Dining in SE Asia

Food is the thread that often ties us all together. Despite language barriers, cultural differences, humans in general love to eat. One of the most exciting things when we go to a new country is to learn about their unique cuisine. While, there are many similarities in SE Asian cuisine, we have found that each country is unique. For instance Thai food is quite flavorful and spicy heavily relying on coconut and chilies while food in Myanmar was more mild and had a lot of Chinese and Indian influence. Trying the numerous delicacies from the sweet and savory giant bowls of Pho in Vietnam to the Coconut lemongrass dishes of Cambodia has been an adventure in itself. Especially as vegetarians! Attempting to learn how to say vegetarian in five languages in the last few months has been fun. While I could describe the plethora of food we have enjoyed here in SE Asia in mouth watering detail. It would be hard to do it justice. They say a photo is worth a thousand words, so we hope this video will help do it one better. Bon Appetite!   

Ngapali Beach

Ugh look at all these tourists! It's crowded here! Ever find yourself thinking something along these lines? Well we certainly do, even though we are often guilty of being those very same tourists we all want to escape. But hey great news, we have the place for all you recluse vacationers! Ngapali Beach has to be one of the most uncrowded beaches I have ever had the pleasure of visiting. I am not going to sugar coat it as I found so many travel sites and blogs do. The accommodations are incredibly expensive and it is certainly on the more shall we say "rustic side." We saw our fair share of trash being burned and floating in the sea. A couple of us got food poisoning and we had the biggest bugs known to man come visit us in our shower nightly. However, the coconut tree dotted white sandy beach and the blissfully warm waters of the Bay of Bengal are a true delight. Some days it seemed we were like Tom Hanks, marooned (although intentionally) on a deserted beach having vast stretches of sand and sun all to ourselves.

    

Bagan Myanmar

No excursion to Myanmar would indeed be complete without a trip to Bagan. This ancient city boasts over 2,000 temples still standing to this day. After seeing numerous temples in SE Asia, we thought we had seen it all. However, Bagan is uniquely breathtaking. The stark contrast of a barren red landscape dotted with an array of temples and palm trees transports you back in time. Most mornings we hopped on our bikes before sunrise. With bats flying over head in the darkness, we navigated ourselves to the best temples to catch the sunrise. After scampering up steep steps your reward is to sit and watch as the temples which are illuminated at night go from their golden light to a sherbet sun filled landscape. Seeing hot air balloons slowly rise over ancient temples while a brilliant sun blazes to life, was truly magical.

Getting there is half the battle especially in Myanmar

It sounds so blissful, bouncing around the world in a perpetual state of vacationland. While in many ways it is just that. What you may not see from the photos we share or our merry check-ins with family and friends when we exclaim "it's so beautiful here." Is the fact that getting around, especially on a backpackers budget is not always glamorous. Anytime we move destinations we generally invest 12+ hours on travel, taking numerous modes of transport from old taxis with no AC to buses and even the occasional boat.

For example, I took a 13 hour bus ride from Yangon to Nagapali beach. There was a flight offered but costing $100 compared to the $11 bus ride, my tight travel budget demanded the slow route.
In SE Asia the horn seems to be the driver's best friend. They use it at every corner, passing every dog, pedestrian and car on their way. This sharp piercing noise pared with blaring Burmese music for 13 hours straight was akin to Chinese water torture. Now comes the fun part, during the twist and turns of the dilapidated roads my fellow wary car sick travelers started using what they affectionately call "happy bags."  Several times during our journey the bus driver would pull over and they would throw buckets of water on the engine to cool it off, making me question the integrity of said engine and these rest stops boasted nothing more than outhouse squatty potties.  Oh the joys of traveling! But hey, I arrived almost $90 richer than if I had taken the plane and I got a lot of character building out of it. We get a lot of that these days and the destinations are always worth it.

     

Enchanting Elephants

One of the highlights of Chiang Mai was the day we spent with the elephants. After a lot of research, we went with a reasonably priced half day tour with an ecotourism company called Elephant Jungle Eden. This company provides a sanctuary for retired riding or mistreated elephants and has a no-ride policy. After changing into our elephant shirts we hiked down a mountain to meet the elephants. We fed them sugar cane, watermelon, and cucumbers which they would snatch with their trunks. I don't think either of us have smiled that big and that much in a long time, I certainly couldn't wipe the grin off of my face. Once they were well fed we went for a hike in the jungle to a hut overlooking  waterfall where we ate fried rice from a banana leaf and took a nap, followed by a swim in the waterfall and a hike back up the mountain. Bath time was interesting...we caked ourselves and elephants in mud and then rinsed them clean in a stream.
Overall, it was a magical day interacting with these beautiful and strong gentle giants. The only thing bigger than their stature is their spirit.

Chiang Mai you so fine

Northern Thailand is amazing! We rented a condo for a month in Chiang Mai at the Tree Boutique Hotel. After staying in countless rooms where the shower head was literally on top of the toilet and the mattresses were hard as rocks with seriously outdated bedding (thank goodness for silk sacks). We reveled at our new accommodations that had brand new sheets, real towels, hot showers, and a small kitchen! We were truly living it up. Our hotel even furnished us with bikes to explore the city with. Which we took full advantage of biking six plus miles everyday to take in all the sights.

Chiang Mai, has a very distinct flare to it. "Old City" boasts everything from $9 massages to organic/ vegetarian restaurants. Several nights a week there are huge markets that sell culinary delights from Indian food, handmade coconut ice cream, to just about anything on a stick. We occupied our time by getting out to sights like the Chiang Mai Grand Canyon, took yoga classes, a Thai cooking class, and even several Muay Thai boxing classes. Learning new things in a beautiful city. Life is good.