Return to the Farm

Hello!  I apologize for the long time it has been since I have written a post.  Here is an update on our travels:

After the trekking in Laos, we decided to leave the country as soon as possible.  Partly because we were ready to leave Laos and partly out of necessity because of our lack of money (money was stolen while trekking) and the lack of ATM's in Laos.  We headed straight for the Laos border of Huay Xai, across the river from Huay Xai is the small Thai town called Chiang Khong.  The trip to the Laos border took about two days.  We had a very strict budget all the way because we had very limited funds and we did not want to take money out of an ATM until we reached Thailand again.  

After two days traveling Southwest through Laos we got to Chiang Khong and stayed one night.  We found a fantastic Korean BBQ Restaurant which was teeming with locals in Chiang Khong.  We had a feast on all sorts of Thai vegetables and meats (including liver, heart, and other misc. meats).  Unfortunately the next day my stomach did not think this meal was so fantastic.  Our next destination was Chiang Rai, only about two hours away from Chiang Khong, but the bus ride was excrutiatingly long because of my stomach pain.  We spent a few days in Chiang Rai re-enjoying the relative comfort of Thailand.  After our hiatus from farm work, we were ready to put our boots back on and get dirty!  We made contact with a farm 70 km north of Chiang Mai called Amee Doyer's Organic Farm.  This farm is very large, about 100 rai, and grows all sorts things including papaya, rice, all kinds of fruits including hundreds of orange trees.  They also keep about 60-70 pigs, whose needs I spent much of my time at the farm tending to.  The people who own the farm are from a hilltribe called Lisu.  The majority of the workers and people who live on the farm are from Burma.  (The location of the farm was very close to the Burmese border).  We arrived at the farm to discover that the English speaking owner of the farm was in fact in Canada, and would be there until December, so we were left to figure everything out through charades and sign language.  We were the only WWOOFers staying at the farm during this time.  The first few days on Amee Doyer's Organic Farm we spent planting tens of thousands of beans.  We worked with the other farm laborers planting the soil of a large fruit orchard with beans.  Because no one spoke English we could not ascertain the reason we were doing this, but we figured it was to fix nitrogen in the soil to create healthier soil.  So, we spent hours digging small holes and then throwing three white beans in each hole.  We estimated that by the end of the two days we must have planted somewhere in the range of 50,000 beans.  After the days of bean planting we began to learn how to care for pigs.  After several days of caring for the pigs, I gained a new appreciation for the vileness of this animal.  Of course, I still enjoy pork, but I will never look at a piece of bacon the same way.  As I said, the farm kept about 60-70 pigs, some of which were the size of small horses!!  I worked in the pig pen quite alot.  At first the stench of the pigs is quite shocking.  When they urinate (which they do in copious amounts) the stench almost seems to burn the inside of your nostrils, as if you were inhaling an acidic chemical.  

I observed pigs doing four things only: eating, sleeping, pooping, and peeing.  Pigs eat three times a day, just like us humans.  We spent about an hour in total mixing pig slop (times three for each meal).  The pig slop is made with large brownish grey pieces of stuff that looks like smashed cow dung.  I could not figure out what the stuff for quite a while and was not able to ask the farm hands what it was.  Later, I figured out what it was.  The farm has a large house used for producing oil for cooking.  Inside the house is a huge machine that is used to press small seeds which they told us were "niger" seeds.  After the seeds are pressed an aromatic oil is pressed out.  One day I watched this process and they made about seven large garbage buckets full of cooking oil.  The machine expels a waste product from the oil.  The waste product is the compressed seeds after the oil was been squeezed out.  The seed shells come out in cakes that look like smashed cow pies.  All the waste from the seeds is bagged.  Then, we would take the bagged seed cakes, put them in a two big cauldrons, add water, and the stuff would turn into pig slop!  Amazing!  We also added a few other things to the mix, one of which looked like sawdust but smelled like fish.  

There are about 20 baby pigs on the farm who get a special pig slop with fresh greens mixed in.  We made several missions into the forest to collect fresh greens for the babies.  On the first mission we cut down about 20 banana trees, sliced off the leaves, and then loaded them on a cart to take back to the pig sty.  On the second mission we collected a kind of green leaf which we just called "pig lettuce."  Pig lettuce is covered with tiny bristles (kind of like nettles) which sting you to the touch.  After the pig lettuce mission our arms were covered in welts and rashes.  We could only hope the pigs appreciated our efforts.  We chopped up the banana trees in to bite size pieces and saved them in trash buckets.  Whenever we mixed the baby pig feed, a few buckets of chopped banana tree were added in.  We also had to chop the pig lettuce into bite sized pieces.  This was a long and arduous process.  We were given two machetes and two planks of wood to use as cutting blocks.  I spent a good chunk of time over the next days chopping up the pig lettuce with the machete and the cutting block on the floor.  After hours of this, I felt that I would be a sufficient sous chef to any top chef in New York!  

