Sticky rice mountain

Winter and the dry season and the dead rice in the mountaintop fields.

Luang Prabang province, Laos.

More than that

Photo: Thatched bamboo house with rice straw roof in a Khmu village, Luang Prabang province, Laos.

I associate the song "Guess How Much I Love You" by the Lucksmiths with being twenty and being in love, and finding any separation at all an ominous, painful gulf. But when I was compiling my travel playlist it felt rather appropriate too.

I bought a postcard
I'm getting close but
I haven't got around to it yet
I know I said I'd write
And maybe I might

It's harႈd to pull together all the threads while travelling, hard to live in the moment and also get to all those things that need doing. Sometimes I feel like all I can think about are obstacles; and things to feel anxious about; and the moments spent waiting for something to happen, as if all the day is nothing but in-between time.

On the map the gap's three fingers
But it's more than that
More than that

Distances can seem so incalculably large when you look at two points, if all you think of is the gulf between them. But travelling this way, roaming over the surface of the earth and finding the familiar in so many previous unknowns, I find myself thinking of it the other way around. It's not gaps any more, but just so much more space to be filled, so much more possibility.

Lyrics.

Found in translation

Photo: Mekong river weed (khai pen) drying in the sunset on a plastic rice sack, Ban Xangthong, Laos.

I never get tired of coincidental links between languages - they may not have any meaning, but it's enough that they are funny. When I was taking a massage course in Chiang Mai this past week, they were careful to impress upon us the reason why Thai massages might start out too strong for us, and then just get more and more painful.

It turns out that "ow" in Thai means "more"! So the more you exclaim over the pain, the more it will hurt you...

On a related note, aroy means delicious in Thai. There was a saamlaw (motorcycle trailer/sidecar thing) driving around the neighbourhood yesterday with a recording going "aroy aroy!" (I think it was selling ice cream - something tasty anyhow). I was walking with two Filipinos, who burst into laughter. It turns out that "aroy" is the Tagalog equivalent of "ouch!"

Perspective

Long corridor open to the air at the temple of Bayon, Angkor Thom.

Kaya toast

The national breakfast of Singapore, minus the sweet milky coffee. Kaya toast is soft white bread toasted, then split right down the middle of the slice. Each bread half is spread thickly with butter and coconut jam (kaya) before being clapped back together. It no doubt gives Singporeans all the energy they need for a busy day of working, shopping, and more eating!

Mudra

Apsara caught in the middle of a dance, Angkor Wat.

Tremulous green

Tender young shoots of rice in the mountains, Luang Prabang province, Laos.

Colonial legacies

Rose and building.

River weed & satellite dish

The essentials of life.

River weed from the Mekong is harvested to make the local treat khai pen. Here it's drying, having been spread in thin sheets with sesame seeds, tomato, and garlic. In Ban Xangthong outside of Luang Prabang, Laos.

Kin khao?

I spent about four hours uploading photos today, over a slow connection. So my reward is going to be posting a photo of what I had for lunch!

A perfectly seasoned plate of stir-fried local veggies, tofu, and egg over rice. It was made to order and given to me steaming hot, with ice water in a little aluminium cup to refresh me. And it was just the right amount of chile to make my mouth tingle all over with the delicious flavour, without ever overwhelming the other flavours or starting to hurt. Aroy!

Khao niaow

Sticky rice steams over a charcoal fire in a clay pot. Outside a cafe along the Nam Khan river, Luang Prabang.

O RLY

I love the knowing look in this chick's eye. Photographed in a Hmong village near Luang Prabang, Laos.

Sihn in Laos

Please forgive the obscure pun, which I could not resist. Sihn are Lao-style skirts, the local sarong equivalent. They are basically a large tube of fabric with two sets of hooks, attached on the inside at one hip, and on the outside at the other. They are incredibly practical to wear, given that they are loose enough to give total freedom of movement, but keep you covered as wraparound skirts sometimes fail to do. (Apparently lots of styles of sarong are like this too, though I have mostly seen the kind that you just tie around yourself.) And women in Laos - at least the women I saw in Luang Prabang - wear sihn daily. They are the girls' school uniform, and they are worn by market women and women working in travel agencies and cafes and even in the fields and rivers.

Nothing I've said so far, however, reveals the incredible glory of Lao weaving. Even though many of the sihn around are mass-produced machine fabric, the traditional patterns and colours are marvellous. As for the hand-woven textiles, in ikat (locally mat mii) and supplementary weft...well, words fail.

Suffice it to say that I fell in love with sihn (and don't want to mention how many I acquired in my brief time in Laos), but I am not the only one, as this streetsign shows. Apparently the default human who crosses here wears a sihn and her hair in a bun...

Moment of enlightenment

I read that statues of the reclining Buddha depict him at the moment of his enlightenment. This, the famous reclining Buddha at Wat Pho, is possibly the most beautiful Buddha in all of Thailand - and that is saying something.

