and we are off to Laos!

So Laos is completely different than anywhere we have been. Luang Prabang is about 2 miles long, not kidding. Its surrounded by 2 rivers and when I went on a very slow run around the entire thing I think it was barely 3 miles and I went out of the city! So there are several wats (aka temples) which you can visit when the monks are not praying. There are also tons of stores selling handmade goods (quilts, scarfs, clothes, etc.) there is a night market, a night food market, and lots of Laos and French food, although less people speak French than I expected. The town has a curfew of 11pm which is very strict, you can be arrested!!! Burr and I made lots of different friends going to the waterfall (see pics, very pretty) and taking cooking class. My fav couple was from Chile and they own a yoga retreat center there – awesome! So we spent 4 nights and 3 days and we did waterfall, cooking class, and spa day!

Now – I let Burr write this bit about the monks

________________________________________________________________________________

Monks, monks everywhere ...


Luang Prabang is best known is a UNESCO World Heritage site for all of the Buddhist temples that dot the city. Each morning, these temples release their youngsters to go collect food (and toilet paper supposedly) from the villagers and tourists. A river of monks, dressed in their saffron (but really U. of Tennessee florescent) orange robes, stream out of the gates of each temple with a basket. Rice, bananas, etc are placed into these baskets.


Now, every tourist has to see this .... once. Unfortunately, this parade starts at 5:30 AM and ends by 6. It's a rite of passage among the non-Loatians to be done once and then brag to the others that you've seen it. There are a sprinkling of people who watch one day and then participate the next, but not us. Here are the basic rules for those planning a weekend getaway to what I have begun to think of as "the country that communism forgot it had"


1. women can't touch monks,


2. kneel the whole time,


3. cover elbows and knees,


4. no flash photography


5. don't buy the cheap rice from the morning street vendors (it's old and the monks don't like it)

______________________________________________________________________________________

Anne continues…..

We took another cooking class in Laos, this time more Laos cuisine of course. What is Laos cuisine you ask (question*) well its basically lots of chilies, lemongrass, coriander garlic and basil all mixed together…oh and lots and lots of MSG! Yes, laos people love MSG they put it in everything, just like its salt. Crazy! We tried to make our recipes without it, but Burr got a little mixed up and used it instead of salt at first…tasted great!

*note – this keyboard’s question mark doesn’t work!

We started with a market tour which was a little interesting to say the least. People eat pork fat and congealed blood (really – you can actually buy it!). burr and I liked the ‘laos cracker’ which is just flour, sugar, and butter and tastes like caramel popcorn! Hahaha. So we made 5 dishes….the one we will make the most of is the tomato sauce, they eat it with sticky rice but we thought it was terrific salsa! I will not be bringing home the smokey eggplant dip – ick! The main courses were fish steamed in a banana leaf (and tying a banana leaf is way harder than you think!), chicken mashed up inside lemongrass and fried (its hard to explain), and laos soup. Burr liked the soup the best but I thought it was too spicy (totally his fault) and I liked the steam fish. I also loved the dessert – sticky purple rice with coconut milk and fruit – delicious!

So spa day was today! Burr got a 90 min. traditional Laos massage for $11 and I got a 2.5 hour body scrub and aromatherapy massage for about $35! Bargain if you ask me! The body scrub you would awesome would be lovely, and it is….when is OVER! Owww does that lady really scrub hard! It was a great day though, sleep in , workout (anne = yoga, burr = run), lovely breakfast at hotel….they make you fresh squeezed juice of any kind! The pineapple and watermelon is yummy! Then spa for a few hours and early dinner. We actually crossed the river to go to this bbq restaurant for dinner..which is basically a poor Melting Pot. They put hot charcoals in the middle of your table, bring raw chicken and broth and say cook…it was still good though! Then Burr and I tried out the bar in town everyone was talking about, Utopia…all I wanted was some good drinks and fun music, instead I got backpackers haven with spa type music and a sand volleyball court….needless to say we didn’t stay long…where are Britney and Justin when you need ‘em (question)

So far Burr’s ranking is

1. South Africa

2. Laos

3. Thailand

4. Cambodia

I am still on the fence between 2, 3, and 4, but nothing will beat the safari…I’m dying to go back and still slightly sad its over.

