Oh wow. I just spent a week traveling all over the far northern regions of Laos. Three days up a river, one day up a mountain, another day down it, crazy housewarming parties, lots of rice whiskey and bumpy bus rides.
Now I'm back in civilization (i.e.: Luang Prabang), and I have time to get caught up here and post photos.
Enjoy!
--
Rob Szumlakowski
Luang Prabang, Laos
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Dropping off the radar...
Hi! Tomorrow I'm leaving for Nong Khiaw in Northern Laos. From there, I'll be traveling into relatively undeveloped places in remote areas for about a week. Some of the places I'll be going don't even have electricity or (gasp!) internet access. As a result, emails and updates from me will be scarce for a little while. My plans are not really completely set yet, so I can't say exactly when I will be returning to civilization -- it should be in about a week, maybe two weeks.
I expect to be sleeping in sleepy little villages where few tourists go. I may go on a multiple-day trek into the jungles and hills. I will definitely see mountains. We will look into hiring a local guide to guide us on our trek and keep us away from landmines and show us the way. We've done some research and have the names of a few guides up in Phongsali.
I won't be traveling alone, though. Alexandra Weaver (from Hamilton, Ontario), and Christine (from Minnesota) will be traveling with me the whole way. We've decided that what we want to do in Laos is very similar to each other, so we will be traveling together for a while. All three of us should probably be together for about two weeks until Chris needs to go to Vietnam. Alex and I will probably stick together for our full 30 days in Laos, at least. We want to hit up the same places -- in both northern and southern Laos, so it's best to have a travel buddy for as long as I can!
See you soon!
--
Rob Szumlakowski
Luang Prabang, Laos
I expect to be sleeping in sleepy little villages where few tourists go. I may go on a multiple-day trek into the jungles and hills. I will definitely see mountains. We will look into hiring a local guide to guide us on our trek and keep us away from landmines and show us the way. We've done some research and have the names of a few guides up in Phongsali.
I won't be traveling alone, though. Alexandra Weaver (from Hamilton, Ontario), and Christine (from Minnesota) will be traveling with me the whole way. We've decided that what we want to do in Laos is very similar to each other, so we will be traveling together for a while. All three of us should probably be together for about two weeks until Chris needs to go to Vietnam. Alex and I will probably stick together for our full 30 days in Laos, at least. We want to hit up the same places -- in both northern and southern Laos, so it's best to have a travel buddy for as long as I can!
See you soon!
--
Rob Szumlakowski
Luang Prabang, Laos
New Photos Posted: Luang Prabang
Howdy hi hi hi! I'm here in Luang Prabang, Laos.
I don't have enough time to do a full proper blog entry about the rest of my time here, however, I've managed to upload a set of photos from my few days here. Why don't you check them out?
--
Rob Szumlakowski
Luang Prabang, Laos
I don't have enough time to do a full proper blog entry about the rest of my time here, however, I've managed to upload a set of photos from my few days here. Why don't you check them out?
--
Rob Szumlakowski
Luang Prabang, Laos
Sunday, March 23, 2008
New Photos Posted: The Slow Boat to Luang Prabang
HAPPY EASTER! My Easter gift to everyone is an album of new photos from my river journey in Laos. Enjoy.
--
Rob Sz
Luang Prabang, Laos
--
Rob Sz
Luang Prabang, Laos
The Slow Boat to Luang Prabang
An ancient river flows through a majestic mountain valley, winding its way over rapids, exposed cliff faces, and razor sharp boulders. Herds of water buffalo sip water from the shore. Tiny villages hide among leafy palm trees. Naked children play in the water near the shore. Speed boats noisily buzz by. Where am I? Packed into a slow boat on the Mekong River on the way to Luang Prabang in Laos. I was travelling with a group of about twenty other people, including Alex from Spicythai Backpackers in Chiang Mai.
