we had Che, a sweet thick soup made with sticky rice, tapioca and sweet beans. He then took us out for coffee, which he also wouldn't let us pay for, and we met his friend who is apparently the number 1 tennis player in Vietnam. Huh. As we were sitting he asked if we had ever gotten foot massages and when we said no, he insisted we come with him. So he got us foot massages. They started out as just massage and some reflexology but then they ended up being full body massages. We were seriously pampered. It's crazy how welcoming and generous people have been with us. I think it might partially be a male thing, but I think also it's just a Vietnamese thing. We love to hang out with locals and they love Americans. It's a perfect match.

Then we headed to the Mekong Delta, which is not very well described in any of the guidebooks and now I can see why. Most of the towns are not very tourist friendly. There is very little English spoken or written in restaurants and hotels, the tourist "attractions," so to speak, like pagodas and wildlife reserves, are far removed from the town center and transportation by taxi is pretty expensive. So luckily we have been with people who know their way around. Our first stop in the Delta was Long Xuyen, about 10 km from the Cambodian border and an hour west of Can Tho, the biggest city in the Delta (2 million people). We were taken around by Jenny's study abroad program director, which was great. We sat in on a lecture about the changes in agricultural policy in the Mekong Delta and travelled to a environmental wetland reserve, where we went birdwatching and lounged on hammocks. We also went to Châu Đoc, where we visited some Khmer (Cambodian people who are an ethnic minority group in Vietnam) style pagodas.

We spent nearly a week in Can Tho, the city where Jenny had studied abroad, staying with her host family and meeting her friends. One day Jenny's friend Angela took us on a bike ride to the countryside across these small bridges to a group of islands. This is us trying not to crash our bikes: Every sort of fruit we've seen in the market was growing along the path: jackfruit, mango, longan, pineapple, milk apple, custard apple, celery apple (I have no idea what the English name actually is but it looks like a small red pepper and tastes like a mix between apple and celery, so...), banana, sapodilla and papaya. All the ripe ones had already been picked though, so no snacking. We stopped for cafe sua da along the path, which is really strong drip coffee with a whole bunch of sweetened condensed milk. Sometimes (in this case) more milk than coffee it seems. It's a nice pick-me-up and I'm not sure whether it's the caffeine or the sugar high. Another morning we went to the floating market, which is Can Tho's principal tourist attraction. We left the house at 5 am to walk to the dock and take a boat to the market. The market closes at 8:30 so it's best to get an early start. The market seemed to be a venue for the farmers themselves to sell their fruit and vegetables to other retailers, like sellers at the market in town. Everything was being sold in bulk; ladies were tossing watermelons from one boat to another. The woman driving our boat stopped for a pinapple. She peeled two pineapples, cut them in half and gave them to us as snacks. She left part of the stem on though, so it was like eating a pineapple on a stick... a lollipop pineapple. We also stopped at a fruit farm where we saw pretty much the same fruit we had seen on the bike ride, but this time we got to try it all. We were too full from eating half a pineapple each to really enjoy it though. The most exciting thing about staying in Can Tho was the fact that Jenny's host mom, Miss Lan, was an English teacher, so everytime we walked in the door there was a room full of young Vietnamese students wanting to practice their English with us. Most days we taught an English class or two, trying to explain the differences in pronunciation between the "TH" sound in "this" versus "three" or listening to student presentations about the character of the people in Can Tho or life in the countryside. We expressed interest in trying new foods, like bánh xèo, a crispy pancake made with rice flour and stuffed with bean sprouts, egg, cabbage and other stuff, which you cut apart and put inside a wrapper of lettuce, mint and other green herbs. A student then asked if we would like to join her and her boyfriend for the best bánh xèo in Can Tho. She practiced her English with native speakers and we got to try a local dish at a restaurant we never would have found on our own. We went out for a dessert that was a coconut shell, filled with this jelly coconut stuff. It was technically coconut flesh mixed with agar, but it tasted like lightly flavored coconut jell-o. It was great. Another student mentioned that his friend had a house in the countryside and that we could go one morning. So three students took us on the back of their motorbikes to the grocery store where we picked out food to cook for lunch and then to his friend's farm. The house probably had at least 3 acres of land, behind which was a rice paddy that had just been harvested. We walked around to pick milk apples and see the farmers harvesting with the boys, while the girls prepared us lunch. They wouldn't let us pay for anything because "they had invited us." It was unbelievably sweet. After lunch (fresh spring rolls with tofu, vermicelli noodles, basil and carrots, tofu battered in rice flour dipped in sweet chile sauce and pomelo for dessert, we went inside and sang kereoke. They had a serious kereoke setup, with huge Bose speakers and two microphones. Jenny, Katie and I sang Hotel California, Strawberry Fields Forever, and Hit Me Baby One More Time, which we thought was a pretty standard mix of American music. :)

I'm sure I'm forgetting things since so much happens every day, but oh well. Next we go to Sóc Trăng, an even smaller town South of Can Tho for a friend's wedding. It's a three day wedding, which will be exciting! Photos will come as soon as I find internet fast enough to upload them!