An interesting moment came when we witnessed the slaughter of one of the large pigs.  Alea, one of the farm owners, came over to the pig pen and picked up a big machete.  We gravitated to him because we had never seen an animal as large as this  pig slaughtered before.  He thought our interest was hilarious.  Alea found it hard to believe that we had never seen a pig slaughtered before, or any animal for that matter!  He was even so kind as to offer us the machete, giving us the chance to kill the animal.  While I think this would be an interesting experiment for any carnivore, I think I'll just keep my hopes on killing a chicken.  We both declined this offer.  He said ok, and turned his attention to the pig.  With a swift stroke, Alea stabbed the foot long machete blade into the pigs side, between its ribs in the direction of its head.  I was surprised that the pig's throat wasn't cut, but apparently it is much easier to do it this way.  The pig convulsed for about a minute or two.  A small amount of blood flowed out of the machete wound.  After a minute some blood came out of the pig's nose and mouth, the pig urinated in its own pool of blood, and then it was dead.  I realized that my own heart of beating almost out of my chest as I watched this spectacle.  After the pig was completely dead we took it out of its pen and began the process of cleaning, gutting, and cutting it up.  The first step was to pour buckets of boiling water on the skin and scrape off the top layer of skin and hair with the blade of a machete.  This process reminded me of how humans shave their faces and/or legs.  The pig's skin looked grotesquely human after this "shaving" process.  After the majority of the hair had been removed we moved the pig near the gas tanks.  The farm also makes huge amount of gas from the pig waste.  A hose was hooked into the gas take and the skin of the pig was torched to get ride of any more left over hairs.  After this was done the gutting process began.  One of the farm hands began by cutting the pig from chin to tail (on the belly side), again with a machete (a very multi purpose tool!).  Then the head was cut off and placed to the side.  We watched in amazement as the organs were removed one by one.  We made guess as to what each thing was: gallbladder?  large intestines?  heart? liver? kidneys?  Half of this pig would be for our own consumption at the farm and half would be for selling at the market.  After all the "guts" were removed the butcher continued to cut the meat in smaller pieces.  

Later that night we found that our dinner was almost entirely made up of pig.  Pig soup, a bowl of pig liver mixed with intestines, and a few other dishes consisting of body parts I cannot name.  Some of the dishes were ok, but I could swear I could taste the pig slop in the meat.  All our meals for the next three or four days were also entirely made of pig.  

After about a week on Amee Doyer's Organic Farm we decided to depart.  The experience there was fantastic but for learning potential, it had its limits because of the lack of English speakers who could tell us the bigger picture of the farm. 

After the farm we headed to Chiang Mai where we spent the next 5 days re-re-enjoying the comforts of urban life in Thailand.  Chiang Mai has a great night market, which we wandered through on several nights.  We discovered the magic of mango sticky rice at one of the night markets.  There are many temples in Chiang Mai (none that we visited), but perhaps more interesting to us were the ubiquitous used book stores.  Yikes!  One around every corner, each one we just had to go in.  After a few nights in Chiang Mai, the number of books we possessed was laudable.  Our stack of books had reached more than two feet high! Chiang Mai is a dangerous place for the reader. 

Almost a week passed in Chiang Mai and we decided it was time to head back to a farm.  We decided we wanted to come back to Neil and Su's farm (the first farm we visited) in Bang Phra.  We have now been at Neil and Su's for about two weeks (every day of which we have worked!) We are working on several projects including: building bungalows, building a woodfire oven, digging septic tanks, weeding tomatoes, encouraging the chickens to lay more eggs, and constructing a dock over the catfish pond.  There are currently two other WWOOFers staying here: a couple from France and there are two guys from Switzerland coming soon.  Our time in Asia is coming to a close soon but we will spend the majority of our time here left in Thailand.  On September 14th we are flying from Bangkok to Singapore, where we will finish off our trip with three days worth of hawker food and delicious coffee.  