I spent one day on a minibus to get from Chiang Mai to the border town of Chiang Khong in Thailand. I spent one night there and headed to Thai immigration in the morning. Immigration was cleared without incident and I collected my exit stamp. From there, we boarded a set of small ferries to cross the wide Mekong River. I got a bit muddy stepping onto Laos soil (er, mud) on the other side of the river. I had already arranged my 30 day Laos visa (cost was about CA$60) before, so clearing immigration and earning my entrance stamp was a snap. From there, we were loaded onto a truck to take us to the dock where we could board our slow boat.
We were dumped out at a cafe where I paid 5 baht (CA$0.16) to use a toilet. We all handed our passports to a policeman who held onto them. I hope he didn't do anything sneaky with them. He wasn't gone for too long, though. He returned our passports and gave us our tickets for the boat.
It would be a two day journey, seated on crowded wooden benches. Each day was about 6 or 8 hours of travel on the river. It was boring at times, but we had entertainment. We made new friends, played cards, drank beer, and chatted a lot. Sometimes I turned myself "off" and read a guide book, a novel (currently reading A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood), played DS, or listened to music and stared at the world slowing chugging by.
On the way, the boat stopped and a mob of children swarmed onto the boat to sell the passengers chips, soda, beers, and other snacks from plastic tubs. These kids couldn't have been more than ten years old each. I didn't buy anything, but someone I talked to realized that one of the kids had returned the wrong change to him. The kids were swindlers! I had to be careful in Laos.
We stayed overnight at this tiny one-street village called Pak Beng. I split a room with a Chilean man named Roberto. We Robs gotta stick together, you know. There was no electricity in the town after about 8 PM, and a big group of us ended up visiting a couple different places in Pak Beng,
First, I had dinner with Alex, Christine (from Minnesota) and John (from New Zealand). This group of people would form my group of traveling companions for the next few days (maybe weeks, we'll see). We had our first Laotian food. We were enticed into going into this bar with the offer of buy-one-get-one-free big bottles of Beer Lao. Beer Lao is the government-approved beer which has a 98% market share in Laos. It's actually a fairly decent brew, so drink it without complaint. The beer was 10,000 kip (about CA$1.10) for a 640 mL bottle. Buy-one-get-one-free was a sweet deal. Sadly, when we tried to order our second sets, the restaurant owner said he was all out. He even took me into the kitchen to show that the cupboards were bare. We felt a little conned and left. I did enjoy my meal, however. I had a Laotian fish salad called Laap.
After dinner, I hooked up with most of the rest of my travel group at some other bar. The electricity was long gone, so we sat by candlelight while the town slept around us. As soon as I got there, the guys shouted, "ROB! ROB! DRINK THIS!" and I was handed a shot glass of brown liquid. I gave it a whiff -- it smelled like whiskey. I thought... "What the hey" and downed it. Ugh. It tasted pretty foul -- more foul than your average foul whiskey. Then the guys showed me the bottle. It had a cobra curled up in it, with the tail passing through the mouth.
A COBRA.
I'm not kidding.
The guys there had been drinking from the bottle for a few hours and it was already about half consumed. They continued to drink it, and no one was poisoned, so we wasn't that bad. It still tasted foul though.
In the morning, my roommate Roberto informed me that he hadn't slept all night. He had three shots of the cobra whiskey and was feeling high and delirious. I only had the one shot, so I slept better, but my stomach was still a little off. Ugh. The bed I slept on was rock hard and there was no water pressure in the bathroom to use the sink or shower. There was no electricity in the morning, either, so I had to use the bathroom mostly in the dark. I brushed my teeth using my drinking water, lathered on some deodorant and marched down to the boat dock with my stuff.
I met up with Alex, Christine, and John on the way. When we reached the riverside, I was greeted with gorgeous views. It was really beautiful. Despite the cobras, hard bed, no shower, and woozy stomach, it was all worth it.