Tomorrow its onto VIETNAM! Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hoi An, and Phu Quoc here we come!!!! Sunshine please come out….I cannot go back to the US this pale, even spray tan cannot help this British white I inherited!

The beautiful waterfall!!! I didn't love the water though = freezing cold and full of fish that bite your feet (or nemo as I refer to them)

cooking school....see burr on back right

our soup we made!

our chicken in lemongrass

steamed fish inside!

woman at market taking off stems of chilies, apparently they are bad luck!

burr at the top of highest Wat in town at sunset, beautiful view

monks

cooking school

our mode of transportation - Tuk Tuk!

I added pics to our Bangkok and Chiang Mai adventure....see below!!!

Our day with the elephants!

So Chiang Mai was very interesting!  The first afternoon we got there we borrowed bikes from the hotel and rode around the old city.  It was very very warm. We ended up at some Carolinian restaurant named duke's, yes the owner is a duke fan.

The next day We got picked up early Saturday morning and took an hour drive up into the mountains. There we signed our lives away, as we did on the safari, and then were told to never feed the elephants only 1 banana, always bunches! haha. We were given proper elephant attire, which is made my the wives of the elephant farmers. We talked to for about 30 min. about how this elephant farm was just to breed and take care of elephants, not for show and we would be their 'trainer' for the day and it was our job to clean them, feed them, and take care of them.  Then, we were each allocated our own elephant and trainer for the day. I was given Teep (trainer) and elephant (LoKoSun). I had the little brother of burr's elephant who I cannot remember the name of. aren't his tusks big and scary - he is only 6!

First we did the "health inspection" and they literally wanted me to count how many times the elephant went to the bathroom - this is me, watching my trainer count saying um...I'm not so sure about that....the rest of the group is watching.

Then we had to feed the elephants a basket of bananas. When I say feed, I mean stick your ENTIRE hand in the elephant's mouth and it licks you!!! yes you put the banana on the tongue of the elephants! then you pat it on the head and say "DD" - which means good boy/good girl.

My elephant got lots of dds all day!

Burr's elephant was a little grumpy to say the least....haha....the trainer was yelling at it all day!

Riding the elephants was really fun, but we are super sore! We rode them for at least 2 hours up and down and mountain. Getting up on them was the best part, I got up via the trunk - so fun! I need to upload more pics.

Us eating lunch. I had some interesting fruit which tasted like grapefruit but looked like a wood ball the size of a ping pong, I know I wish I knew the name too! hahaha. There was fried chicken, which Burr said tasted like Frances' and since I'm allergic to peanuts, I stayed away from the chicken. There was also a TON of different rice dishes. Rice with cocoa, Rice with coconut, Rice with banana, plain rice, Rice pilaf, etc. etc. I sat next to this little boy named Reese, who I think liked burr more than me...just like little Eleanor!

Burr feeding his elephant.see his hand all the way in! yikes.

It was an amazing experience to see the.....we are very glad we did it. We also went swimming with them and I will add those pics too.

We are now in laos.  Its so quiet and amazing here. This morning we woke up at 4;55am to see the monks!  We watched all the people feed them as they walked to temple. Can you believe the monks had already chanted and meditated for an hour before we arrived.

Bangkok and Chiang Mai

This is me at our first lunch in bangkok..I was trying to be all Urban and I ordered a iced green tea....it was terrible! It tasted like I was eating leaves.

Traffic in Bangkok....crazy....we thought it was really odd that the public transport (skylink and metro) were not crowded and really cold, full of full blast AC yet everyone insisted on driving and going no where!

see 'recommanded' soooo funny....this is one of many.

Me at the park in Bangkok, good thing its not  close up, I look like I was swimming!

lizard in the lake that burr was obsessed with!

Banyan tree hotel - look at those drinks!  The cups were not flat on the bottom, we thought they were broken at first, took us a long time to figure that one out! and yes, Burr ordered the pink one - haha!

From the top!

More from the top!

We ordered mixed fish platter to share for dinner.....soooo yummy.

Our taxi in Chaign Mai was covered in LOUIS VITTON seats, too funny.

burr in the LV car!

