Deano’s Travels

What can I say, you’ve got to get there quickly before this spot becomes well known and is overrun with tourists carrying Cannon cameras; damn guess its too late! Just out of interest does everyonown a Cannon SLR nowadays, they seem to be as common as muck.

Despite the amount of tourists (who can largely be avoided with a little effort) I’d still recommend anyone to take a visit to Angkor wat and the surrounding temples. They are very impressive, even after seeing god knows how many other temples on my trip to the region.

Siem Reap itself is a modern town and is quite upmarket  (especially considering the other towns that I have been in in Cambodia) with lots of  5 star accommodation to cater for all the tourists.

Here are a few pics from the temples.

Malaysia is a great country for people who love food such as my good self. It is a very cultural diverse country and therefore the food has lots of different influences; the biggest being Malay/Indonesian, Chinese, and Indian. Other major influences are the surrounding countries such as the Philippines (especially for Borneo) and Thailand.

Within Malaysia Melaka (Malacca) is renown for many of its dishes, some of which also have a European colonial influence. I have been in Melaka for the last couple of weeks getting some work done, here are some of the Malaysian dishes that I have been eating fairly regularly.

For Breakfast, Roti Canai and Roti Sardine hit the spot.

For lunch a local Chinese influenced speciality is chicken rice balls (it is the rice that is in balls not the chicken).

Another Indian dish that you see a lot of in Malaysia is Tandoori chicken and Naan bread with lentil curry.

A traditional Malay dish is Satay. In Melaka they have Satay steamboat. This involves a pot of boiling peanut satay sauce that you cook your skewers of meat and vegetables in. I did try it and it was good, but you’ll have to make do with a picture of normal style chicken satay.

And finally we’ll finish off with European influenced Mocha and Orange cheesecakes, and egg custard tarts.

Hope this has made you feel hungry.

As for me I’ve just got back from a trip to China and Borneo, hopefully I will get chance to write about the trip soon (still need to do posts on Chiang Mai, Burma, Cambodia and Vietnam first though).

Deano

Well after having a great time in the party cities of Hong Kong and Bangkok I arrived in the capital city of Lao PDR, Vientiane. What a shock this was to the system, the streets were quiet, the pubs shut down early and the tuk tuk drivers wanted about three days average wages to drive you a mile down the street.

Yeah, Lao is a very quiet place compared to the rest of SE Asia, and most people seem to love the place because of that. It didn’t really do much for me though; maybe I’ll take another look there when I’m older and want to relax.

I only spent time in Vientiane and apparently there are a few backpacker party towns in Laos. Thing is I’m not really into the backpacker scene; yeah I know that I travel with my backpack, but I’m not really into hanging out with 18 year gap year kids (friendly as they may be, and good luck to them on their travels). I tend to do my own thing and quite often stay in less visited places that seem to have a nice feel for them.

Anyway I’m getting off topic here, Vientiane is a pretty enough place, it has a large French colonial influence with lots of pretty buildings and good food; like in Vietnam Baguettes are very popular here. Vientiane even has its own arc d’triumph! When I was there they were re-developing the Mekong river front, making it difficult to get near; my guess is that when there are cafes and a promenade  by the river the place will have a very nice feel to it. Though they do need to keep those pubs open longer!

Here are a few pictures.

Deano

I travelled from Bangkok to Vientiane in Laos in order to get a tourist visa. I went overland through the Isaan region of Thailand and visited a few of the major cities.

The Isaan region of Thailand is quite different from the Chiang mai region where I spent the last 5 months or so. The people look different (they are of Khmer and Laos ancestry), they have a lot of food specialties, the area is more agricultural, is much poorer, and there are not as many tourists to be seen; this usually means that as a westerner that I got greeted by massive smiles everywhere I went.

Here are a few pictures from the Isaan region of Thailand. Note, for some reason the pictures are not being displayed correctly, hover your mouse over the picture to read the captions and to see where the pictures were taken in Isaan, Thailand.

1. Khorat (Nahkon Ratchasima)

2. Khon Kaen

Many old VW vans are to be sen in this region, probably travelled overland down the old hippy trail, and still going strong.

3. Nong Khai

4. Phimai.

The Khmer temple at Phimai, close to Khorat, predates the ones at Angkor (post to come) by a hundred years.

Thailands largest banyan tree (Sai Ngan) is also located  in Phimai.

Deano