Happy New Year!

Hi all. I'm in Luang Nam Tha in northern Laos now. We got into Luang Prabang by plane on the 26th. I was a bit nervous since Laos Airlines has a less than stellar reputation (actually, one of the worst in the industry), but apparently they've been upgrading all their planes, so we went for it. The flight was totally fine though and we even got little fruit-cakey things in the meal, which was the only Christmassy thing I ate this trip.

I had expected Luang Pabang to be like Chiang Mai, but it's not at all. It's an odd blend of sleepy old town and gentrified tourist haven. Zoo and I got rooms in a spartan little guesthouse for 5 dollars a night (her desire to save money demanded we not spend the extra dollar or two for a private bathroom.) But then we'd go out for breakfast at a posh little cafe and spend more than that on coffee and croissants. Go figure. I didn't really sleep much the whole time because the evil inherent in roosters. I have never enjoyed eating chicken so much before. The annoying things would start crowing prematurely at 3am, get bored after a while, then start up again an hour later.

It was fun to explore the area though: less touristy than Chiang Mai, but still not the the mythical "authentic" experience that every traveller dreams of finding. There's a ridiculous night market with slightly different tourist junk from the markets in Thailand but the same from stall to stall. This is truly where the "same same, but different" phrase comes from.

We'd met a Canadian named Kalil in Chiang Mai and met up with spent the first day wandering through the city and the big wats at a leisurely pace. On another day, we hired a tuk-tuk and went off to Kuang Si park where there are some beautiful waterfalls. Zoo and I hiked up the steep slope to the top and waded through the stream abovehim again in Laos. We basically the falls. Ever mindful of safety, the Lao authorities had placed a tiny sign that read "Danger - No Entry" hanging from a tree out over the 30m or so dropoff with a single rickety wood rail to stop the utterly stupid. The water had clearly changed its course and recently, as the ground was coated in layers of rock, like a mass of stalagmites. Even twigs that had fallen in the water, were quickly covered before the unexposed end had time to weather. After the hike, we took a dip in the freezing milky-blue water with natural massages from one of the waterfalls.

Not agreeing on what we wanted to do, Zoo and I decided to split off. She's heading down to Veng Viang to look at organic vegetables or something, while I headed up to Luang Nam Tha. I hopped on the overcrowded night bus -the only foreigner. Though everyone else seemed to avoid me, a Hmong university student named Vong sat next to me to practice his English. He pushed me to join him and his friends in Oudum Xai for Hmong New Year celebrations and a wedding party. So I got off the bus with them and went.

The friend's family was relatively wealthy so their house was large and concrete, with cars and motorbikes outside. Tents were up with huge speakers in preparation for the wedding party. But inside, the walls were still thin woven bamboo and the kitchen was an outdoor fireplace. We got there around 1am and they fed us traditional Laap (minced meat and glass noodle salad), pork soup, chunks of chicken with heads and feet and all, and loads of Beer Lao. Bi, the older brother who was playing host, kept pouring more and more until the others hid the beer while Bi's back was turned. Only three spoke much English (Vong, Ning and Bi), but all were eager to practice and translated. Finally, they put me in a room with Vong and Ning and we slept on floor pads with heaps of blankets.

I woke up early to the sound of party preparations and, of course, roosters. Vong, Ning, and I walked over to Ning's other uncle's house (The relationships were complicated and unclear. They refer to close friends as brothers so I gave up keeping track after a while) where they were still celebrating the Hmong New Year. This house was considerable more modest, though still concrete and the uncle is apparently the city mayor or some equivalent. They had just finished slaughtering a pig in the yard and were starting to cut it up on a big blue plastic tarp. As far as I could tell, this involved expertly slicing off the various parts and then whacking them endlessly with huge cleavers into a minced pile. Nothing -and I mean nothing- was wasted. At first, I was welcomed then relatively ignored, but once they had finished, I was brought out again for English practice. I must have been asked the same questions a hundred times. Most spoke no English; a few spoke some; and one or two spoke pretty well. I was very surprised to learn that many of the older generation had visited the US, while none of the younger people had. Apparently, the US is more willing to give visas to older people who they don't feel will try to stay. The uncle had even visited DC. When Vong asked him what he thought of it, the first thing he mentioned was the traffic. Seems appropriate. I wish I could have asked him better though about the culture shock he must have felt and compared notes. It would have been nice to know the opposite perspective.

