I'll take "potpourri" for $800, Alex

A few things that are rattling around, still to be said:

• There's something kind of disturbing about the constant refrain of tuk-tuk drivers in Phnom Penh coming up and saying "Killing Fields?!" They say it over and over again - Killing Fields? Killing Fields? It feels like walking the streets in Germany somewhere and having Jews come up and say Holocaust?! Holocaust?! It's unsettling, and I know it's a tourist destination, the main Killing Fields memorial site, and I know it's immediate and often personal history, and I know it's just a shorthand, and I know it's no different than saying "National Museum?" or any other destination, but it unsettles me every single time. I'm not sure how to feel when I say no. What I want to do is stop, and look at the person and tell him I'm so sorry that this horrible thing happened to them. Then I realized that if I'm talking to someone in his mid- to late-40s, it's a bit more likely that I might be talking to someone who perpetrated the crimes than someone who survived them, since so few did survive. Complicated.

• For the most part (except on our return to Phnom Penh, curiously), vendors and tuk-tuk drivers have been remarkably low-key. They don't chase us down, they don't keep asking after we say no, etc. This was true in all of Cambodia and Laos.....except at Angkor Wat. We went to the vendor area to buy a bottle of water, and you couldn't go near it without being swarmed by kids selling postcards (look lady, see, Angkor Wat sunrise, Angkor Wat clouds, temples, see lady? you buy? One dollar, look lady...), kids trying to take you to their family's "stall" to buy food or drink, women trying to pull you this way and that, to buy food or drink. So Marc headed toward one woman to buy water -- purposely not going to the left because that woman was being too pushy -- and as he paid for the bottle of water, the pushy woman started screaming at him: "You don't keep your word! You bad person!" I guess this is the intersection of a constant flood of tourists and great need.

• Cambodia is always described as one of the poorest countries in SE Asia, and I think Laos is considered poorer. In southern Cambodia, everywhere we looked we saw people with at least a couple of cows, a few pigs, a bunch of chickens, and fields of rice. Curiously, we didn't see cows in Laos, though on our trip out to the waterfalls we did see a couple of chickens here and there.

• In Laos, the word for hello is sabaidee (sah-bye-deeeeeeee), and it's always said with a smile and with palms pressed together and held at your chest, like the namaste pose. It's an all-purpose word, I think - it means hello, good morning, welcome, all those concepts. When we'd go to breakfast at our restaurant in Luang Prabang, the young women who worked there (one nametag:  Mrs. Chit, waitress) would stop whatever they were doing, turn to face us fully, and place their hands together and give us a full sabaidee. I started doing the same thing and it felt really amazing - not just a mindless hi in passing, not really paying attention, but a real stop and look and acknowledge. I enjoyed every sabaidee given and received in Laos.

• Our dinner last night at K'Nyay was absolutely amazing, and I hope Marc can replicate it when we get home. We had sweet corn fritters for an appetizer - the kernels were giant, and the batter holding them together was very light and crispy, and I could've eaten them til the cows come home. We each got char kreung - mine with chicken and Marc's with shrimp - and the sauce was so spicy it left our lips and tongue stinging for a long, long time. They were served with a wild rice mixture that was perfectly chewy and nutty and stood up to the rest of the meal. We actually got dessert, which we don't usually do; I got banana fritters (served with a small scoop of ginger ice cream) and Marc got pumpkin coconut parcels, which were delicate and subtle and really delicious. I really wished my camera had been working, the food was beautiful and wonderful. We may go back there tonight, for our last dinner in Cambodia.

For our last two days in Phnom Penh, we're staying in a tiny little hotel - the Blue Lime - down an alley behind the Royal Palace. If it weren't for the loud construction project going on all day long next door, this would be a nearly perfect place to stay. I love the decor - it fits my aesthetic and makes me happy - and it's certainly reasonable. Our first of two nights we had a regular room, but tonight, our last night, we got a room with a private pool....for $75/night. Want to see?

looking out our bedroom window, at our pool

standing outside at our pool's edge, looking back into our room. COOL!

this is the main pool for the hotel - not bad either, but the noise is a bit too much

For a bit of sightseeing this morning, we walked to Wat Phnom, which is the namesake wat for this town. According to legend, a woman named Penh found 4 Buddha relics in this area, and took them to this phnom (which means hill...it's the highest point in town) and this wat was built. Anyway - big, wat-ey, and interesting.

this elephant is available for people to ride around the wat

there was a small bunch of monkeys hanging around

and here it is, Wat Phnom.

