Best of South East Asia's food Vlog

Check out these two videos of some awesome food experiences we've had. 

First is dried squid that you buy on the street at night. You choose your squid, then they grill it, flatten, and tear into bite size pieces. This is best accompanied with hot sauce and multiple beers. Notice the helpful mobility of the woman's cart!

Second is Ngoc's favorite papaya salad from Laos. Made with the very pungent shrimp paste(mam ruoc), it brings new definition to acquired taste.

Enjoy!

Some stories

Apologies to my loyal readers to have deprived you of my literary gift. I've been reflecting on my final moments here in Asia and did not want it to end. I also was thinking about content so as to not bore you as Jamie have been. I'm supposed to talk about Bangkok, that happened like 3 weeks ago, but this will bore you. Instead, I'll make Bangkok brief and talk about a few funny and unfortunate moments we've encountered on our travel thus far.

Bangkok did not disappoint. It really is as wild and as crazy as you've seen on tv...if you want it. Coming from new york, nothing really surprises us anymore about these big cities. Bangkok had a skyway system, subway, skyscrapers, etc. English is spoken widely and people have enough money to dress nice and drive nice cars. It is also very gay! We went out partying a couple times with a friend that we met through a mutual friend. He was great and showed us the in's and out's of Bangkok. one night, we went to dinner beforehand and had some seafood followed by a dance club that the gays frequent. This was when I started feeling woozy. I tried to toughen it out and just thought it was because of the smoke in the outdoors patio. We proceeded to move inside and after 5 mins later, I started projectile vomiting [luckily] in my dark corner! "okay, let's go home!" said Jamie, and as I took a step, the rest of my dinner came out. Luckily again, we only live 5 mins walk away. That night, I got a fever, and it lingered till the next morning. It was my first time getting food poisoning that caused vomiting and it was traumatic. It also delayed our plans to travel to Cambodia. Till now, I haven't had any seafood, but the craving is resurfacing!

Thailand still had a lot of sandbags around from the flooding. They were just for precautionary, and the flood did not make its way to the center of the city. People were cautious and a lot of business were closed.

Our trip to Cambodia is a blog on its own which includes riding in a Camary sedan packed with 7 other people and a live chicken! In one of the picture, I got to fed a wild monkey which was pretty tame. We were in Siem Riep visiting Angkor Wat when all these monkeys just appear begging for food.

On another trip riding around Angkor Wat (because it's so big, one would need 3 days), our tuk tuk driver had to fix and secure the carriage to his motorbike and accidentally dropped us. Neither one of us got hurt, just rattled, but we all laughed about it during and after.

We've encountered many accidents on our trips of cars flipping over! After awhile, it becomes normal to see a group of people sitting in the shade while the men strategize a way to flip the vehicle over. On this particular accident, it was a truck coming back from the circus that flipped, sending metal carousel and some bananas overboard. I don't think anyone got hurt, and to them, it's just a minor setback on their travel.

We hope everyone in the states is enjoying the holiday season. I'm sure everyone is busy with family and Christmas shopping. We miss you and we will see some of you very soon.

Koh Kong Island

Pictured :

Our private beach excursion today, spring water that come from who knows where, our lunch, "Crabby" that Ngoc caught and now has in a bottle in our room, and a great view of the mangroves.

Airborne in the Gulf of Thailand

Today we embarked on our last big adventure. Boarding an actual modern looking plexiglass boat, with a modern engine, we took off at full speed. What a pleasant surprise after the aging spare part wooden "boats" that sound more like helicopters we have grown used to. Or so we thought...

The ride to the island was fast and fun. Our guides spoke no English so we were left to figure things out as we went. The beach was beautiful and our guides grilled us whole fish and chicken kabbobs for lunch which they served on banana leaves. After eating, Ngoc hunted (and trapped) little spider crabs and I got burnt in the sun.

The excitement came with the ride home. The tide had moved in bringing large waves. We fought to get the boat off the shore and to even get inside without soaking our camera bag. Once on the water the driver needed to push the speed ahead to get us out to sea. We fought 6 foot swells moving most of the boat above the water only to slam back down once off the wave. At one point the wave was so high we became compeletely airborn, slamming back into the water with great force. Ngoc and I screamed and laughed like it was the last time we may do so. In the back of our minds we were also aware the boat had no preservers and Ngoc can't swim! Luckily for us, the captain knew what he was doing and after stalling a few times later in the journey, he got us home shaken, but safely.

Tomorrow we head back to Phnom Penh super early in hopes we can connect to a Saigon bound bus in the afternoon. This will give us a full week to wind down in the city were it all started for us.

Koh Kong trek part 3 (video)

Our guides creating the structure to hold our 6 hammocks in the jungle. They created this in about 30 minutes with only simple tools and the materials from the jungle. Let's hope we remember how to do it for our next camping trip!

Koh Kong trek part 2

Yesterday we took on a big challenge and signed up for a 2 day and 1 night jungle trek. This was not accomplished without a large amount of strong arming on my part to convince Ngoc. In the end I told him he had no choice and stuck to my guns. I harnessed the strength of talking Candace into going white water rafting in Costa Rica, where I had to endured hours of her telling me how horrible of an idea it was only to end up loving it!