I like the Heinz bottle with Thai writing....ahhh I heart ketchup in any  country.

The shape of our watermelon at our hotel in Chiang Mai!! soooo cute!!! I obviously loved it!

after the elephant riding we made friends with our guide and he took us to the Chiang Mai football match.

The game was very fun!  People sing the same chants, just in a different language!

Me cheering on the team (our guide made me take the scarf in since I wasn't wearing blue!)

Hello there!!  So we spent 1 day and 1 night in Bangkok and I was EXHAUSTED after it !  Right when we arrived Burr drug me out into the city to walk around (even after getting up at 6am for a flight) *

*Remember the morning before he made me get up at 4:30am for the temples at sunrise, which we didn't see because it was cloudy and pouring rain - I'm not bitter or anything though! hahaha.

OK enough whining....we walked around Bangkok, Burr really liked the "energy" and noticed there that no one sweats...he and I were both dying of sweat though.  I really enjoyed seeing everyone's outfits. Lots of girls have fake bags that you can tell are very fake. Absolutely no one wears tennis shoes.   All the women walk around in heels (1 inch approx so not huge) but still!  And everyone drives....the traffic is bonkers. We took the Metro and Sky train a lot and it was not crowded.  There are these little motorcycle drivers that you pay to hop on the back of their bike and they drive you around....so strange. There are also regular taxis, that we come to find are crazy cheap.  It cost us $3 to get from dinner to our hotel last night....you cannot even get in a taxi in London for that. awesome. (Note - the $3 was even after the taxi driver got lost twice and Burr yelling at him - the taxi driving pulling over in dark alley to ask directions, a little terrifying).

So I drug Burr to a yoga class in Bangkok last night at Yoga Elements. I had read about it, apparently the 11st best yoga studio in the world.  It was a 90 minute class and we were exhausted after walking around all day. But, we were set to go to the Banyan Tree Hotel and have drinks from the 59th floor looking over the city. So we came back from yoga changed and headed to the top of the hotel. It was gorgeous! I loved the view!!! We both tried different types of Thai liquor drinks ...but I still like my Grey Goose better - hehe. After drinks we wandered around and wound up at the most amazing Italian restaurant ever! We shared the mixed fish grill plate ( see picture). we were so impressed!

This morning it was up early to the airport to go to Chiang Mai, after a flight cancellation and a little hour delay we were on our way!  We biked around today and saw the old city. We didn't go visit any temples, as the ones in Angkor Wat are so much bigger and amazing. The old city reminded us a lot of Siem Reap. People selling things on the side of the street, markets, etc. For dinner we ended up at some place named after Duke (yes the school) so we ate american food - can only eat so many noodles and rice!

Tomorrow we are headed to the Elephant Farm! I'm so excited!

Will post pics soon....it just takes a  LOT of energy because every hotel has 1 shared computer and downloading takes ages...but we will do it!

XXXX
Anne and Burr

Cambodia

Our hotel - very nice aside from the early morning construction and bugs!

Our treat upon arrival....some sort of ice tea (tasted like sugar water), banana leafs with yummy sweat sticky rice and salted peanuts (guess who liked those?!)

(Pic of a typical stand on side of road)

 So the primary sightseeing attractions in Cambodia are the temples dating back to the 10/11/12th centuries, most famously Angkor Wat. We rented a tuk-tuk (motorcycle with a carriage attached) for the 8 km journey from the hotel. (Honestly the traffic is pretty crazy with people, pets, bikes, cars ---- almost exclusively Toyotas, vans, buses, motorcycles and tuk-tuks scattered across all lanes of traffic - and this is the low season!)
There we hired a guide for the day to show us Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, an unidentified small temple and "the temple where Angelina Jolie go in Tomb Raider." Money was well spent for a dedicated photographer and direction giver, not so much for the info provided.
We gave the temples a C. Yes they are impressive dwellings from a long time ago, but having heard so much about them, we expected something mystical. It didn't help that there was an unnounced Bhuddist holiday according to the guide (or refurbishment of the staircase if you were to believe the sign) that prevented us from going up in the towers of Angkor Wat. We were able to climb some steep steps for the other temples to get a view of the surrounding forest.
 [ Please note - I was told I had to wear pants to go to the temples and had 30 seconds to change, I know my outfit is HEINOUS! please don't judge]

[Nose to nose!]