So we leave Phnom Penh tomorrow, Saturday at 11 something in the morning, for the 2.5 hour flight to Hong Kong. We leave Hong Kong around 5-something pm (still Saturday) and we land in JFK at 8pm (still Saturday). After flying for 16 hours (just the Hong Kong-JFK part). That always blows my mind and confuses me a little too much.

breakfasts in Vientiane

Yesterday Marc and I had breakfast in the hotel - we usually do that, it comes free with the room and why not. Usually the breakfasts are at least ok, and often they're wonderful, especially in tropical places. But yesterday morning, we were sitting in the unremarkable restaurant of our unremarkable hotel, sipping our brilliantly orange 'juice' and it hit us both at the same time. We've tasted this before...........tang! Yes, in this semi-tropical place, with fresh fruit on every corner, we were drinking tang. And we suspect the eggs were of the powdered variety, given their texture and color. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, and free or not, I didn't want to waste any more vacation breakfasts on such bad food. (Oh, and Laos is known for its coffee -- the coffee in our hotel was bad instant. Not even good instant. Bad. Instant.)

So this morning we decided to go to a nearby bakery, which was highly rated in Lonely Planet and on TripAdvisor. Really, very highly rated, like, almost #1 in both places. And they said things like "you could eat every meal here and still want more." So off to Joma Bakery we went, this morning, in keen anticipation. (Well, I went in keen anticipation, seeing as how I love breakfast. Marc, not so much with the breakfast.) Granted, we've gotten used to having piles of amazing food that ends up costing us a couple of bucks. OK, we're in that context right now. But what we got this morning was (a) unremarkable, and (b) at New York prices. Too bad. And last night we stopped at the other highly-rated and always listed bakery, Scandinavian Bakery, for donuts. (Donuts seem to be a favorite Lao sweet, and what do you know: they're a favorite Lori sweet too.) Again, the context, really cheap amazing food. And again, unremarkable food at NY prices. The donuts were about $1 each. I KNOW!

We just returned from a dusty, bouncy ride out to Buddha Park - a bizarre, freakish, Disneyland of eastern religion iconography. As soon as I fix the photos, I'll post.

eating out in Luang Prabang

Thank heavens Marc remembered that our little video camera can also take still photos. They're not as good as our great camera takes, but they're certainly better than nothing! Last night we ate in the food market and didn't take pictures, so we ran through tonight to get a few shots so we could remember our wonderful time with street food in Luang Prabang:

it's a very crowded scene - tables and food on both sides of the narrow alley. and LOTS of people!

buffet style: you buy a regular plate (about $1) or a large plate (about $1.25), then you help yourself to this huge spread of food. and it's ALL DELICIOUS.

the ever-present Beer Lao, and a groaning board of dishes

all kinds of grilled food - fresh fish from the Mekong, and chicken, and pork

So you get your food, and find an empty spot at a picnic table. On the tables are containers filled with chopsticks, and empty glasses for your Beer Lao, and a roll of toilet paper to use as a napkin. It was really a great experience, and I'm so glad we did it. Eating in Luang Prabang was fabulous.

on the main street are fruit shake vendors. you select your cup with whatever fruit you want (the three times we got shakes, Marc got banana-mango, banana-pineapple, and papaya, and I always got coffee-oreo) and they blend it while you wait. the vendors are all lined up, and we always went back to the same grouchy lady -- not this smiling one in the picture. the shakes are about 60 cents.

I'm really going to miss this town. Tomorrow around 2pm we fly off to Vientiane, but in the morning we plan to get up really early to walk into town to witness the silent alms rounds of the monks.

Lao food and our hotel

More lemongrass, I guess that's what makes it different. But I'd have a hard time saying that Lao food is x y or z. The only thing I can say is that so far, Lao food is amazing. Last night we ate at Tamarind, this fantastic little out of the way restaurant across the street from a giant temple. As we started eating, the monks were chanting and it was surreal and wonderful. We got the set menu, which was a LOT of food, all described as typical Lao food. (And by the way, once you get to Laos and Cambodia, being here is incredibly cheap. We'll have a huge dinner and it'll be $15...for both our dinners, and that often includes a beer for me! Our hotels are quite reasonable too.) Anyway -- our dinner:

OK, I know this looks gross -- bamboo soup -- but it was AMAZING.