When I visited Wat Pho, I was still in that new-to-Thailand state of excitement everytime I saw an orange-robed monk (you do see quite a few of them here, so it wears off a little). So I was especially pleased to see several young monks in their orange robes and their orange shoulder bags, posing in turn for digital camera photos at Buddha's feet! (The surprise wears off at that too, after your thousandth glimpse of a monk on a mobile phone, or of very young boy monks in internet cafes with enormous headphones on.)

As if the giant golden Buddha were not enough, the walls of the temple are also covered in intricate paintings telling legends (jataka? but I thought I saw Ramayana-inspired paintings). And in the wider temple complex there are some beautiful mosaic-covered chedis (stupas), which I didn't see anywhere else.

It's not possible to convey the immensity and loveliness of Wat Pho or of this Buddha in a single photograph - just go, go, go see for yourselves.

Rice fields of Bali

Calling the earth to witness

Buddha is subduing Mara, temptation, illusion, in the old Thai city of Sukhothai.

There are so many distractions while travelling - so much for the senses to take in and discard, so much that is unfamiliar that it overwhelms.

It isn't a bad thing, then, to have so many reminders here of that still point, a way to be alive to the world without being overwhelmed by it.

Not that I'm exactly resisting all earthly temptations, myself...

Hot sunny lazy afternoon

Calls for ice cream!

Here, a Singapore-style ice cream sandwich. When you order it, the vendor pulls out a solid block of ice cream and slices off a fat rectangle, then pats it delicately between two crisp thin wafers much smaller than the frozen sweet.

I ordered yam, and it was a delicate purple, light, icy, not overly sweet, so refreshing with the crunchy bits of wafer a textural relief. The wonder is only that I didn't order a second one.

Things I'll miss

This helpful photo taken inside the "five-star" toilet in the Angkor Thom temple complex, Siem Reap, Cambodia.

You might think of fresh mangoes and tropical sun, but for some reason I started thinking about all the little things that are strange at first, and then quickly after taken for granted. How strange it will be to get back to a place where a shower isn't just a drain in the bathroom floor! Eating with a knife and fork instead of fork and spoon.

My first thought, though, will probably be, "where are all the chickens?"

Banana fritter

They come in lots of shapes, sizes, and seasonings, but banana fritters are a South-East Asian constant. Here, at the lovely market in Vinh Long, in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam.

Acclimatisation

If I was wondering how much I'd adjusted to the tropical climate (besides thinking that snow seemed an impossibly distant, abstract concept), I got some confirmation last night. I thought to myself that my room seemed a little bit warm. Then I looked at the thermostat and it was 34C!

By the time the fan had got it down to 26C I was happily curled up under the covers...

The playlist: revisited

I've just passed the halfway point in my trip and in honour of this milestone I wanted to revisit my original idea for the blog focus - my travel playlist. To date, I've only written the initial post, but with a few months left I might still manage to get the better part of it in.

The night before I left I managed to put some of the songs up to be listened to, but to my frustration I could only get about half the playlist on there. More frustratingly, it's a skewed half that cuts out nearly everything that wasn't in English (half the list) and even some of the less popular anglo stuff. Furthermore, now that I'm in a different region, I can't actually see what's there and what isn't. So I thought I'd start by posting the entire list all together, then continue with individual posts on the songs as I go.

Without further ado:

1. KYOTO, Polémil Bazar
2. BARCELONE, Jean Leloup
3. GO PLACES, The New Pornographers
4. BRIDGES AND BALLOONS, Joanna Newsom
5. SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO?, The Clash
6. DESPIDIDA DE IMMIGRANTE, Cesaria Evora
7. SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW/WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
8. CITY OF THE DAMNED, The Gothic Archies
9. NICOTINE & GRAVY, Beck
10. MY WANDERING DAYS ARE OVER, Belle & Sebastian
11. NANTES, Beirut
12. PARADIS PERDU, Jean Leloup
13. THE LEGIONNAIRE'S LAMENT, The Decemberists
14. TIENS-TOÉ BIEN J'ARRIVE, Diane Dufresne
15. J'ERRE, Dumas
16. THE LADY IS A TRAMP, Ella Fitzgerald
17. READING IN BED, Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton
18. ALL WE HAVE IS NOW, The Flaming Lips
19. JET SET...GO!, The Guild League
20. AMSTERDAM, Jacques Brel
21. JULY, JULY!, The Decemberists
22. VOYAGER, Jean Leloup
23. LA TRAVERSÉE, Les Colocs
24. COME BACK FROM SAN FRANCISCO, The Magnetic Fields
25. GREEN ROCKY ROAD, Kate & Anna McGarrigle
26. CLAM, CRAB, COCKLE, COWRIE, Joanna Newsom
27. PAPA WAS A RODEO, Kelly Hogan & the Pine Valley Cosmonauts
28. SHOREBIRD, Kim Barlow
29. THAT TEENAGE FEELING, Neko Case
30. J'Y SUIS JAMAIS ALLÉ, Yann Tiersen
31. VOILA L'ÉTÉ, Les négresses vertes
32. I'M SO FREE, Lou Reed
33. GUESS HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU, The Lucksmiths
34. CALIFORNIA (ALL THE WAY), Luna
35. ALL THE UMBRELLAS IN LONDON, The Magnetic Fields
36. WALKING SONG, Kate & Anna McGarrigle
37. JE SUIS PARTI, Jean Leloup
38. CARRY ME, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
39. DESAPARECIDO, Manu Chao
40. TODAY IS A GOOD DAY, MC Solaar
41. LAND DOWN UNDER, Men at Work
42. MUTINY, I PROMISE YOU, The New Pornographers
43. PAR REVE, Misia
44. RACING LIKE A PRO, The National
45. WORLD IS SPINNING AT 45 RPM, Pizzicato Five
46. THIS TORNADO LOVES YOU, Neko Case
47. MYRIAD HARBOUR, The New Pornographers
48. THE GET GO, New Young Pony Club
49. THERE SHE GOES, MY BEAUTIFUL WORLD, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
50. COLD COLD GROUND, Tom Waits
51. LE VENT NOUS PORTERA, Noir Désir
52. UN HOMME À LA MER, Stéfie Shock
53. FADO DO RETORNO I, Misia
54. VIA CON ME, Paolo Conte
55. CHICAGO, Sufjan Stevens
56. KIMBERLY, Patti Smith
57. ALL AROUND THE WORLD OR THE MYTH OF FINGERPRINTS, Paul Simon
58. WHERE IS MY MIND, The Pixies
59. I'M GONNA BE (500 MILES), The Proclaimers
60. WALK UNAFRAID, R.E.M.
61. LIFE ON MARS?, Seu Jorge
62. GENOVA PER NOI, Paolo Conte
63. WEIRD DIVIDE, The Shins
64. IS IT REALLY SO STRANGE?, The Smiths
65. TOXIC HOLIDAY, Stars
66. LE DÉCOR, Stéfie Shock
67. SEVEN SWANS, Sufjan Stevens
68. ISTANBUL, They Might Be Giants
69. SINGAPORE, Tom Waits
70. ASK, The Smiths,
71. EVOLVER, Veda Hille
72. MON AMOUR TOKYO, Pizzicato Five
73. ISLAND IN THE SUN, Weezer
74. SEVEN NATION ARMY, The White Stripes
75. THE STATE THAT I AM IN, Belle & Sebastian
76. ADVENTURES IN SOLITUDE, The New Pornographers
    

The Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha

Temples in Thailand have tripartite roofs to represent the threefold refuge of the Buddha, the Dharma (teaching) and the Sangha (community of monks).

Some, like this one at Wat Pho in Bangkok, have threefold upon threefold roofs...stunning and quite different from the other temples I had seen.

Fishing and courting

Cambodian folkdance in Siem Reap.

Coffee and frangipani

Here photographed in Cambodia, and everywhere else I've been in South-East Asia.

I'm now in Laos where the flower is proudly emblazoned everywhere as a national symbol - and where the coffee is completely delicious.

Thai temple painting

Thai temples are full of life in so many ways. Not only are they full of worshippers at any time of day (especially around New Year's), but the walls are full of paintings, the paintings full of people dancing, walking, eating, gossiping, fighting, meditating.

Heart of palm

More homecooking in Saigon - fresh heart of palm, with water spinach and rice.

I was already a fan of canned heart of palm, but this was a whole other creature. Much firmer though not tough, a little fibrous, and with a rich, subtly sweet, slightly coconutty taste. Truly delicious.

Now I'm looking forward to trying South American style fresh heart of palm for comparison's sake...someday.

Ca phe sua

Delicious, strong Vietnamese coffee filtering down into the condensed milk below.

Inner Sanctum

The head temple of the Cao Dai sect in Vietnam. They favour eyes, lotuses, and revere Victor Hugo as one of the three great spirits bringing us messages from the world beyond. In Tay Ninh province, Vietnam.

Chinese parsley

Just one of 12 different herbs served to us in a heaping pile with our banh canh breakfast in Tay Ninh province, the western edge of Vietnam. Sitting on an unusual, delicious opaque rice paper wrapper.

Unexpected work opportunities

An impromptu position as simultaneous interpreter of silent-film title cards, from French to English. The subject, a decades-old 8mm film of Laurel and Hardy, projected onto the wall in the front room.

Hu tieu chay

One of our last homecooked meals in Saigon was this delicious vegetarian version of hu tieu, the pho of the South.

Vrrrrooom

Standing still on Saigon's busy streets, everything blurs past you, from yoke-bearing street vendors to the many many motorbikes.

Banh dap muc

Grilled squidlet dips a languid tentacle in the nuoc mam, contemplates making a break for it from its bed of crisp rice cracker and lettuce, at our favourite banh xeo place, tucked in a little alley of Hai Ba Trung, Quan 1, HCMC.

Sawatdee Pii Mai

Happy New Year from Thailand!!

But the incense was actually burning in Hanoi, Vietnam, at the Temple of Literature.