***Warning for the faint of stomach. You may not want to read the next paragraph***

After chatting for a while, they unveiled the first dish, which was a special soup made of a leafy veggie like spinach, pig lungs, heart, liver, kidney and -the crowning glory- fetus. Yes, I ate pig fetus. They had impregnated the pig in advance so that it would be ready when slaughtered. It doesn't taste bad, but the squishy texture was a little much for me. I almost lost it when Vong spooned a chunk of torso into his mouth and slurped up the tail. Having watched it made, I knew what I was in for, but I was feeling adventurous and didn't want to be insulting. I decided I would just have to ignore the screaming warnings in the guidebook about foods to avoid. We ate standing around a big communal bowl and toasting each other with lao lao, or Lao whiskey. That's what they called it, but actually it was more like vodka or soju. After the third round, I had to plead foreigner and decline.

I thought that might be it, but it turned out only to be the beginning. I was then moved inside to the head table. The house again was simple but nice inside with posters of Lao, Chinese, and Korean pinup models and calendar girls all around the room. There were about thirty-some people there so I felt a little odd being brought to the table while many people were just eating on the tarp outside, but they insisted. As part of the celebration, people tie strings around others' wrists and make wishes. I felt a little left out until I noticed that all the strings were going to the uncle and his family. He sat there in his chair with the posture of important men and accepted blessing after blessing. We then ate (pork laap, soup and salad), and continued the blessings in toast form with loads of Beer Lao. I again had to plead foreigner to avoid getting too drunk.

We eventually tore ourselves away from "breakfast" at around 3 and went to a traditional Hmong flirting ritual. The guys told me they have a very hard time meeting Hmong girls and these few weeks during the New Year celebrations are the only real time to do it. I was a little surprised since I had thought Vong was happy enough flirting with Ning's little sister, but we went off anyway. The ritual is pretty simple: the boys and girls dress up in traditional dress or at least look nice, stand in two lines, and toss balls back and forth. The idea is to try to toss the ball with the person you think is cute and talk while you do it. Meanwhile, little boys light firecrackers and gamble in a kind of dice game. This was the last weekend of the season so the crowd was pretty thin and the guys were all disappointed. Most of the people there looked about 16 or younger and it seemed reminiscent of a middle school dance.

In a clear sign of how few tourists make it out here though, I was swarmed. Everyone who knew the slightest bit of English came to practice on me and those who didn't, just stared. I'm pretty used to being stared at from Korea, but this was far more than I cared for. Vong made me join in the ball tossing and took pictures, which I didn't really want to do. In the one place with no other tourists, the last thing I wanted to do was make it touristy by whipping out the camera. Unfortunately, that means I have few photos from that day.

Thoroughly disappointed, Vong led me off to another cousin's house. This one was tiny and clearly very poor. The house was built on stilts in the traditional style and the woven bamboo had come undone. Near the fireplace, they had stuck kitchen utensils through the holes in the wall as storage. Even in this poor house though, they had a TV blaring low-budget Lao music videos on VCD.

Finally, we went and joined the wedding party. Unfortunately, it really wasn't as special as it had sounded before. In fact, except for the menu (roast water buffalo, more laap and soup) and music style (think synthesizer stuck on Bossanova beat), it could almost have been an American wedding reception. The actual wedding took place privately days before and this was just a party to announce and celebrate it. I guess the dancing was a little different too. There were two kinds: the slow tradition style in which partners kind of shuffle in a circle, facing each other for a few steps and then facing forward, while gently swishing their hands in front of them; and the modern dance which made me think of a cross between a church revival and a mosh pit. Not quite my style in either case. And again, there was endless Beer Lao. Despite my attempts to brush aside most offers, I still had to down many glasses and return many toasts. As before, many people either stared or came over to practice English. Naturally, they also wanted to share a drink or five. By the end of the night, there was an enormous pile of empty bottles under our table. I don't know how I managed to avoid a hangover.