The second day on the boat was slightly more crowded than the first. The scenery was just as beautiful... but after two days straight of mountains, rocks, rapids, it got a little repetitive. We docked in Luang Prabang shortly before sunset. To our great pleasure, Pong, the owner of Spicythai Backpackers was waiting for us at the boat dock. We told him that we'd be arriving that day. Since there's only one boat that arrives per day, he knew exactly where to find us.
Pong helped us find a nice guesthouse to stay in. I split a room with John. It was 400 baht, divided two ways (CA$13/2) for a private room with two double beds, fan, private bathroom with heated shower. I checked that the bed was not rock hard, and that there was water pressure. It seemed like a good deal. I really appreciated Pong's help.
We got ourselves cleaned up and met Pong for dinner. We went to a cool outside bar/restaurant called Lao Lao Bar where I had more Lao food and beer. I ate a filling meal with a spicy vegetable stir fry, rice, and large Beer Lao for 43000 kip (about CA$4.70).
Laos is one of the least developed countries in the world. It's very cheap to visit, however, it is slightly more expensive than Thailand. That's because Laos has very little industry and grows only certain kinds of food. Almost everything that travelers would use or eat has to be imported from Thailand... hence the increased cost.
Another interesting thing is the currency situation. The currency in Laos is the kip. It's somewhat inflationary, and very devalued. One US dollar will buy about 8700 kip. Additionally, the Thai baht and US dollars are used here. Using three currencies is rather confusing, especially when the kip is so devalued. I need to keep track of several exchange rates in my head now, and do math involving a lot of zeros. I'm going to have to be very careful here.
Anyways... today is now Easter Sunday. HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!
This morning, Alex, Christine, John and I (who were all staying at the same guest house) met up with Pong for Easter Brunch at a great little bakery/cafe called Jomo. It was just like being at a cafe back at home, except all the prices were in kip and had lots of zeros on them. I had a really nice little ham and cheese quiche, apple cinnamon muffin, two large coffees and a lot of chocolate. My meal (minus the chocolate) was about CA$4. Not really bad, considering that much food would probably cost twice that in Toronto.
After brunch we went to the money exchange place. I'm pleased to say that I'm now a millionaire. Yes, really. I sold US$200 and was handed 1.6 million kip in a thick wad of bills... mostly 50,000 kip notes. Alex had to go to another place, and bought the same number of kip, but was paid mostly in 5,000 kip notes. Her wad of cash was literally two inches thick. So bizarre. Since I expect to live on about US$20 per day here, it should last me for a while.
That brings me to now. I'm in an internet cafe now, writing this and uploading pictures to Picasa. I'm going to the temple tonight at sunset and heading to a waterfall to go swimming tomorrow.
Ciao!
I spent one day on a minibus to get from Chiang Mai to the border town of Chiang Khong in Thailand. I spent one night there and headed to Thai immigration in the morning. Immigration was cleared without incident and I collected my exit stamp. From there, we boarded a set of small ferries to cross the wide Mekong River. I got a bit muddy stepping onto Laos soil (er, mud) on the other side of the river. I had already arranged my 30 day Laos visa (cost was about CA$60) before, so clearing immigration and earning my entrance stamp was a snap. From there, we were loaded onto a truck to take us to the dock where we could board our slow boat.
We were dumped out at a cafe where I paid 5 baht (CA$0.16) to use a toilet. We all handed our passports to a policeman who held onto them. I hope he didn't do anything sneaky with them. He wasn't gone for too long, though. He returned our passports and gave us our tickets for the boat.
It would be a two day journey, seated on crowded wooden benches. Each day was about 6 or 8 hours of travel on the river. It was boring at times, but we had entertainment. We made new friends, played cards, drank beer, and chatted a lot. Sometimes I turned myself "off" and read a guide book, a novel (currently reading A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood), played DS, or listened to music and stared at the world slowing chugging by.
On the way, the boat stopped and a mob of children swarmed onto the boat to sell the passengers chips, soda, beers, and other snacks from plastic tubs. These kids couldn't have been more than ten years old each. I didn't buy anything, but someone I talked to realized that one of the kids had returned the wrong change to him. The kids were swindlers! I had to be careful in Laos.
