LOVING LAOS

We are staying in Luang Prabang, a town on the Mekong River. This used to be the capital of the country, and is a Unesco World Heritage Site. 

The town itself is amazing to walk through, the homes and shops right on the road. We found a laundromat that charges $1 us per kg.

Tuk tuk in the driveway

 We visited the Royal Palace Museum, which is fascinating, but unfortunately you cannot take cameras in, so you will have to take my word for it.  There is a room where the gifts from other countries are displayed.  Everyone was impressed, and moved by the gift from the United States, given by Ronald Reagan. It is the Laos flag that was carried on the Apollo mission that landed on the moon, along with a rock taken from the surface of the moon, very special. 

Canada gave a plate, but it's a nice plate.

The paintings on the walls were beautiful. The golden throne, the crowns and huge fans reminded me of movies about Aladdin or Cleopatra.

And of course, we visited the temple beside the palace...

We took a boat ride after lunch, up the Mekong river and stopped at a small village that makes whisky from rice. The samples were delicious.

Tom and Zoom Zoom at the distillery...

This is the whiskey blended with snake and scorpion.

Of course, we had to walk thru the market to get back to the boat...

Love the old wood and shutters

Our next stop on the river was at the Buddha caves, where the locals place statues and pray to Buddha.

We enjoyed the ride up and down the river with great sightings along the way of water buffalo, monk laundry, and more.

Capped off the day with a gorgeous sunset over the Mekong and dinner at the night market......stay tuned

LAN NA TRADITIONAL FAMILY DINNER

We had dinner and a garden tour last night at a traditional Lan Na home. The Lan Na people are from northern Thailand. We were greeted at the gate by the man of the house, who presented us each with a beautifully fragrant necklace, like a lei, and a glass of lemongrass water.

There are two homes on the property. The first is a smaller teak house that is about 80 years old. The teak floors felt amazing on the bare feet. The home is built on stilts, to protect against flooding, and to give a cool living area below.

The kitchen

The grandmother of the family lives in the smaller house now, and the younger 3 generations live in the bigger home on the property.

The fun started when we sat cross legged on the floor and all participated in a welcome tea. You notice I said participated, not enjoyed. Here is a picture of the tea. You dont put it in a cup, or add water, you just put this gunk in your mouth and chew.

Can't say I will be looking for this blend anytime soon. We were saved when they passed a brass bucket around and we could spit it out. But wait, it gets even better. Next we took a Pann leaf, add some hairy roots, a Beetle nut and throw in some shaved tree sap for good measure. 

You fold it up just like a spring roll, and pop that sucker into your mouth. Unfortunately for me, I missed the part about not chewing it too much. I chewed and chewed, and all of a sudden my tongue started to feel numb. I thought, this is going to be cool, but then my little packet broke open and I had that crap everywhere. It took everything inside me to keep it in my mouth. I couldn't get that bucket fast enough. I was still picking remnants out of my teeth at breakfast this morning.

We carried on with a tour of the garden, and learned all about the plants, roots, vegetables and flowers that are growing there. The family has a small storefront where they sell their dried herbs and roots.

After the tour, we enjoyed a great dinner served in true Lan Na style, sitting on the ground.

Grandma rolled a few cigarettes for the boys using banana leaves, tobacco and her secret ingredient for added flavor.

This morning we had a quick visit to a silk factory, before saying goodbye to Thailand and flying one hour to Luang Prabang, Laos.

The lobby of our hotel in Chiang Mai, The Empress....

We have just returned from a walk into town. 

We went out for dinner, had 2 large beer, 

And some great local food, and it was only $125,000 kip, such a deal! Actually it was, works out to $16!! When we went to the ATM we took out a million kip.

Looking forward to exploring the area tomorrow, stay tuned...

CYCLING IN THE CHIANG MAI COUNTRYSIDE

Great morning.....Those of us that didn't opt for the 5km zipline, went for a guided cycle through the beautiful countryside. We loaded up into the paddy wagon....

 And off we went to pick up our bikes.

It was a very leisurely ride, past small villages, here is a typical family house, very open.

A not so typical car...

This area is known for its famous cock fighting. We saw many cages with beautiful birds, sitting out in the sun to strengthen their muscles. The owner of a bird that wins a fight can make $30,000 u.s. 

We also came upon a very large spider spinning his web in the bamboo.

This type of bamboo will grow one meter a night in the rainy season.

Ugly story, because the truth isnt always pretty.....in WW2, when the Japanese were in Thailand, they would stake out their prisoners of war on top of the bamboo., and then wait for the bamboo to grow through them. A slow, ugly death.

We stopped for street food, deep fried taro muffin kinda thingys (not the real name)

We also tried fried sweet banana, taro, and sweet potato but i couldnt get my camera out fast enough, so here are the remnants...

We stopped at a beautiful shrine, in this small village.

This was what was painted on the inside of the pink elephant...aka Ganesh

We stopped at a little roadside restaurant for a great bowl of soup.

When we left the restaurant there was a bit of confusion, and one of our bikers disappeared.

So where is a better place to pull over and wait than the village crematorium.

Yes folks, that is exactly what you think you would find at a crematorium.

We also stopped in the shade of a beautiful big tree, in between some rice fields. Even out here, there are pictures of the last president.

It was a beautiful experience, to bicycle through the small villages and see the local way of life. The people here are so friendly and laid back and always make us feel very welcome. It was the perfect thing to do after a couple busy days.....stay tuned