So this morning, I declined their invitations to another wedding party, said goodbye, and caught a van up to Luang Nam Tha. I'd planned on going straight on to the even tinier town of Muong Sing for trekking, but I met some other travellers who reminded me that tonight is New Years so I'm sticking around here for now. I'll probably be off to do a trek in a day or two. I'll post again when I get back. Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope it's been a good one and that you all got lots of good stuff if you wanted it and not too much junk if you didn't.
Well, it's my second Christmas away from home (sorry 'rents, but probably not the last). We spent Xmas Eve day, wandering through the enormous Sunday market picking up Secret Santa presents. There were many cool things -especially art- I would've loved to have picked up for myself or you all but everything I liked was huge and heavy. I almost did you a favor.... Then we went to a Wat for "Monk Chat." It was cool, just talking to this young monk who was finishing monk university. Part of his English training is to sit and just talk about anything so we finally got some explanations about some of the things we'd seen.
Then in the evening, our guesthouse had a special party. They cooked up a huge dinner, brought in a guy to play (what else?) reggae music, and we all played a few kids games. I was in one against three other guys where you have to pick up a small coin at the bottom of a plate of flour with your mouth, then eat two of the driest cookies, blow up two balloons until they pop, and then down an entire bottle of coke. I failed miserably. We also exchanged presents with Secret Santas. I got two little puzzle toy things that have been driving me mad since. It took me fifteen minutes to get the first one apart and I still haven't gotten it back together. Finally, we sent off a few of the floating lanterns that I had seen the night before. They're paper lanterns with a small oil lamp inside like a mini hotair balloon. Apparently, some people send them up with fireworks dangling from below so they go off in the air, which is probably why I got confused.
After the party, a group of us set off to a bar and hung out until late, listening to good Dire Straits covers and horrific renditions of the Killers. It turned out to be a good group of people so we had a good time.
Today was a little surreal. They're having a flower expo in honor of the king's 60th year on the throne and every Thai person we met kept telling us to go see it. We finally did and it was... special. I don't know if it was the dippy Xmas jingles playing non-stop, the blinding sun, the outdoor air conditioners outside the oil company sponsored display on sustainability, or the endless captions lauding the king's wise and loving leadership towards the "New Theory" of agriculture, but the whole thing left us thoroughly blasted. Oh, and I learned that Zoo gets crabby if we don't feed her enough veggies.
As a side note on the king, Thais genuinely seem to worship the guy. A good tenth of the population wears the same yellow polo shirt with the royal logo on it on any given day. But this guy is far from glamorous. He's always portrayed with a rather odd expression -a blend of stern, loving, and bewildered- and always carrying a camera or playing jazz.
So that's it for now. We're flying to Luang Prabang tomorrow so I'll hopefully sign on again in a few days. Merry Christmas again.

Chillin in Chiang Mai

Oooohhh... Someone just set off fireworks right outside the window. They've got these strange ones that just seem to hang in the sky forever. I'm not just exaggerating either -the little sparks have been up there barely moving for the whole time I've been writing so far. Still glowing and hanging there after more than a minute. Anyway, you don't care about that.
We've been in Chiang Mai for a few days now and it's been an odd mix. The first day we just set out thinking we'd hit the big main Wats. It turns out there's like three wats per capita; wats have wats for neighbors and you have to wonder how they support them all. They're worse than Starbucks. (Glowing sparks still in the sky.) We got our fill after about a dozen and took in a cool art museum and then the night market.
The second day started out awesome with a cooking course through our guesthouse. They took us to the market to buy all the ingredients and then taught us to make all sorts of good stuff. We basically spent all day just cooking and eating. After the course, Zoo and I hopped a taxi (which here means pickup with bench seats in back) to a famous Wat to watch the sunset. It was beautiful, but I was starting to feel a little queasy. Things went downhill from there. Without going into the gorey details, let's just say that the whole night was a total loss. (Sparky things are still there!). Basically, so was the next day. Guess my cooking may not be so great after all. I'm feeling much better now though so it's all okay.
Today we hopped a bus to a town called Lampang for an elephant conservation center. It was a long ride and we didn't really go about it the most logical way but we got there eventually and it was pretty cool. We got to see the elephants have their baths in the river and they put on a little show. They even have a couple of the elephants doing paintings which was incredible to watch. Without being prompted by the trainers, we watched one do a crude but easily identifiable picture of some flowers. They had a few baby elephants and I got to play with one a little and feed it. The little bugger got a little excited though and whacked me with his trunk trying to get at the sugarcane. You wouldn't think a baby would be strong but if you imagine that his trunk is about as big as my thigh and solid muscle, it makes sense.
Well that's it so far. We couldn't get a flight to Laos until the 26th so we'll be spending Christmas here at our guesthouse. It actually sounds like it might be fun. They apparently stop taking new guests and have a party with special food and secret Santas. It'll be totally different from home, but it should be an experience.
Update on the mystery glowy things: Zoot found out they're lights in balloons. Odd since they seemed to come from the fireworks but whatever. It makes more sense than my UFO theory.