We stayed overnight at this tiny one-street village called Pak Beng. I split a room with a Chilean man named Roberto. We Robs gotta stick together, you know. There was no electricity in the town after about 8 PM, and a big group of us ended up visiting a couple different places in Pak Beng,
First, I had dinner with Alex, Christine (from Minnesota) and John (from New Zealand). This group of people would form my group of traveling companions for the next few days (maybe weeks, we'll see). We had our first Laotian food. We were enticed into going into this bar with the offer of buy-one-get-one-free big bottles of Beer Lao. Beer Lao is the government-approved beer which has a 98% market share in Laos. It's actually a fairly decent brew, so drink it without complaint. The beer was 10,000 kip (about CA$1.10) for a 640 mL bottle. Buy-one-get-one-free was a sweet deal. Sadly, when we tried to order our second sets, the restaurant owner said he was all out. He even took me into the kitchen to show that the cupboards were bare. We felt a little conned and left. I did enjoy my meal, however. I had a Laotian fish salad called Laap.
After dinner, I hooked up with most of the rest of my travel group at some other bar. The electricity was long gone, so we sat by candlelight while the town slept around us. As soon as I got there, the guys shouted, "ROB! ROB! DRINK THIS!" and I was handed a shot glass of brown liquid. I gave it a whiff -- it smelled like whiskey. I thought... "What the hey" and downed it. Ugh. It tasted pretty foul -- more foul than your average foul whiskey. Then the guys showed me the bottle. It had a cobra curled up in it, with the tail passing through the mouth.
A COBRA.
I'm not kidding.
The guys there had been drinking from the bottle for a few hours and it was already about half consumed. They continued to drink it, and no one was poisoned, so we wasn't that bad. It still tasted foul though.
In the morning, my roommate Roberto informed me that he hadn't slept all night. He had three shots of the cobra whiskey and was feeling high and delirious. I only had the one shot, so I slept better, but my stomach was still a little off. Ugh. The bed I slept on was rock hard and there was no water pressure in the bathroom to use the sink or shower. There was no electricity in the morning, either, so I had to use the bathroom mostly in the dark. I brushed my teeth using my drinking water, lathered on some deodorant and marched down to the boat dock with my stuff.
I met up with Alex, Christine, and John on the way. When we reached the riverside, I was greeted with gorgeous views. It was really beautiful. Despite the cobras, hard bed, no shower, and woozy stomach, it was all worth it.
The second day on the boat was slightly more crowded than the first. The scenery was just as beautiful... but after two days straight of mountains, rocks, rapids, it got a little repetitive. We docked in Luang Prabang shortly before sunset. To our great pleasure, Pong, the owner of Spicythai Backpackers was waiting for us at the boat dock. We told him that we'd be arriving that day. Since there's only one boat that arrives per day, he knew exactly where to find us.
Pong helped us find a nice guesthouse to stay in. I split a room with John. It was 400 baht, divided two ways (CA$13/2) for a private room with two double beds, fan, private bathroom with heated shower. I checked that the bed was not rock hard, and that there was water pressure. It seemed like a good deal. I really appreciated Pong's help.
We got ourselves cleaned up and met Pong for dinner. We went to a cool outside bar/restaurant called Lao Lao Bar where I had more Lao food and beer. I ate a filling meal with a spicy vegetable stir fry, rice, and large Beer Lao for 43000 kip (about CA$4.70).
Laos is one of the least developed countries in the world. It's very cheap to visit, however, it is slightly more expensive than Thailand. That's because Laos has very little industry and grows only certain kinds of food. Almost everything that travelers would use or eat has to be imported from Thailand... hence the increased cost.
Another interesting thing is the currency situation. The currency in Laos is the kip. It's somewhat inflationary, and very devalued. One US dollar will buy about 8700 kip. Additionally, the Thai baht and US dollars are used here. Using three currencies is rather confusing, especially when the kip is so devalued. I need to keep track of several exchange rates in my head now, and do math involving a lot of zeros. I'm going to have to be very careful here.