Trekking in Phongsali

We have just returned to Thailand after a great couple of weeks in Laos. The trip had many high points as well as a few low points. We decided that we wanted to go trekking at some point on our trip and we decided to go to Phongsali in Northern Laos as our trekking base. The bus trip to Phongsali was an arduous journey to say the least. Ten hours crammed on a bus passing by the edges of frighteningly steep cliffs. Almost none of the road to Phongsali is paved, so we endured many bumps along the way. Because of the rains, there were many landslides blocking the road. We stopped intermittently to wait for backhoes to clear the rubble from the road, as well as for the driver to have regular cigarette breaks. We arrived in Phongsali at night, found a place to stay, went to bed and then woke up early in the morning to find that our room was directly above a chicken coop full of noisy roosters.
Phongsali was a delightful town. It is very isolated compared to most of the other towns we saw in Laos and there were almost no tourists there (probably because of the difficult road conditions.) The town is devoid of "city noise" like cars, motorbikes, and honking. Because of this you can hear other noises, which at times seem equally loud, for example: roosters, children playing, music, and chickens.
We were walking around the meandering cobblestone roads of the town when we by chance met Ms. Tui, a worker at the tourism office. We told her we were interested in trekking and she quickly arranged for us to leave the next day. We decided to do a four day, three night trek into the hills outside of Phongsali. Phongsali province has the most ethnic minority groups in all of Laos (a total of 28). During the trek, we would stay overnight at several Akha villages in the mountains.
We started off the trek Monday morning by boarding a bus to a nearby town called Hat Sa. From there we boarded a boat that took us up the Nam Ou river to the start point of our trek. I should note that we were not trekking alone but with a guide named Khounsey.
After we got off the boat the trek immediately was kicking our butt. The assent into the mountains was incredibly steep and the day was scorching so we instantly were drenched in sweat. We stopped after 3 hours for a lunch of sticky rice, pork, and hard boiled eggs. We continued on after that trudging through winding jungle "paths." Khounsey took the lead, hacking away the overhanging vines and tree branches with a machete.
Along the trek we passed through about 10 different Akha villages, all of which were spectacular. It was mind boggling to ponder how far removed these people are and just how much effort must be put in for something that we think is simple, going to the doctor for example. When an Akha person gets sick or needs something from the "modern" world they must trek hours and hours through impossibly rocky, steep, and muddy jungle to get to Phongsali.
We immediately noticed while passing through the villages that the men mostly sit around smoking tobacco bongs or hanging out in the house while the women do absolutely everything else. The women collect water from nearby streams for drinking, cook, clean, gather food from the surrounding jungle, carry the children, feed the children, make tea, feed the animals, etc... They do this while wearing these incredible traditional costumes. The Akha men wear Western clothes and the women all wear traditional garb. Their headdresses are massive and are dripping with silver and colorful beads.
During each of our three overnights we stayed at the house of the chief in the different villages. All the chiefs were very welcoming and hospitable to us. We at meals with the chiefs as well, sharing in meals of the local Akha food. The food was almost all the same at each village. We received steamed rice, boiled bamboo (a major staple for the Akha), sometimes beans and eggs, and pumpkin soup or cucumber. Before each meal the chief pours everyone a shot glass full of rice whiskey. Before and at different times during the meal you clink glasses with everyone and slowly sip the whiskey. I must say, the rice whiskey didn't sit very well with me. It was so potent, I felt that everytime I took a sip any sort of living organism in my mouth and/or stomach was effectively being killed by the alcoholic burn.
Unfortunately, a low point came after the first overnight when I discovered that someone had relieved me of the majority of my cash during the night. Our guide blamed it on the villagers, but I am almost entirely positive that it was in fact the guide himself who stole the money. Since it was a rather large sum, for the next four days I entertained fantasies in my head of sneaking away, looking through his pack and finding my money (my passport photos, and one Joker, which were also stolen). I finally decided against doing that because Khounsey was our only lifeline back to Phongsali. If I did steal my stolen money back, and he found out, there were a series of possibilities I thought could happen. 1) He could leave us in the jungle with no way out. 2) He could resort to some sort of violence (he did have a machete in his backpack after all!) 3) He could steal the stolen-stolen money back. Anyway, none of the possibilities seemed very good, so I decided not to look (probably the rational decision). But, it was rather torturous to be fairly certain that my money was within a few feet of me for the next three days. Oh well. Lesson learned.
Anyway, after that hitch, we continued on the trek. The first two days of the trek were amazingly beautiful and the next two days poured rain. The unfortunate thing about rain in the Lao jungle is that it brings out hordes of leeches vying for your blood. I have had some experience with leeches in Nepal, but the sheer number of leeches we pulled off our boots and skin was exponentially more that in Nepal. After a while, it was almost pointless to even check for leeches because the minute you pull one off, you have two more on you.
During the third day it was so rainy that the "paths" had turned into streams and as the rains continued, into rivers. After we set out on the third morning, we were completely soaking wet with in 20 minutes. We continued the six hours hike for the day in a sog. We had to forge a river on the third afternoon to get to another village. But before crossing the river we at a wet lunch of "hot dogs", fish in tomato sauce (canned) and wet rice from the previous village wrapped in a banana leaf. Since there were so many leeches we had to eat lunch sitting on rocks in the river. We were completely rain soaked anyway, so eating lunch in the river made no difference to us.

After four days of trekking 6 hours per day we were completely exhausted. I had gone through such a range of emotions during the past 4 days that I was emotionally and physically tired. I had been awestruck at the villages, humbled by the scenery, touched by the kindness of the local people, amazed at the isolated the Akha people live in, suspicious of the thief, angry at our guide, disgusted by leeches, amused (especially during shower time. This consisted of me, Eric, and Khounsey washing at the village taps or in a stream. Women in Laos bath wearing a sarong wrapped around them so as not to expose their bodies. I did this too and not have much respect who can effectively wash while wearing a sarong. Anyway, during shower time the majority of the boys in the village would gather around and watch us bath, probably laughing at our pale skin), angered at Khounsey for being a thief, satisfied by the meals we were served, ached after long ascents and slippery descents, and much more. Overall it was an amazing experience that I am glad I did. Since the majority of Laos is rural and isolated in this way, I feel like I understand the country to a much higher degree.

Hanging Out in Vientiane

We arrived in Vientiane on Friday (today is Monday) and have spent the last several days wandering around the streets, sampling different coffee stalls (all of which are beyond delicious), and taking in the general laziness of Lao's capital city. Our plan is to go back to Thailand soon for more farm work, so we had to wait until today for the Thai Consulate to be open. We will get our passports back tomorrow. In an attempt to save money on tuk-tuks (SE Asian version of the taxi) we decided to walk to the Thai consulate. Three sweltering, sweat soaked hours later, we finally made it to the consulate just before it closed! We waited for another hour before turning our passports in. "Come back at one o'clock" they told us. We proceeded to try to kill time by finding drinks and noodle soups. We went back to the Thai consulate later, waited in more lines, sweated more, finally reached to front of the line, at which point they told us actually they meant one o'clock tomorrow. Oh.
Now we are back in the central city area, contemplating what to do for the rest of the day. Our plan is to continue North in Laos after we get our passports back. A short stop in Luang Prabang and then further North to a town called Phongsali near the Chinese border. In Phongsali we are hoping to do a trek and explore the jungles before heading back down to Chiang Mai for another WWOOF farm.
We really can't complain about being "stuck" in Vientiane. The food here is excellent and there are a very wide range of options. Two nights ago we ate at a delicious and bustling Vietnamese restaurant that specializes in fresh spring rolls and hot pots. Last night we ate several small things from street vendors that accumulate on the sidewalk once the sun goes down.

