That would be the Chiang Mai --> Chiang Khong route in Thailand, as well as the trip from Luang Prabang to Phonsavan in Laos ( Read more... )

At a local food market, pretty pink eggs, but....


( Read more... )

 After another 8-hr bus ride (the first being between Ayutthaya and Sukhothai), we arrived in Chiang Mai. We had been pretty spoiled with the quality of the hotels we had stayed at up to that point, so imagine our severe disappointment when we were taken to a dump called Garden View Hotel, just south of the Old City. It was second in the Depressing ( Read more... )

Lesson learned from Ayutthaya, we spent the morning lounging around our hotel in Sukhothai, not braving the outdoors until mid-afteroon. After a late so-so lunch, we rented a scooter and zoomed the 14 km to the Sukhothai Historical Park. The sun was heading toward the horizon when we arrived, leaving the air cooler and the light softer.

We moseyed ( Read more... )

The journey from Bangkok to Ayutthaya started early in the morning. Our driver picked us up at our hotel at 7:20 and left us at the train station with tickets for the 9 o'clock to Ayutthaya.  Julien had just long enough to order a coffee and it was time to go wait on the platform. The call to board was not for us, however, and we stood on platform ( Read more... )

Julien and I were strolling along the road and heard music, similar to what you would hear in the States to announce the arrival of an ice-cream truck.  Just up ahead of us on the sidewalk, a woman flagged the truck down.

Up pulled, not an ice-cream truck, but a vegetable vendor!  Not kiddies, but adults swarmed the truck to buy their fresh ( Read more... )

 ...a waitress placing the daily offerings on the restaurants two shrines.

First she put a bowl of fresh pineapple chunks in front of the little golden statue.  She then gave it a glass of water, from a bottle, not the tap. After came two bouquets of fresh flowers in porcelain vases and garlands of flowers to hang from the shrine.  She finished with ( Read more... )

First a disclaimer: I'm not sharing this to make fun of someone's level in English,* but because I think it could be helpful to the writers on my flist--that would be most of you. :P

So some thoughts on language...

Our hostess at the hotel was driving us to the bus station, and we were complimenting her on the hotel and how charming we found it, ( Read more... )

 I ate a fried grub tonight.  Precision: I ate half a fried grub tonight.  Julien had the other half.

I could have had a cricket. I should have eaten the cricket.

Apparently, it was only crunchy and not so...filled with goodness.

So, grubs.  Not terrible, and pas terrible, in the French sense.  Maybe better fresh and hot. Not likely to eat a plateful ( Read more... )

 A pigeon hitching a ride on the rear window of car, its claws curled around the rubber sealing. Why fly when you can ride?

The best part was how tickled our driver was to see the same sight.