Anyways... today is now Easter Sunday. HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!
This morning, Alex, Christine, John and I (who were all staying at the same guest house) met up with Pong for Easter Brunch at a great little bakery/cafe called Jomo. It was just like being at a cafe back at home, except all the prices were in kip and had lots of zeros on them. I had a really nice little ham and cheese quiche, apple cinnamon muffin, two large coffees and a lot of chocolate. My meal (minus the chocolate) was about CA$4. Not really bad, considering that much food would probably cost twice that in Toronto.
After brunch we went to the money exchange place. I'm pleased to say that I'm now a millionaire. Yes, really. I sold US$200 and was handed 1.6 million kip in a thick wad of bills... mostly 50,000 kip notes. Alex had to go to another place, and bought the same number of kip, but was paid mostly in 5,000 kip notes. Her wad of cash was literally two inches thick. So bizarre. Since I expect to live on about US$20 per day here, it should last me for a while.
That brings me to now. I'm in an internet cafe now, writing this and uploading pictures to Picasa. I'm going to the temple tonight at sunset and heading to a waterfall to go swimming tomorrow.
Ciao!
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Chiang Mai
Oh wow. That's all I have to say about Chiang Mai. It's one of my favourite places that I've visited so far on this trip. It's the hot and dry season here, but my hostel, the Spicythai Backpackers' is one of the chillest I've ever had the pleasure to stay in.
I came to Chiang Mai to attend the wedding of my friends Adam Freed and Michelle Gauthier. The story of the wedding is covered in a separate blog post -- I won't repeat any of the wedding story here. I'll just tell you about the rest of my stay in Chiang Mai.
I'm going to consider Chiang Mai to be a Good Place. I use capital letters since I really mean it. It's a smallish city (about 100,000 people) in northern Thailand. The city seems to be located in a wide, flat valley, but surrounded by low mountains. The mountains are one of the southernmost extensions of the Himalaya mountains.
It's an old city -- it celebrated its 700th anniversary just a few years ago. It was the capital of an independent Thai kingdom long ago. However, it was only fully incorporated into the modern Thai kingdom about 70 years ago.
Because of its ancient capital status, it's filled with several pretty government buildings and hundreds of Buddhists wats (temples). In fact, it has 300 temples -- about the same number as Bangkok. That's astonishing, considering that Chiang Mai is a city with only about 100,000 people and Bangkok has something like 10 million.
I stayed at the Spicythai Backpacker's hostel here in Chiang Mai. The owner of the hostel, Pong, is a really cool guy. He's really friendly, hangs out with his guests all the time, takes them on tours, arranges weddings, takes his guests out drinking, and is just awesome in general. The rest of the staff is cool, too.
I generally try to shy away from dorm rooms as large as ten people, but its not so bad here. The guests are really nice, too, and don't cause problems (not like the Danish kid that peed on my in that eight-bed dorm in Coffs Harbour, Australia). I've made good friends with a few of the guests in this hostel, especially: Alexandra Weaver (from Hamilton, Ontario; Damaris Zellweger (from Zurich, Switzerland); and Brent Haas (from San Francisco, California. These are the sorts of people that I want to try and keep in touch with for a long time. I hope that, using the power of the internet, I will be able to. In the short term, at least, I think I will be exploring part of Laos with Alex for a while. Hopefully we can meet up with Damaris in southern Laos in a few weeks -- and maybe in Switzerland in a couple of years! Brent told me about Burning Man in Nevada and I promised him that I would try to go in August 2009. I hope I can make it.
The four of us made one of the saddest bowling teams in history. Lots of gutter balls -- but lots of Singha Beer, antics, and horseplay made it all worth it! We horsed around so much that we would have easily gotten kicked out of any bowling alley in Canada. Good times!