Planting Rice in Phimai

We were lucky enough to be able to help Su's parents plant some rice in Phimai (NE Thailand). I think Su's father was amused by our enthusiasm to try planting rice and we has surprised that we actually enjoyed it. I had a good time planting rice and am now much more appreciated of every bowl of rice I eat. The process of rice planting and harvesting seems very long and tedious to me. The farms throw rice grains in the fields until they grow into the green rice grasses. Then the rice grasses are each hand picked from these fields and replanted by hand in another field so that the plants have more room to grow. In this picture, Eric and I are working on replanting the rice grasses of rice after they have been picked from another field. Unfortunately we are going to be gone for harvesting season, which is in November. Below is a picture of Su's father. Although he spoke no English, I found him to be one of the most friendly and kind people I have ever met. He is the sort of person who always looks like he is smiling, even when he is not. Here, Su's father is bringing us fresh bundles of rice bundles that need to be planted. I knew that working in the rice fields was hard work, as I have witnessed hundreds of women working in the fields in Nepal, but I have a new found respect for these people who likely work on the rice fields for the majority of their life. If I did rice planting for more than a week, I think I would need some serious chiropractic work and a 2 hour Thai massage. Props to rice workers.

New Market, Pakse

At the moment Eric and I do not have a Lonely Planet guidebook for Laos. Although some people complain about Lonely Planet ("doesn't it just take all the fun out of travel?", "there is no mystery left with Lonely Planet"), we have found that a Lonely Planet is truly convenient, but not necessarily necessary. I searched Pakse on Google and found that most people said there is nothing much to do here, that there is no "tourist infrastructure" (what does that even mean?), and that Pakse is a better transit stop than a long stop. But, we have found that Pakse has been quite delightful and it is fun that we get to discover it all on our own without a
guidebook. The best way to do this is to put comfy shoes on and walk around aimlessly as long as possible. We have stumbled on many interesting things like people living on the banks of the Mekong River, pigs trotting along the sidewalk, mysterious food stalls, and a few markets. One of my favorite parts about SE Asia are the markets. Luckily for me, one of the first places we found was a huge market. We roamed up and down the little stalls looking at the heaping mounds of chilis that make your brow break a sweat just looking at them, neon colored fruits, bags of fresh green vegetables, meats, three foot long cat fish, piles of frogs still alive tied together with red ribbons, eels, pink fish paste, sacks of loose tobacco, and much more. One of the most odd things we saw at the market were the iguanas (pictured above). They were all alive and like the frogs, tied together with bits of red ribbons. I assume that these iguanas are for eating.

Made It To Laos!

After 3 weeks or so of working on Neil's farm, Eric and I decided it was time to hit the road again. Before departing Thailand, we spent a wonderful weekend in Phimai in NE Thailand visiting Su's family. They own quite a bit of land in very rural parts of the country, so it was fun to see a farm from a different perspective. Su's parents have many gardens with vegetables and fruits, but the main thing they grow is rice. We noticed that almost every field we saw in NE Thailand was full of lush green rice grasses. We went up to Phimai with quite a crew. Neil had made contact with a bunch of English teachers in Bangkok who wanted to go along on the weekend trip, so we ended up going with about 15 people. We met up with all the English teachers in Bangkok before heading up north. Meeting all the English teachers was fun because they were all around our age. I learned quite a bit from them about what it is like to get the needed teaching qualifications and then move to Thailand to teach.

After a few days exploring Su's parents village, Eric and I were on our way. Leaving was bittersweet because we have made such great friends with Neil, Su and the rest of their family. But, of course we were excited to continue on our journey. We took a train from Phimai to Ubon Ratchathani, which took about 5 hours. After spending one night in Ubon Ratchathani we took a bus to Pakse in Laos, which is where we are now. We have spent the last few days wandering around the city, testing different Laotian foods and coffees, and becoming acquainted with the city. Today we rented bicycles from one of the guesthouses in town and went on a 60 kilometer ride into the countryside. The ride was beautiful and quiet, a major change from the constant bustle of Thailand. Yesterday we decided to take the plunge and get haircuts at one of the street side "salons." Eric went first and they buzzed off most of his hair. He says its shorter than it has ever been in his life, but it still looks good. After Eric, it was my turn. My hair was quite long and I decided that there was some room for error because of the length. Before the hairdresser even asked me what kind of haircut I wanted, she began chopping away. I ended up with about 6 inches off my hair, and I quite like it! The total cost for both of our haircuts was less than $2.00. Can't beat that.

Now, we are trying to figure out what is next on our agenda. There was one WWOOF farm in Laos when we checked the website in Thailand, but when we checked again last night to email the farm owner, we discovered that the farm has since been taken off the website. We both highly enjoyed the WWOOF experience in Thailand and are eager to work at another farm. There is an organic farm in Vang Vieng, Laos that we might go work at. If not, we will head back to Thailand in a few weeks and begin work again in Northern Thailand. We are going to make another stop at Neil and Su's farm on our way back down the country to check on the chickens and see how our tomato plants are growing.