Well, I don't think Ngoc loved it, but he really held it together concidering what we endured. Leeches, super humid conditions, raw meat being cooked on the open fire that had been with us un-refrigerated the entire day, the threat of death by mosquito bites over night, or just simply being attacked by a wild boar.

In the end we had a great time and were extremely impressed with our guides who drove us everywhere and built our camp structure from only what the jungle offered. The only damage done was being covered in dust and a slight lack of sleep. For the experience, this was well worth it!

Koh Kong Jungle trek

From the Killing Fields

One of the many interesting and disturbing sights in and around Phnom Penh is the Killing Fields, where Pol Pot's crazy regime killed and tortured thousands. The place was intense and i thought it should be shared.

From Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Khmer_Rouge&oldid=464297314"></a>

'The Khmer Rouge (Khmer: ខ្មែរក្រហម – "Khmer Krahom" in Khmer) literally translated as Red Cambodians was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who were the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan. Democratic Kampuchea was the name of the state as controlled by the government of the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979.
Khmer Rouge means Communist Cambodians. 'Rouge' comes from the French word for red, which is a symbol of communism. Khmer means people from the Cambodian region. This was another name for the Communist Party of Kampuchea that was given by the former King Sihanouk. The organization began in January 1968 as the Revolutionary Army of Kampuchea and was changed thirteen years later to Party of Democratic Kampuchea. [1]
This organization is remembered primarily for its policy of social engineering, which resulted in genocide.[2] Its attempts at agricultural reform led to widespread famine, while its insistence on absolute self-sufficiency, even in the supply of medicine, led to the deaths of thousands from treatable diseases (such as malaria). Arbitrary executions and torture carried out by its cadres against perceived subversive elements, or during purges of its own ranks between 1975 and 1978, are considered to have constituted a genocide.[3]
The Democratic Kampuchea was established in 1975 and created their top level of command and named it Angkar, which literally translates to "high organization".[4] By 1979, the Khmer Rouge had fled the country, while the People's Republic of the Kampuchea was being established. This meant that life started going back to the way it was post Khmer Rouge. The governments-in-exile (including the Khmer) still had a seat in the UN at this point but it was later taken away, in 1993, as the monarchy was restored and the country underwent a name change to the Kingdom of Cambodia. A year later many of the remaining Khmer Rouge guerrillas surrendered themselves. Then in 1996, a new political party was formed by Ieng Sary, who was granted amnesty for all of his roles as the deputy leader of the Khmer Rouge. The main leader, Pol Pot, had a trial the following year that ended with a sentence of life imprisonment. Pol Pot never paid the full price for his actions as he died in the jungle in 1998. [5]'

Walking around the country near Siem Reap

Finally figured out how to post videos directly here for those of you that don't use Facebook!

Trip map

The circle will be complete in less than 2 weeks!

more...

Angkor Wat photo shoot part 3!

More highlights from Angkor Wat. When will Ngoc write about Bangkok? Keep checking back and maybe we will see something by the end of the weekend.

We have one more day to explore further out of town tomorrow before heading south to Phnom Penh. Almost the two week countdown. Has it really been 2 months?

How is everyone's holiday going so far? We love to personal emails we get from each and every one of you, but could always hear more. Email us! Jamiegorton@yahoo.com or nbnguyen1030@gmail.com

Siem Reap photos part 2

Expect to see a mass amount of photos for these few days. The temples are beyond beautiful and each step brings another view to shoot. We are off to take even more today!

Photos from Siem Reap part 1

Just to keep everyone interested while we wait for Ngoc to write about Bangkok, here is what we've been up to the last few days!

With Dennis Hopper watching over us

It turns out that neither Ngoc or myself are much of the novelist type. With great excitement we started this blog, but as time goes by our natural inclinations of laziness kick in. I am going to do my best to jump start the literary engine, but until then keep checking for new posts and communicating I with us on fb.

Since I've last blogged we have visited 3 towns in Laos and moved on to Thailand. Our spirits remain strong even if tested by travel fatigue, my epic grumpiness, or Ngoc's bad luck with food. Tomorrow we are excited to be heading back into the jungles after a 5 day stay in very very fancy and developed Bangkok. Ngoc will post the details of these days soon enough. Before that let me share the tales of our first multi-destination/day motorbike trip from last week...

In my infinite blind confidence of my motor vehicle skills(Louis, Jen, and candace know of the best) it seemed a no brainier to rent yet another motorbike in Paske. Our travel book very clearly states (in the most vague descriptions of any location for Lao) that traveling to the Bolaven Plateau by motorbike is very safe and simple to do. This time I was right to listen to the book!

We departed the semi-urban landscape of Pakse into the wild. The roads very oddly and in major conflict with the rest of Laos are in amazing shape. Smooth riding all the way! With Ngoc on the saddle behind me riding shotgun I pushed the bike to full speed down the beautiful tree lined roads. The sky above us opened up to a beautiful clear day with the warm tropical sun beaming down on us. The air was fresh and not a bit of dust or grime could be sensed around us. The occasional moto or truck would pass us, but more often it was just the two of us and the open road.