Thailand so far...

Hi all from Chumphon, Thailand. I'm starting this instead of sending out mass emails because I'm never really sure how many people actually want to hear every detail about my life. Plus, I'm tired of tracking and updating everyone's address.
As most of you know, I'm travelling throughout SE Asia with my little sister Susanna (aka Zoot). She flew into Seoul way back on the 10th and we hung out with my friends in Korea for a while. You've all heard my take on Korea so I'll try to keep it short. We crammed a ton of palaces and temples inton our first day in Seoul. After that, we took the train back to Daegu and stayed with Cat for a few days. I just took Zoot around my hangouts and all the not-so exciting things we usually do. Then on Saturday, we took a train back to Seoul with Emma, Andrea, and Daryl. Spent the day shopping and went out that night and had an odd night. I'll refrain from details to protect the weak of heart (i.e. parents) but we had fun in the end. It wasn't at all the weekend I was hoping for and I ended up having a very awkward goodbye with Cat.
So on to Thailand. We got into Bangkok late so we ended up staying at a craphole the first night. The second place was much nicer in a ridiculously cheap and spartan sort of way. It was run by this really friendly man who had a daughter in the US and had actually travelled there himself. We stayed in the backpacker zone called Khao San Rd which I didn't really like. It clearly catered to a different sort of person from Zoot and myself. The restaurants were fine, but there were tons of bars, and souvenier shops that specialize in t-shirts with crude sex jokes. During the day, we left there and toured the huge Grand Palace and adjacent Wat (temple). The first two days were really all about seeing enormous Buddhas in enormous Wats.
Not liking Bangkok very much, we quickly headed south to the small island of Ko Tao. It's a diving mecca, known as the cheapest place in the world to get certified. We caught a night train which was awesome -my first experience with a sleeper. We ended up talking to a French woman near us late into the night. She was a really interesting character -she lives in Japan and does art/video installations for the fashion industry (Emma, do you know the Laptop Orchestra?). After she and Zoo went to bed, I went up to the dining car and just sat there with a Singha and the windows down in total bliss.
Ko Tao turned out to be paradise. We picked a dive resort called Buddha View (big rock on the bay kinda looks like a Buddha) a little ways from the main beaches. It's got a good rep though so I think I got excellent training. I basically spent my days doing the dive course and Zoot relaxed or kayaked.
Diving scared the hell out of me at first -breathing underwater is freakish and wrong- but I eventually learned to calm down and enjoy it. The course pretty much filled my days with two half-days of classes and six dives. The instructors were cool and so were the folks I did it with. I've even got an underwater DVD of all of us doind stupid stuff on our last day. Most importantly, they taught us the primary rule of diving: look cool. To that end, I can do flips and blow bubble rings pretty damn well. No pictures yet though. I don't plan on spending my whole time here writing and uploading.
After I finished diving, we decided to move on to Chiang Mai in the north. The first part of the trip had to be on a high-speed catameran. All other ferries had cancelled due to high swells (like 3-5m) but this one is more stable supposedly. Let's just say it wasn't a fun ride. Half the people were throwing up because it was swaying 45 degrees in either direction. Either that or because Bruce Almighty is a really cheesy movie. So we got there safe and caught the night train to Bangkok (sounds like a movie name). Since it actually left fairly early, we headed into the dining car expecting another relaxing drink like the last train. Instead, it was dimly lit with Christmas lights and they were playing loud Thai music videos. The waiter was a gender-bending Thai man (?) who sang along in a high pretty voice to all the songs. Then he suddenly got an idea, switched to a karaoke DVD, and serenaded me with "I've Never Been To Me" -the transvestite anthem. Not satisfied, he proceeded to play a string of western songs we didn't really know and tried to get us to sing along. We put it off for a while but Zoot and I both got talked into some. Strange night.
Anyway, we made it to Chiang Mai and so far all I've done is eat and use the computer. Better get going so I have more to write about.