Our Day Off

Eric and I have been working hard at the farm almost everyday so the other day we took a day off to do some sightseeing around the area where we are living.  We decided to go to a small island called Ko Sichang for a day trip and had a great time!  Ko Sichang is about a 30 minute ferry ride from the town of Sriracha, the major town near the farm.  We hopped on a motorbike taxi to the ferry docks and arrived just in time to catch the morning ferry.  The ferry ride was quick, but still lots of fun.  Off the coast of Sriracha is where many large freighter boats anchor, so it was fun to move around these large boats and try to imagine the lifestyle of one of the men who work on the boats.  We arrived around 10:30 am to Ko Sichang and we were immediately hounded by touts trying to sell us tuk-tuk tours and motorbikes.  We decided to pass up the touts and take a short walk around the island.  We quickly found that Ko Sichang is a tiny island.  The buildings are all painted in vibrant blues, yellows, and greens.  We decided that we should rent a motorbike for the day, so we found a small tour agency and picked out a motorbike for 300 Baht.  We spent the rest of the day cruising our motorbike around the small island, looking for hidden beaches, eating Thai papaya salad, drinking young Thai coconuts, swimming in the ocean, and laying on the beach.  Ko Sichang is not really on the "farang" tourist circuit.  ("Farang" is the Thai word for Westerner or white person.)  Ko Sichang is the place where people from Bangkok go on the weekend to escape the urban sprawl and pollution.  

Pictures: Top: Eric relaxing on the beach. Bottom: Me, enjoying one of my favorite Thai foods, papaya salad, and a cold young Thai coconut.  

Baby Ducks

About a week ago, we spent an entire day building a deluxe duck enclosure for the white Mascovi (sp?) ducks that Neil and Su own.  There are about 25 ducks in all.  After spending the whole day building the enclosure and a thatched roof hut for the ducks to rest inside, we ran around catching the birds one by one until all 25 ducks had been transfered to their new house.  We were hoping that the ducks would like their new home just as much as the chickens had been enjoying their new coup.  Unfortunately, we were moving the ducks from an area next to a pond to an area with no pond at all.  After catching the ducks and putting them in the new house we left them for the night.  The next morning we arrived at the farm to find that every single duck had escaped from the new house and returned to their old area by the pond.  Oh well....   At least the empty duck enclosure looks nice.  There were two ducks that have been sitting on nests full of eggs.  One nest had a total of 19 eggs in it and Neil discovered yesterday that all the eggs had hatched!  

The Golden Egg

Eric and I have been working at Neil's farm for a few weeks now and much of our effort so far has been focused on the 26 or so chickens.  We spent the first the first days here expanding the chicken coup so it is now about two times as large as it was when we first arrived.  Neil has had the chickens for about 8 months and as of a few days ago, a single chicken had yet to lay an egg.  So after our blood, sweat, and tears (ok, not tears) went into building the new addition to the chicken coup, we were hoping that the chickens would appreciate our gesture and maybe start laying eggs.  We have been checking the chicken coup daily to see if there are any news ones eggs among the white golf balls Neil placed in their to "fool" the chickens into laying.  Day after day of no eggs the chickens were looking increasingly appealing for fried chicken, but we decided to give them a while longer.  The day before yesterday, Eric went into the chicken house and found one egg!  We were overjoyed and Neil was even more thrilled than we were.  Neil did some quick calculations and came to the conclusion that after all the months of buying chicken food, materials for the coops, the cost of the chickens, the work put into the chickens, and other expenses, the total cost of the one egg they have so far produced is about 12,000 Baht, or approximately $350 US dollars!  Truly a golden egg!  Eric and I are both egg lovers to an extreme, so of course we volunteered to taste the first ever produced by Neil's chickens (of course, we needed to check if there were any diseases that might afflict the other eggs.... ;) )  We took the egg home, cooked it over-easy, and ate it with toast.  It was fantastic!  The yolk was especially orange.  Apparently, this happens when chickens eat grass and bugs instead of grain.  The orange yolk shows that the egg is high in beta-caratine. We decided that the chickens must be very pleased with the new coup we built them because yesterday they laid two eggs, and today they laid five!  Our efforts are appreciated and the chickens have now successfully escaped the deep-fryer (but not by far.)  We are looking forward to finding more and more eggs everyday.  

Above: Eric and I trying to coax the chickens into laying eggs.  Bottom picture is of the $350 egg.  Delicious!

Giant Centipede

You never know what kinds of surprises you'll find working at a Thai farm.  We've developed a sort of a game as we dig and rake and trowel the ground at the farm... Who can find the most poisonous and/or dangerous bug and/or animal?  Well, I won yesterday after I found this 9-inch long centipede.  Eric and I were leveling out a huge dirt pile to create a road when this crawler came out of the rocks!  Neil had told us there were centipedes around, but we had no idea they were this big.  I immediately got the shivers and Eric proceeded to catch the thing with his shovel.  He dragged it over to the driveway so we could get a closer look at it.  The centipede was extremely long and very fast.  It moves like a snake, slithering back and forth.  Because we are in the tropics, there are always fun surprises like this waiting behind rocks, boards, and under dirt piles.  They day before we found a few scorpions, a wolf spider, multiple stinging ant colonies, and various other bugs which I do not even now the name for.  The wolf spider was rather frightening.  It scurried out of a pile of grass roofing panels up a near by banana tree.  Eric, of course, prodded it with his rake until it leapt off onto a nearby rubbish pile.  The spider was the size of my hand, and very frightening.  Besides all these bugs, we've found lizards, geckos, caterpillars, and more.  This is better than biology class!  We have yet to find a snake or cobra, which Neil warned us about.  

To celebrate the variety of species we've found on the farm, we've decided to test out their unique flavors one of these days at the nearby market where we are planning to buy fried crickets, grubs, and cockroaches, all of which are enjoyed by the locals as a popcorn-like snack.  