[Picture of how sweatty Burr was....I was terrible too...but I'm the one uploading pics...so Burr gets it!]

 We returned to the hotel about 3 PM and decided to try again for the mystical Angkor Wat experience with a sunrise ride the next day. After another massage (can't beat a 60-minute, $5 massage), dinner was very nice and relatively inexpensive at Touich, rated #1 on Tripadvisor. Anne got the fried shrimp and salt-encrusted red snapper - I went with the calamari and then mixed grill.

We returned home early and went to bed in advance fo our early morning trip.[Our tour guide -  Nei, we decided he was much more a professional photographer than tour guide, but still fine]

monkey!!!

Burr and I had the best day!!! I never want to leave because you get served so easily and cheaply. Its amazing.

For example....Burr wanted to see the temples at sunrise (note 5am departure). It was pouring but our tuk tuk driver still showed up and drove us there and back for a total of $3. After I had a pedi/mani for $20 (there were cheaper, but I was scared). Then we each took a 2 hour long cooking class and made 2 apps, 2 mains, and 2 desserts for $10. After this we had our complimentary hotel massages (1 hour each). Then I did a bit of shopping in the market, we got some beers ($3 total) and dinner ($12). So all in all we spent the equivalent of a taxi ride home from work in London! Everyone here is very nice, but unfortunately very poor,. There are lots of beggers, LOTS! Burr is always nice at first – then an hour later is giving them his mean face – haha.



So our cooking class was spectacular. I learned to make friend spring rolls (Note – never eat these, they are literally oil, oil, and some butter – ick!) . Burr learned to make fresh spring rolls with pork and shrimp and these were awesome! I am totally taking this recipe back to CLT. Next main courses, mine was Cambodia Soup and his was chicken amok (sans peanuts). The amok was spicy but very good – like a curry. And the soup was amazing.....full of flavor like lemongrass and pineapple. For dessert we had pumpkin and banana desserts which were pretty much tapioca, coconut milk, and sugar – who wouldn’t like it?! So watch out friends, fresh spring rolls and soup are in the cards for our first dinner guests!



A couple funny signs we saw today

“HEIGHT SPEED INTERNET” – this was listed underneath and avert for a hotel, obviously they meant HIGH SPEED...hahah



“DEEPING SAUCES” is what was written on our cooking instructions instead of DIPPING sauces...made me laugh.



Tomorrow its up early again, 7am and headed to the airport. We are going to spend 1 night in Bangkok – planning on going to a yoga class and grabbing drinks at some tall building :-) After that its on to Chiang Mai.



If you cannot tell, we are having an amazing time!!!



love you

A and B



PS – gotta give credit, Burr wrote half this blog!

Cooking class

cute banana leaf bowl...gotta learn where to buy banana leafs back home

yummy coconut water!

OUR SAFARI ADVENTURE

The safari…..ahhhh….literally a trip of a lifetime. I loved every second of it!!!


We flew into the Hoedspriut airport. Well more like a airstrip. The “Airport” was all outdoors and the baggage claim was a trailer behind a tractor. We got our luggage and met our driver, “GREAT” – yes his name was Great, he even spelled it for us. I told him that was awesome.
We drove for about 30 minutes to the Thornybush main lodge and then our tracker, Celebrate picked us up. Yes, again his name is Celebrate….so now we have met Great and Celebrate. I’m thinking we are going to have to change our names to Awesome and Magnificent by the end of the trip. Thornybush is the name of the Game Reserve and there are about 9 different lodges/luxury tents/mini-hotels to stay at. The one we choose was named “Serdonella.” So, Celebrate drove us to Serondella in a land rover, an open land rover – no doors, no windshield, no roof just the wind in your face (and sometimes branches/trees/thorns!). We drove past a white rhino and her baby and a giraffe just on the way to the lodge.
Upon entering the gates of Serondella we were greeted by the entire staff (about 7 people) all in a semi-circular and banging on the drums. I have to say this part was quite embarrassing, as we felt like King and Queen….but at the same time I would be fine with such a greeting all the time (please note this). Serondella has 3 small houses and 1 main house. So Burr and I shared one of the small houses. And when I say small, I mean bigger than our London flat. The bathroom was huge and the entire wall looked out into the forest, so you can sit in the bath/shower and look at the animals! The rooms were gorgeous, but there are