Many hostels have walls with photos on them to show you the cool things that past guests were doing. I'm pretty sure, because of my connection with the wedding, that Spicythai is the first hostel I've been in that now features MY picture on a wall. In fact, I think there's like eight pictures of me up on the wall now!
To be honest, I didn't really even see much of the city of Chiang Mai. I could have spent all eight of my days here exploring the city, its temples, museums, and people. I could have gone on a multiple-day trek into the hills and jungle. I could have ridden and taken care of an elephant. I could have gone whitewater rafting. Mostly, I chilled with my new friends at the hostel (it really does feel like a home), restaurants, coffee shops, and bars. Oh yeah, and we watched a lot of House. Like, a lot.
It doesn't help that my motivation to go out and do things is being slowly sapped. I'm not sure if it's the heat or the malaria pills. I do know that I'm wary of doing lots of tours and stuff because of cost -- I am serious about trying to save money for long term traveling.
I did spend one day wandering around the old town and took random photos. I enjoyed a Thai-style massage at the Women's Prison. It only cost me 225 baht (CA$7) for an hour and a half massage. I've never been hit and pummeled by a women so much in my life. Not quite relaxing, but very vigourous. I felt very loosey-goosey afterwards, which I assume was the goal.
The only very touristy tour that I partook in Chiang Mai was a one day cooking class. It was held on an organic farm about a half hour away from Chiang Mai. I enjoy Thai food a great deal, and learning how to cook it was a great experience. We started at a market in town to learn about some common Thai ingredients and them buy them. At the farm, the instructor, Fias, showed us many Thai ingredients growing in the garden. Since the garden was organic, we got to sample many of the leaves, roots, and fruits directly from their plants.
I made five dishes: red curry with vegetables and tofu, Thai vegetable soup, stir fried chicken with cashew nuts, a Pad Thai, and mango with sticky rice (a dessert). Every dish was made directly from its component ingredients. The cooking school peeled many of the vegetables and cut them a bit for us, but the dishes were probably 80% prepared by the students themselves.
Many of the pictures I've posted to my Picasa Web Albums are from the cooking class itself. That's probably a reflection of how much I enjoyed the class.
I'm going to wrap up this blog entry now. Tomorrow morning I am (temporarily) leaving Thailand and heading to Luang Prabang in Laos. It's a three day journey: one day on a minibus to the border, and then two days on a slow boat up the Mekong River to Luang Prabang itself. I should be back in Thailand in about three weeks. However, if Laos is as good as people say, I might stay in Laos for the full duration of my thirty day visa and go straight to Cambodia from there. We'll have to see!
I came to Chiang Mai to attend the wedding of my friends Adam Freed and Michelle Gauthier. The story of the wedding is covered in a separate blog post -- I won't repeat any of the wedding story here. I'll just tell you about the rest of my stay in Chiang Mai.
I'm going to consider Chiang Mai to be a Good Place. I use capital letters since I really mean it. It's a smallish city (about 100,000 people) in northern Thailand. The city seems to be located in a wide, flat valley, but surrounded by low mountains. The mountains are one of the southernmost extensions of the Himalaya mountains.
It's an old city -- it celebrated its 700th anniversary just a few years ago. It was the capital of an independent Thai kingdom long ago. However, it was only fully incorporated into the modern Thai kingdom about 70 years ago.
Because of its ancient capital status, it's filled with several pretty government buildings and hundreds of Buddhists wats (temples). In fact, it has 300 temples -- about the same number as Bangkok. That's astonishing, considering that Chiang Mai is a city with only about 100,000 people and Bangkok has something like 10 million.
I stayed at the Spicythai Backpacker's hostel here in Chiang Mai. The owner of the hostel, Pong, is a really cool guy. He's really friendly, hangs out with his guests all the time, takes them on tours, arranges weddings, takes his guests out drinking, and is just awesome in general. The rest of the staff is cool, too.