Thai Eating

Today we enjoyed our first home cooked Thai meal.  Su is a flight attendant on Thai airways, so she has been away from the farm for the past few days because she had a flight to Japan.  After we got home from the farm today we were sitting around Neil and Su's house, relaxing after our long work day.  Su's older sister Pimon dropped by the house and insisted we all go to the market together.  We hopped in Pimon's car and headed down the street to the local market, which has a few hundred food stalls.  This market, like all Asian markets, was fantastic to walk through.  Some of the things we saw at the market: fried bugs (cockroaches, grubs, crickets), pig's face, various meats on a stick, all kinds of vibrantly green vegetables, Thai sweet desserts, crabs, shrimp, fish, whole chickens and ducks, fried baby sparrows (including feet and beak), animal organs, lots of tropical fruits, and much more.  It is so much fun to s0imply walk up and down the aisles of this market and try to take in the whole scene.  I highly recommend going to these sorts of markets with someone who knows the locals language and who can point out to you what the various edibles are.  Pimon, a bossy women who was clad head to toe in pink, dragged us around the market buying all sorts of vegetables, herbs, fish, and fruits.  By the time Pimon was done with us our arms were laden with bags.  Eric recently tried a fruit called mangosteen and really enjoyed the flavor, so he decided he wanted to get some mangosteen from the market.  There was only one vendor selling mangosteen and apparently the fruits were going out of season or something because he put his entire stock of mangosteens in a huge shopping bag and gave them all to us for only 20 Baht!  We came home with 6 kilos of mangosteens (most of them bad), watermelon, vegetables, 6 whole fresh fish, chilis, rambutan, Thai snacks, pomellos, rice sausage, and some other things.  

When we got home Pimon promptly put me to work washing and cutting up some green vegetables.  After that I was assigned to take the tops off the small green and red chilis.  I took the tops off about 50 small chilis with my finger nail and then foolishly itched the back of my neck.  Wow, that really burned.  I felt like my neck skin was going to disintegrate off my body!  So I went to my medicine kit and decided to put Tiger Balm on it.  That was another bad idea because that just made it burn even more.  Then I ran to the sink and washed my neck, and then it was alright.  

It took Pimon only 20 minutes and she had whipped up a delicious dinner of tom yom kun soup with fresh fish, stir fried vegetables, steamed vegetables, rice,  and sticky rice in bamboo shoots.  The meal was delicious!  We all gathered around the floor of Neil and Su's house and shared food, beer, and conversation.  The meal was fantastic, but also the whole process of going to the market, examining foods, bargaining, preparing together, and serving made the whole meal even better.  I am looking forward to more home cooking with Pimon.  Apparently she cooks up a mean green curry, which I am hoping she will teach me to make.  

Below: Me, Eric, Pimon, Neil, and Su waiting to eat our delicious Thai dinner of Tom Yom Kun soup at Neil and Su's house.  

Day 3 at the Farm

Farm life is great!  Eric and I are having a great time getting dirty and incredibly sweaty everyday for the hours we work at Neil and Su's farm.  The first day of work we spent most of the time expanding the chicken coups.  This took many hours during which we clearing land of grass and weeds and put up eucalyptus poles to use as posts for the chicken coup.  Then we fashioned walls and a door from plastic green fabric. 

Neil's Farm

The farm we are currently at is in Bang Pra, which is an one-two hours SE of Bangkok.  It is owned by Neil and Su Willmann.  Neil is originally from the Chicago and is a retired Navy guy.  We spent many years as chief engineer on some Navy ships.  Su is Neil's wife, who is Thai.  They have been married for about 3 years and started their farm about one year ago.  The farm is about a 5 minute drive from their house.  Neil and Su have so many projects going on right now.  Neil calls it "project creep," where you start something small and end up with something unmanageable.  They bought their house a few years ago and are doing massive renovations.  They are adding a spa for Thai massage and other Japanese treatments onto the front of their house.  At their farm they are building a huge house for several things.  Neil has many interests which he pursues.  One of them is boatbuilding, so he is creating a boat building workshop at the farm house.  Neil spent many years teaching sailing in Japan, and their house is near the ocean and a reservoir, so he hopes to build a boat he can sail around here.  He also is a potter, so he is creating a pottery studio.  

Neil and Su's farm is pretty small, about 2 acres of land.  They have geese, ducks, chickens, bananas, herbs, peas, corn, tomatoes, cantaloupe, okra, catfish, and more.

Trip to Thailand

We made it to Thailand!  The trip here was loooong and slightly painful at times.  As always, there is bound to be something interesting on 20 hour bus trips.  We left Penang on Monday evening at 4 pm after our passports were returned with our Thai visas.  Slightly before we left, Jimmy (our guesthouse owner in Penang) got in a huge fight with a local guy who came by asking if there were "girls" at the Love Lane Inn... aka: Is this a brothel?  Eric and I looked on as Jimmy cussed the guy out in Malay and told him he would call the police.  We asked Jimmy about the incident after the man left and he told us people come by all the time asking for "girls" or "boys." Apparently the guesthouse/hotel directly across the street from Love Lane Inn was a brothel at one point recently.  The police have raided the Wan Hai Hotel several times to try and shut down the prostitution trade there, but Jimmy said there is still some sketchy business going on.  

Anyway, we were picked up by a mini bus that took us to the Thai border which took 4 hours.  I sat next to an old man with one leg, a long braid cascading down his back, wearing an open shirt, covered in tattoos.  Every 30 minutes he lifted up his shorts, took out a Nalgene-type water bottle, and peed in the bottle.  We finally got to Hat Yai, our final destination on the mini bus, which is just across the Thai border.  Unfortunately we hadn't converted any money in to Thai Baht yet, so we had to pay for the bus in US dollars, which took some haggling for them to let us do that.  We got on the bus which goes from Hat Yai to Bangkok at 8 pm and the trip took 12 hours.  To top off our problems already, under our seat was a cat box and a cat which meowed non stop for the first hour of the trip.  The owner of the cat, who ended up being our seat neighbor, finally took the cat out and held it for the rest of the trip. 