1. No clocks

2. No television

3. No locks – yes there was a safe, but we didn’t even use it.
They said they never have a problem with stealing and everyone goes in and out of the rooms so no worries without a lock. There was however, a large EMERGENCY button….in case of emergencies (i.e. Lion in bedroom) thankfully there were no lions in our room, but our friends had a baboon get into theirs! AH!
So our first ride out we get into the land rover with our ranger (Ben) and tracker (Celebrate) and the rest of the crew – 1 family of 5 and 1 other couple. *
*Side Note – the Mom of the family was my Aunt Missy to a tee. Literally I could not stop staring at her and giggling, because she was always laughing, just like Missy! She told funny stories and had her kids laughing consistently. Later, we came to find out they were on a Make a Wish trip for her eldest son, who needed a heart transplant. Thank you Make a Wish for sending the family to Serondella!
So we jump in the land rover and we are off, really fast. Ben tells burr and I sorry but we are on mission to find a Leopard! I think really?! I didn’t even know about the leopards. We shortly find this beautiful leopard hiding in bushes, we stare at him for a while and take lots of pictures. Its actually quite terrifying to be so close to those animals without any barrier (i.e. fence) between you….but mind you there is a huge rifle that Ben has in a case on the dashboard and Celebrate has a machete ….but I am thinking this leopard can eat me way faster than we can get that gun out of the case!
After the leopard Ben says he has another surprise for us….and we go through the bushes, bounce around, ducking branches, to find….a mama cheetah and her 4 babies!!! AHHHH I am in heaven they are sooooo cute….playing with each other. They are really furry and super cute, not as “chic” as the leopard, way more huggable…later on in the trip I name the cheetahs (Chester and Lilly – Dad and Mom, and there 4 babies, Cheesy, Nessy, Sneezy, and Wheezy – I decided that poor Sneezy and Wheezy have bad allergies….hey we were in the car for a long time, we had to entertain ourselves!) Then we found a huge male lion that it just like the one on the LION KING!!! We spend the next hour about 10 feet from a male lion and just listen to him roar and follow up down the road (We will post a video of the roar – but heart stops beating every time I heard it, terrifyingly loud, oh and his name was Simba…of course….and a couple days later we found Nala)…..now this was our first safari….sometimes people leave Thornybush without seeing a leopard, cheetah, or a lion…so we had an amazing first trip to say the least. We had another 5 trips after that. We went twice a day. In the morning they woke you at 5:30 for a ride from about 6am to 9am. Then again from 3:30 to 6:30. In the middle of the rides we slept, did yoga, watched animals from the porch, read, chilled by the pool, chatted, etc.

The second night we were staying there Justine (the front of the house or woman in charge) made Burr and I a special candlelight dinner on our balcony! IT was amazing. She brought us each course plated, and had a placemat, champagne, etc. just for the 2 us. The other nights and meals you eat at 1 table with the other guest and just mingle.
We did meet one family of 3 we will be going to visit in Australia!! The O’Day’s they own a winery called Dionysus and we cannot wait to go and try their 9 varieties  Unfortunately, it’s a bit difficult to get it shipped to the states….I already asked.
We will try to post pictures…but right now I am depressed that we left Serondella and all our new friends…it was just so unbelievable and I hope everyone can go. Trip of a lifetime and much much more than we imagined it would be.

MUST GO ON SAFARI ASAP!!!

Hello everyone!

Just arrived in J'burg for a quick stopover. Wanted to let you know we had an AMAZING time in the "Bush" as they call it. We saw lions, leopards, elephants, giraffes, cheetahs, rhinos, hippos, buffalo, wildabeasts, antelope, and many many others.

Anne's Fav: The Giraffe fight - don't worry we got it all on video - sooo funny

Burr's Fav: Being 7 feet away from the Lion when he ROARED....amazingly loud.

We unforunately don't have much time for a proper post or anyway to upload pics but wanted to let you know to save your money and go to safari ASAP!

LOVE YOU
A and B