Marc had lemongrass-ginger tea and I had Lao coffee. AMAZING.

OK: at the bottom, lemongrass stuffed with chicken; going up on the left, peanut sauce, then fish cooked in banana leaf, then pumpkin - AMAZING, all.

that stuff on the lower right? A-MA-ZING. It's some kind of seaweed covered in sesame seeds, dried in the sun, then fried. In the spoon, chili paste, on the left side of the plate, dried buffalo (that had marinated in honey, I think); two small pork sausages at the top; in the middle, a couple more dipping sauces, the green one made of eggplant and the red one tomato. I could've eaten my weight in seaweed. It was aMAzing.

we sat on the porch, so that's the inside of the restaurant over Marc's shoulder

I had Lao Beer (the beer of wholehearted people, they say) and Marc had this incredible watermelon chili granita. It really was amazingly delicious, not like anything either of us had ever tasted. Perfectly balanced, sweet and hot.

So we were very happy with that dinner. Afterwards, we had to walk back to our hotel which involves walking on the side of a very tall bridge over the Mekong. It was harrowing in the dark, for someone like me who's afraid of heights and who trips over the design in the carpet, so clumsy. Here it is in daylight:

That's the bridge -- hope it's obvious how high it is. Scooters and bikes go on the bridge (no motorized vehicles), but if you walk, you're relegated to the outside edge:

YIKES. Uneven boards, unevenly spaced, nailheads sticking up, sure there's a rail on the side but sometimes there are just three boards, not four, and some of the boards don't look all that sturdy, and man that's a long way down to the river and don't look down just look straight ahead but I have to look down because I keep tripping if I don't....

Yeah? Here's a video -- walk over the bridge with us:




But it's SO worth it. Here's our beautiful hotel, Le Bel Air Resort, right on the banks of the Mekong River:

the edge of the grounds, at the Mekong

the cabins

and that one's ours! Cozy, right?!

hi honey!

We're loving Luang Prabang. The people could care less about us (we love it that way) - they do their thing, we do ours. Usually, the tuktuk drivers just say in a low voice "tuktuk?" and that's that. When we're in the market, the people running the stalls don't speak unless we ask a question -- no pushing, no putting things on our bodies to try to force us to buy (ahem, *cough*India) -- they're just there if we have a question. After breakfast this morning, we walked over the bridge and wandered around, back to the markets (next post on that!). I bought a small handmade bag from a Hmong* woman, as a birthday gift for a friend, and we stopped and got shakes (smoothies, really; Marc's was fruit, and mine was coffee). We stopped at a little place overlooking the river and had some lunch - fried noodles, and rice and chicken (our lunch was $6, see what I mean?!).

*You know, being an American out in the world can be really hard going because our government has been such an asshole for so long. We were just so horrible to Laos, and to the Hmong, and people are still being killed by all the unexploded bombs left in this beautiful country - bombs we take no responsibility for, because we weren't "really here at war." Quite often, we pass little groups of musicians playing local music, really beautiful, and we see that they're victims of land mines, missing limbs, and collecting money. And I get nauseous walking past them, from shame of my country. And I wanted to apologize to the Hmong woman this morning. But what does that do? Assuage my guilt for a second, not really, nothing.

crowds and fetal eggs

Phnom Penhers do love their city, and of course this makes me love them. As a Texan and a Manhattanite, I really get pride of place. When we were coming to the hotel, our cab driver said, after we told him we're from NY "Oh, that's a big city like Phnom Penh." I laughed and said yes. In Cambodia, PP is "the city."

Yesterday afternoon we walked all over the place, including locating a different hotel for our return to PP. This one is fine, and we've enjoyed the central location, but we'd heard about this other place that sounded amazing. Also, this is a giant hotel, and we tend to prefer smaller ones.

 we're on the 2nd floor, that room on the mid-corner. it's like being in the prow of a ship.

this is our room - surrounded by windows, these are just a couple. the entire wall on the left is solid windows.

So anyway, yesterday afternoon we wandered around, found (and booked) our next PP hotel, rested a bit, wandered out into the insanity of the Water Festival, and got massages. We each spent $7 for an hour-long massage - I got a foot massage and Marc got head and shoulders. We both laughed afterward; our young masseuses had no training or skill, they just kind of rubbed us, but it was ok, and at least somewhat relaxing.