I generally try to shy away from dorm rooms as large as ten people, but its not so bad here. The guests are really nice, too, and don't cause problems (not like the Danish kid that peed on my in that eight-bed dorm in Coffs Harbour, Australia). I've made good friends with a few of the guests in this hostel, especially: Alexandra Weaver (from Hamilton, Ontario; Damaris Zellweger (from Zurich, Switzerland); and Brent Haas (from San Francisco, California. These are the sorts of people that I want to try and keep in touch with for a long time. I hope that, using the power of the internet, I will be able to. In the short term, at least, I think I will be exploring part of Laos with Alex for a while. Hopefully we can meet up with Damaris in southern Laos in a few weeks -- and maybe in Switzerland in a couple of years! Brent told me about Burning Man in Nevada and I promised him that I would try to go in August 2009. I hope I can make it.
The four of us made one of the saddest bowling teams in history. Lots of gutter balls -- but lots of Singha Beer, antics, and horseplay made it all worth it! We horsed around so much that we would have easily gotten kicked out of any bowling alley in Canada. Good times!
Many hostels have walls with photos on them to show you the cool things that past guests were doing. I'm pretty sure, because of my connection with the wedding, that Spicythai is the first hostel I've been in that now features MY picture on a wall. In fact, I think there's like eight pictures of me up on the wall now!
To be honest, I didn't really even see much of the city of Chiang Mai. I could have spent all eight of my days here exploring the city, its temples, museums, and people. I could have gone on a multiple-day trek into the hills and jungle. I could have ridden and taken care of an elephant. I could have gone whitewater rafting. Mostly, I chilled with my new friends at the hostel (it really does feel like a home), restaurants, coffee shops, and bars. Oh yeah, and we watched a lot of House. Like, a lot.
It doesn't help that my motivation to go out and do things is being slowly sapped. I'm not sure if it's the heat or the malaria pills. I do know that I'm wary of doing lots of tours and stuff because of cost -- I am serious about trying to save money for long term traveling.
I did spend one day wandering around the old town and took random photos. I enjoyed a Thai-style massage at the Women's Prison. It only cost me 225 baht (CA$7) for an hour and a half massage. I've never been hit and pummeled by a women so much in my life. Not quite relaxing, but very vigourous. I felt very loosey-goosey afterwards, which I assume was the goal.
The only very touristy tour that I partook in Chiang Mai was a one day cooking class. It was held on an organic farm about a half hour away from Chiang Mai. I enjoy Thai food a great deal, and learning how to cook it was a great experience. We started at a market in town to learn about some common Thai ingredients and them buy them. At the farm, the instructor, Fias, showed us many Thai ingredients growing in the garden. Since the garden was organic, we got to sample many of the leaves, roots, and fruits directly from their plants.
I made five dishes: red curry with vegetables and tofu, Thai vegetable soup, stir fried chicken with cashew nuts, a Pad Thai, and mango with sticky rice (a dessert). Every dish was made directly from its component ingredients. The cooking school peeled many of the vegetables and cut them a bit for us, but the dishes were probably 80% prepared by the students themselves.
Many of the pictures I've posted to my Picasa Web Albums are from the cooking class itself. That's probably a reflection of how much I enjoyed the class.
I'm going to wrap up this blog entry now. Tomorrow morning I am (temporarily) leaving Thailand and heading to Luang Prabang in Laos. It's a three day journey: one day on a minibus to the border, and then two days on a slow boat up the Mekong River to Luang Prabang itself. I should be back in Thailand in about three weeks. However, if Laos is as good as people say, I might stay in Laos for the full duration of my thirty day visa and go straight to Cambodia from there. We'll have to see!
New Photos Posted: Chiang Mai
Hi! I've finished posting pictures from my eight day stay in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Pictures from the wedding are posted to a separate album. Pictures from the rest of my time in Chiang Mai are posted to this new album here.
Enjoy!
--
Rob Sz
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Enjoy!
--
Rob Sz
Chiang Mai, Thailand
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