The Plan B Adventure

We have been a bit deliquent in our reports to the outside world due to multiple beach visits and more than unreliable internet connections. We are happy to recant some of our experiences as we finish a great two week stay in Cambodia and enjoy our first week in the southern half of Vietnam.

So we start with a great time in the capital city of Phnom Penh. Although a bit under-developed from an infrastructure standpoint, this city has a lot to offer. The Cambodian people are tremendously welcoming and enjoy practicing their English much more than the other nationalities we’ve encounterd. We opted for a few days here seeing the national sites (Silver Pagoda and National Palace) as well as educating ourselves on the brutal leadership of the Khmer Rouge and their notorious impact on all things Cambodian. Then to lighten things up we decided to take another cooking class and then head off to the beach before the short bus ride to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) and the wonderful world of Vietnam.

The national sites were entertaining for an afternoon as we got to see the Silver Pagoda, a shrine that has flooring completely made from silver plates and the National Palace, which houses many of the National arts, relics, and treasures. We allocated these sites about our normal museum time of 2-3 hours. Just enough time to round out our educational need and short enough not to burn us out on other museums to come.

The education we received at Tuol Sleng High School was nothing short of frightening. Tuol Sleng’s other name is Prison S-21 and was used as a torture facility during the violent reign of the Khmer Rouge. Many of you might be familiar with this atrocious regime, yet as infants during the time we had no idea of the severe impact Pol Pot and his group of cronies had on an entire generation of Cambodians. Let us rephrase that….three generations and still counting. As with any facility like S-21, Dachau, Auschwitz, and those secret CIA prisons the time spent there is educational but sickening. We won’t go off on a tirade against war atrocities (as we will once we get to Vietnam) but understanding the dramatic impact this regime had was an eye-opening experience for us both.

In order to lighten up the scene we opted to stop by Psar Russei (The Russian Market) and support the local economy as well as sign up for an introduction to Cambodian cooking for the following day. Good choice….not only did we learn to make our own curry pastes, Fish Amok, and a wonderful banana leaf-wrapped dessert, but we met two Cambodians indicative of the past, present, and future of the country.

This class was different from the 10-20 person classes in Thailand as it was us plus two others. This allowed for a slower pace, longer relishing of our creations, and more intimate conversations. Chanton was our teacher in both Cambodian life and Cambodian food. She is a 50 year old Khmer Rouge survivor whom escaped to a Thai border camp for over 10 years. She has five lovely kids (yes, she has pictures) and works as a chef at Frizz as well as a teacher for Frizz-sponsored cooking classes. As she taught us the in and outs of Fish Amok she also was open to our prying questions about her history and present-day Cambodia through the eyes of a survivor. These are the conversations you relish and Chanton had a dramatic impact on both of us. (As a side note – her 18 year-old son is graduating from high school this year and hopes to go to college…if you are in Phnom Penh stop by and support her at Frizz as she works towards helping him with his $400USD/year college tuition) The present and future we met was Vannak. He is a 21 year old college student in Phnom Penh whom joined the cooking class in order to develop the skills to woo his English girlfriend. (Just kidding Vannak, we know she loves you for more than your cooking!!)  We were all (including Chanton) extremely impressed with Vannak. At 21, he is going to school, working, and donating his time at local NGOs supporting Cambodia’s youth. These two exemplify the spirit and fortitude of Cambodians nationwide and helped to inspire the two of us.

After a fabulous Mexican fiesta (margaritas included) at The Cantina we went to bed early, not knowing what to expect as we headed the next morning for Vietnam. At this point we must mentally prepare ourselves for the unknown at least before the head hits the pillow. What a welcome surprise when we left on time (Thanks SaPaCo), passed through customs and immigration with ease (is this really Vietnam?) and sailed down the bumpy road to the Jewel of The Orient, Saigon!!

Ahh…..out of the hustle and bustle of Bangkok!! We are now in the quiet Northern Thailand city of Chiang Mai. As our guidebook recommended we splurged for $25/day on a room at the Montri Hotel. Very nice and very centrally located in the old city part of Chiang Mai. The city has a population of over a million yet it feels like a quarter of that. As we’ve seen in much of Thailand there are many more tourists compared to China but people are extremely nice and courteous to the local Thais….well I guess that can’t be said for the old single men travelling alone (if you know what I mean) but at least they are spending their $$$ here.