For dinner, we decided to go to the Bopha Phnom Penh Restaurant; it was highly-ranked on TripAdvisor, and we'd scouted it out earlier in the day and it looked great - decks overhanging the Mekong, deep cozy chairs, nice ambiance, and they had a set menu of Khmer specialties we wanted to try. WELL. As evening fell, I swear the number of people attending the festival quadrupled. It was shoulder-to-shoulder, packed. Like Times Square on New Year's Eve. Families had spread out blankets all over the sidewalk and were eating; vendors were out in force selling food, and for the first time we saw the mounded platters of deep-fried tarantulas and grasshoppers. And another thing they eat here that I find really hard to imagine is fetal duck eggs. Here's a YouTube video - don't click play if you're squeamish:

 these egg vendors are everywhere - the bicycle with the sidecar, filled with fetal eggs.

So anyway, we navigated through incredible crowds and made our way to the restaurant. We got wonderful seats, right at the edge overlooking the river. Happy. A lovely breeze. I wanted to try Angkor Beer, but they were out so I tried a Tiger Beer (meh). Lovely. And then, after we'd ordered our food, we saw the first in a long parade of  .. gosh, I don't even know what to call them. Floats, I guess. They were on HUGE barges, and they were these intricate filigreed light displays. For the most part they didn't flash, they were just static light displays of different things, moving slowly past on the river. We're not familiar enough with the iconography to understand a lot of it, but my favorite one had a brilliant green dragon with flames coming up out of its back in a recognizable Buddhist shape. Some of them had music accompanying them on the barge, and a couple did have small bits of moving light - one, for instance, had a person with what looked like a 1950s satellite receiver thing on top of the head, sending out rays. One float was what looked like a demon. And one was clearly a city, and then one of the waiters stopped by our table and pointed and said, with enormous pride, "That's my city." I just loved that.

Anyway. They were gorgeous. One after another, after another. After a while we noticed that at some point farther up the river, they turned around and came by again, facing the other bank. I think that thing from the previous post was one of these light displays - here:

Our dinner was 2/3 great; we started with a beef and pepper salad, really great. The 2nd course was fish amok* which was an OKish curry, I don't tend to like fish curries because of the fish texture. The last course was some kind of deep-fried pineapple spring rolls that were divine.

*do you know what the word amok references? We run amok, as in "Don't you kids run amok while I'm at the store!" But amok is a Malaysian concept for a murderous frenzy, a killing spree perpetrated by an individual out of rage or resentment over perceived mistreatment. Wikipedia says the syndrome of "Amok" is found in the DSM-IV TR. Anyway, I guess the cook went all amok on the fish's ass or something. Or else amok is the curry. Whatev.

We're going down to breakfast now, and then we'll wander around some more. Our cab is picking us up at noon to drive us the 2-3 hour trip to Kep, on the coast. I'll post from Kep.

HAVING A WONDERFUL TIME. Do not want to leave. :)

food

One of the first posts on our first travel blog - the Vietnam blog called The Other Side, and the source of the name for this one - was about fried dog. Our research ahead of time suggested that fried dog was a common food, and sure enough, we did see pyramidal stacks of fried dogs in the markets in Hanoi. There was something strange about their extreme uniformity in size, as if they were farmed. Anyway. Food is an important part of our travel pleasure. (Or not.....I'm looking at you, India.) So we're anticipating the food in Cambodia and Laos, doing internet research, watching food travel programs. Anthony Bourdain, the guy who eats bizarre food, a young couple who took off for a year, all kinds of food travel programs.

If they're in Cambodia, they always feature deep-fried tarantulas. Always. Without exception. The shots are the same: lovely Cambodian women sitting in their market stalls behind large flat baskets mounded high with deep-fried tarantulas, others piled with fried grasshoppers, others with beetles. The Cambodian women smile beautifully, and then the camera shoots them crunching happily on tarantulas, with the little legs sticking out the corners of their mouths. The American tv host grimaces, gags a little, pretends to be game, and typically will not eat it. (Though they do usually agree to eat grasshoppers, I guess so they don't look like spoiled snotty Americans, or something.)

Anyway, I will not pretend to be game. I will not eat the tarantula. I will not eat the grasshoppers or beetles, either. I will not even pretend. Call me snotty, call me provincial, call me narrow-minded, I really don't care. NO.

 REALLY???

 note: i am not looking at this while typing the caption.

they're supposed to be crunchy, tasty snacks. I'll never know.