After a long and sleepless night, we got to the bus station in Bangkok.  We had some coffee, regrouped, and got a taxi to the place where the farm owner, Neil, told us to take the minibus to his house in Bang Prah.  We ran around for an hour with our backpacks on, sweating like crazy, trying to find the right minibus.  Everyone seemed to point in a different direction.  We got on the mini bus and made it to Chonburi area, near where the farm is.  Then we found two motor bike taxis to take us to the meeting point we had decided on with Neil.  Made it! 

Neil picked us up and we went back to his house where we showered and napped for a bit.  

Penang Etc...

We stayed in Penang for 4 days and spent much of our time wandering through the city looking at all the crumbling colonial buildings.  Penang is pretty surreal.  It is an interesting mix of old colonial, Chinese influence, and new high rises.  We stayed at a hostel called the Love Lane Inn.  The  Love Lane Inn is run by an old Taiwanese man named Jimmy and his pretty young Filipino wife.  

Pounding the Pavement in KL

Another great day of exploration in KL! Yesterday we picked up the Malaysia Lonely Planet from Kinokunya Book store in one of the any KL malls, and since then life has been so much easier!
I read about something called the Pudu Market, which is one of the biggest wet markets in KL. This morning we walked to the market, which took about an hour from our guesthouse and we were rewarded with a fantastic market experience. This place was exactly what I was hoping for and more! It was about four square blocks packed to the brim with vendors of vegetables, fruits, sweets, bakery items, various types of meats including cow, chicken, and lots of types of fish. I think the people at the market were pretty surprised to see us tramping through the tiny stalls. Everybody was yelling "Hello!!!" and "WelCOME to MALAYSIA!!!" as they chopped heads off fish and rearranged chicken feet. I would definitely recommend this market to anyone in KL.

Kuala Lumpur

We finally made it to Kuala Lumpur yesterday afternoon. The journey from Singapore to KL was quite long and exhausting, but of course, lots of fun.
We left Aunt Sandy and Uncle Vic's house bright and early on Tuesday morning. First we had to catch a public bus to the MRT (rail) station. We then got on an MRT for one stop, got of and transfered to another MRT, rode that MRT to our final stop, got off and got on another public bus that goes to Johor Bahru in Malaysia, got off the bus at Singapore immigration/customs, got back on the bus after we had our passports stamped, got back on the bus, and then got off the bus again at Malaysia customs/immigration, got our passports stamped there and then rushed to the train station to catch the express train to Kuala Lumpur. Whew... All that while carrying 30 pound backpacks. Unfortunatley, we ran as the KL express train left the station arriving about 1 minute after it departed. Darn. Apparently the express train to KL leaves from Johor Bahru at 9 am, not 9:30 am, as the Lonely Planet instructed us. I guess you can't count on Lonely Planet for everything. All that work for nothing! I was really looking forward to taking the train, so I was slightly disappointed. Both of us were dripping sweat by this point, and it was only 9 in the morning. We decided to regroup for a while and get some Malaysian money (called Ringit). After a quick visit to the ATM we found a street side Roti Pratha stand where we fueled up with two roti with egg's each. So delicious! Especially delicious after all that getting on and off buses.
Finally we figured out how to get to the bus station (Larkin Station) by taking a city bus. Everything turned out fine because we quickly found a bus that went to KL for 30 RM.

We arrived in KL with no guidebook and no idea what we were doing or where we were going. I knew that there was some afforadable hostels in Chinatown, so thats where we decided to head towards. A man quickly approached us, describing his fantastic guesthouse. Both Eric and I were pretty weary at this point, so we decided to go check it out because the price was right (25 RM a night!) The guesthouse, called Wheeler's, turned out to be suitable for our tastes so we sealed the deal and settled into our new room. As the guesthouse owner opened the door to our room he said: "I hope you like pink!!!" in a very enthusiastic tone as he flung the door open. Our 25 ringit room is truely pink. The room is 8X10 and comes equipped with a full sized bed, on small table, and a fan. The sheets and pillows on the bed are extremely pink. The color of pepto-bismol. The walls are painted purple and pink. Yikes. This room is a 7-year-old Barbie lover's dream! Oh well... Maybe the color will be soothing on our stomachs if we eat anything disagreeable. Anyway, our room doesn't have a bathroom attached but there are shared bathrooms for the whole floor. Two toilets, two cold showers, and two sinks. There is always an interesting bunch at these sorts of grungy guesthouses. Lots of backpackers from around the world, usually between the ages of 19 and 25. There seems to be some people who live in the little rooms too.

We've spent the last two days getting aquainted with this city. Kuala Lumpur feels like a mix between Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City, and Bangkok. The high rises and financial districts are similar to Singapore, the crazy traffic and seeming disorganization is similar to Bangkok, and alot of the store colonial-esque crumbling store fronts and architecture reminds me of Ho Chi Minh City.
Yesterday we walked to the Petronas Towers and gaped at their height. We spent hours walking through the streets yesterday looking at everything.
We started the day today by finding a little street stall near Chinatown where they were cooking up some mean looking Roti-Prathas. We each ordered two. It is fun watching them make the roti. The vendor starts with a small ball of dough and then stretches it until it is almost paper thin. Then he cracks and egg and drizzles the raw egg in the middle. Then he folds the roti prata over itself a few times so there are multiple layers and then puts the whole thing on the grill. It creates a crispy layered chewy crepe and is served with a small bowl of curry for dipping. We also ordered coffees from the next door beverage stall. The Malaysian coffee is different than the Singaporean coffee, but still good. Apparently the coffee we got was "Gingseng Coffee" whatever that is...
Tomorrow we are going to go to one of the biggest wet markets in KL called the Padu Market. The plan is to leave to Penang the next day by train (if we make it!). We are going to our first WWOOF farm on Monday/Tuesday of next week, but we just got word that there is a train strike in Thailand so the train we were planning on taking from Butterworth, Malaysia to Bangkok is indefinitely suspended. Hopefully the buses are still working!