As we moved further and made the slow climb to higher elevations the shade and breeze offered relief from the sun. I couldn't help but feel a sense of familiarity to riding around the lake in Erieville, NY this last summer on my mom's 4-wheeler. The feeling of the clean cool air, the moisture around us from the forest, and the thoughts that nothing could feel better. I had a permanent smile on my face the entire ride to our first location and could not have been happier with our decision to go off on our own journey into the wild. One without a guide, a common language, or knowledge of where we would stay that night.

Taking the simplified route described in the guide book (3 days instead of 5), we made our first stop in Tat Lo. With only a brief sighting of a sign pointing us in the right direction and the estimated distance from our odometer compared to what we were told, we spun around and took a right turn where ngoc though he saw a sign. Well, he did see that sign and now we knew we were headed in the right direction! Another few turns down narrowing and twisting plantation roads, past a few villages with local children yelling, "waterfall here!!". We stayed focused and within minutes we were back to civilization. In the town there are 4 hotels, 2 shack restaurants, a "tourist center", and a school. Let's just say it was a quiet place. Even further than quiet, it seems not many tourist brave the way out east. We would finally have the journey we have been looking for!

After exploring one of the many waterfalls (yea, more of them) we settled on a bungalow resort across the bridge from town. Here there were fancy aircon bungalows with tv for $80 or the more primitive bamboo shack with a fan and a bathroom for $8. I thought the disconnect between the two prices was a bit suspicious and we would find the catch later on, but I was wrong. It seems that it is just bad pricing techniques to attempt pulling more money from the westerners, maybe this is why many don't make the trip? Needless to say, we did not pay $80!

We dined at the hotel restaurant overlooking yet another waterfall and enjoying the cool air. We returned to our bungalow to find an enormous lizard near the door. We've become very used to seeing very small geckos running all over, even in our rooms, but not this. At least a foot long and with bright red spots, the beast was what we've only seen in zoos! After a few flashes from the camera he ran off into the night and we settled into our bungalow. With the sounds of the jungle and waterfall in the distance we had a beautiful nights sleep. The next morning we woke up rested and ready to jump back on the bike.

After a few wrong turns and many quiet villages full of pigs, puppies, and children waving and greeting us we made it to Paksong. We stopped off at the only place in town with wifi and also happened to be a coffee shop run by a Danish coffee aficionado. Unfortunately he was not there at the time, but we took advantage of the free wifi and figured out where we would stay that night. With the promise of fresh local coffee later we took a ride further down the road to the cheaper of two resorts. After some price negotiations we settled on $22 a night for a beautiful fully finished bungalow with tv, AC, and a wrap around porch. This night would be a bit different than the last. Again with the very odd pricing tactics, but the place was completely empty spare one or two other guests in the resort that was smack in the middle of a coffee plantation. In addition to the waterfall the plantation sat connected to, there was pristine jungle all around us and not a peep of civilization the be heard. With that settled we headed back to town for coffee and dinner.

Surrounding us were miles and miles or coffee plantations and as you moved closer into town you could see the new harvest being dried on driveways, roadways, or even in satellite dishes. There was no mistaking that we were in Laos coffee crossroads. Now how it tasted...

The owner of the coffee shop brewed us a simple espresso with a Italian manual pot. Even Ngoc summoned the interest to have a taste(something he never does). The beans were grown behind the shop, then roasted that morning in a pan by hand before cooling. Then they are ground per order and brewed for us. Somehow food with a story always has a way of tasting best, but this coffee would have stood on its own without the story. This was one of the best I've had in sometime and will rank with the first time I had a properly made macchiato in Seattle nearly 10 years ago (when I fell in love with coffee).

We made our way to a dirty little shack advertising Vietnamese food in hopes Ngoc would be able to communicate with them. Luck had it and we feasted on rice, fried chicken, and greens. With our bellies full and buzzing from the coffee high we headed back to the resort. The night was spent relaxing and enjoying the surroundings. With another peaceful nights sleep under our belt brought the realization that we did actually have to go back to Pakse. Sadly and slowly we made our way back to the real world. The one where the sun burns and dust, exhaust, and scents of garbage and sewage fill the air. A truly sad journey, but one we've gotten used to. The show must go on.

During our journeys we caught wind that land routes to Bangkok had dried up. This meant we could make our way to the city without paying for an expensive flight. We solidified our plans back in Pakse after giving back the bike and departed for Bangkok. A van, a tuktuk, a bus, and 14 hours later we arrived in the bustling urban landscape of Bangkok at 5 Am...In the dark.

Below you will see Ngoc picking up more fleas, the vie from Tat Lo after the somewhat traumatic hike to the top of the waterfall, cute piggies, our lizard friend, and the front of our bamboo bungalow.

We leave Bangkok for Siem Riep, Cambodia tomorrow. We'll do our best to up the photo variation and quality for our last 20 days. Happy holidays too all and to all a good night!