As we stepped off the plane with our new friends, Stephen and Melissa, we decided to pick up a local songthaew (pickup w/benches in the back) and split a ride downtown to our hotels. Our tickets from Bangkok to Chiang Mai were under $50 each so we decided to splurge on the transportation for a whopping 50 baht ($1.10USD). The cost of things is something we knew was going to be inexpensive but once you are immersed in it, the idea of how cheap things are really sinks in….Of course we are trying to make up for this by properly (yet still within the local scale) compensating drivers and guides for what they do. It is shocking to see yourself get caught up negotiating with a tuk-tuk driver between 30 and 40 baht when the monetary difference to your pocket is less than 10 cents. There is another interesting conundrum we have noticed and begun discussing with other travellers. It is the issue of letting your defense mechanism down enough to enjoy the local people and their advice. After our ride from the airport and stopping off at our hotel we made our way down the street to a gorgeous wat (Buddhist Temple) at closing time. As we were entering, I (Jeff) began talking with a local guy and he began to offer advice, ideas, etc……We are both extremely open to meeting new people and adhering to some of their recommendations but letting your guard down enough to enjoy the conversation and not believe they have ulterior motives is not always easy. Our solution: being just as interested in their lives as they are in ours. This leads to legitimizing their curiousity and helps us to acclimate with others better. The gentlemen, Pui, at Wat Prasingh, happened to be an electrical engineer at the Singha Brewery in Bangkok and was in Chiang Mai for the big Flower Festival and vacation. He comes to Chiang Mai quite often to escape Bangkok and enjoyed sharing with us where the locals shop, eat, and how to catch the best of the monk activities at the local Wats. In addition he recommended we go see Doi Suthep, the famous Wat on the mountain, where the sacred white elephant found its final resting (story is a bit more involved) place over 600 years ago. We loved it!!! After meeting Pui and listening to the monks chant for over 40 minutes we ran into a local Thai history teacher on the way out. He confirmed our comfort with Poon’s recommendations and offered some others….Amazing what you can experience when you learn to consciously trust others. This doesn’t mean we are losing our “big-city” skepticism and will become extremely naive, it really means that we want to be more open in accepting people’s generosity and experience the world for what it has to offer.

Ok….so enough about our travelling philosophy and back to the adventure. We ended up meeting Stephen and Melissa for a great dinner that night and ending the night sauntering through the local night bazaar. Now this is an open message to all…..things are ridiculously cheap here, so much so, that if you can afford a ticket to Thailand (not that much) we can point you in the direction of things you buy at home (silk pillow covers, wooden teak furniture, knock-off watches, tailored clothes) for a tenth of the price. Seriously……I don’t think Westerners are meant to see these things as they will never pay full price at home again. Unfortunately, we can’t tote too much around with us and are attempting to keep our budget controlled so shopping is a frustrating experience for us (Jeff especially)….HAHA.

What has been our solution….purchase the things that can be digested (or sometimes not) and enjoy a filling meal for under 5 dollars. Unbelieveable…..the cuisine has go to be one of our favorite characteristics of Thailand and we are making it the full experience. After getting up on the 2nd day in Chiang Mai and visiting some of the local sights we wandered down the streets of the local Anniversary market and here’s a sample of what Jeff (don’t be jealous, Russell) took in:

1. Pad Thai (10Baht = 25 Cents)
2. Fried Sweet Pumpkin Fries (10 Baht = 25 Cents)
3. Grilled Sticky Rice (5 Baht = really cheap)
4. 3 Pork Dumplings (10 Baht = 25 cents)
5. Glass of Fanta Orange (5 Baht = even cheaper)
6. Palm Sugar Donuts (10 Baht = 25 Cents)

Yes….Jeff might become extremely large in SE Asia by the looks of this meal, but he just couldn’t stop…….Becca was much more conservative with her waistline effect and had the local Chiang Mai speciality, Kaow Soi Gai, brown curry chicken soup with yellow noodles (20 baht), but she also got a brown skirt (160 Baht = 4 dollars).

We know….the food is great so why not learn how to make some. That is just what we did at the highly-recommended Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School. The class (on their website, we took Class #1)in from 10am – 4pm and cost $25….unbelieveable!!! We showed up promptly after watching the big, local Flower Festival parade and were whisked off to the market for some research. Here we learned about rice vs bean noodles, different local veggies, and, most imporant, how Thais obtain there fish meat!!! After picking up some ingredients we went back to “slave” in the kitchen. Before each dish we would sit down with our resident chef, Roond, (Em….she really knows how to handle her kitchen, you’d approve!!!) and learn how to build the dish….then we would prep our ingredients and begin to cook. After each meal we would get to enjoy the fruits of our labor and a little chat with the others, then back up for more cooking and more eating. Check out the pics of all our eats on the Flickr site. This is something we BOTH really enjoyed and will have to become a regular budgetary item while on the road!!!

Well…this has taken a while to upload pics and document our adventures. We are off to share a Chang Beer and play some Cribbage….We leave for Chiang Dao and the Nest tomorrow so stay tuned for our elephant adventures and Becca’s first day of pampering.