Roti Prata

Today for breakfast we enjoyed some Roti Prata from the Indian hawker stall at West Coast Food Center. Roti Prata is a traditional Indian dish. The roti part is made of a delicous chewy dough that the is folder over itself to create a crepe-like product. Eric got regular roti and I got Roti-Prata Egg, which was the same thing with an egg folded and cooked into the center. The vendor gives you a plate of the roti with a bowl of spicy curry sauce with some lamb and vegetables in it. We ripped pieces off the roti with our fingers and dipped them into the sauce. This was a great breakfast! Breakfast foods here are very different than at home. What people get for breakfast here is what I would call lunch or dinner. They don't eat anything sweet like muffins or cinnamon rolls. Instead they get bowls of different kinds of noodle soups or spicy curries. I guess that spice really wakes you up in the morning.

I Was Here at NUS

This is a cool installation at the National University of Singapore, which is located right across the street from Aunt Sandy and Uncle Vic's house.

Singapore Pictures

Left: One of the Housing Development Bureau buildings. 85% of the Singaporean population lives in the HDB housing blocks. Since there is not much room to build out in Singapore, they build up. To dry their clothes people stick them out the window on long poles. Right: Me eating a hawker meal of sliced fish porridge.

Singapore has four national languages: English, Chinese, Tamil, and Malay. As you can see from this sign, many things in Singapore are labeled in all four languages. Having all four of these languages widely used was a good way for Singapore to keep ethnic tensions to a minimum.

At a Hindu temple in the Little India neighborhood of Singapore.

Eric and I at the Portland airport getting ready to depart, but SO tired!

Budget Travel Tips

Eric and I are on a major budget for this trip. I'll include tips on how to keep your travel costs at a minimum.

*Tip: If you don't want to buy a new Lonely Planet, but you need to find out important information here is what we figure out is the best way to go: Go to the nice air conditioned Borders bookstore on Orchard Road and find the necessary Lonely Planet that you need. Sit in the store for as long as you want and copy down all important information into your notebook. Then you can wait to get to Malaysia and buy a knockoff Lonely Planet for one-fifth of the original price!

Top Five in Singapore:

Here is my top five list of things to try and do in Singapore:

1. Try a cup of the Singaporean coffee. It is called "Kopi" at the hawker centers. This stuff is the blackest coffee I have ever seen in my life. It literally looks like melted tar, but tastes like heaven. If you order "Kopi" the vendor will mix it with a portion of sweetened condensed milk. Wow. This stuff is so amazing. If everyone could drink this everyday the world would be a better place. If you want coffee with no milk you tell the vendor you want "Kopi-O."

2. Go to Little India, smell the incense, and try some of the delicious Indian sweets. These things are so rich and delicious, it is probably best to split them between two people.

3. Ride the MRT. The MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) is the incredibly efficient public transport train that travels to most areas in Singapore. The MRT comes every few minutes and is used by a large majority of the country. Apparently there is a large tax ($40,000) for people who wish to own private cars. Also, Aunt Sandy said most of the cars are sent to other countries after 10 years. So, it doesn't make much sense, unless you are uber rich, to get a private car. This means that thousands of people ride the MRT everyday. Besides being a convenient place to enjoy some air conditioning, it is a great place to people watch. Just riding the MRT gives you a good flavor of the diversity of Singapore.

4. Go to a hawker center, any hawker center, and try some random foods. Maxwell Food Center in Chinatown is a good one.

5. Drink a delicous Tiger beer on a hot day, preferably with some spicy food. Beer tastes much better when it is hot out.

First Days in Singapore

Ahhh... I do love Singapore! This is my fourth time to this country and I am constantly amazed at how well run it is. Although the country is small, it is endlessly interesting. On of the best things to do is just go to Orchard Road (the main shopping area), find a good bench, and just sit there and watch people.
Singapore is extremely diverse. The majority of the people here are Chinese, but there are also major populations of ethnic Malays and Indians.
Of course, one of the best things about coming to Singpore is testing out the endless array of food at the Hawker Centers. Hawker Centers are groups of permanent food stalls. The food there is always delicious, very cheap (about S$2.50-$4.00), and can be found everywhere. No matter where you are in Singapore, a hawker center is not far away.
The fun thing about traveling with someone else is that always get to try two things at each meal: your own dish and their dish! Double the fun! Eric and I have mostly been eating at hawker centers. Today we went to West Coast Food Center for breakfast. To start out with we got Singaporean coffee (SO GOOD!!!!! I'D MOVE TO THIS COUNTRY SIMPLY TO DRINK THIS EVERYDAY!!!!) After that Eric got something called Mee Rebus, which was noodles in an interesting sweet and spicy curry sauce. This dish was from a Muslim food stall.
For lunch I went to a Thai stall and got a noodle dish and Eric got fish ball noodles. Fish balls are interesting. They are not bad, but they have a strange consistency. Sort of a mix between rubber and hard boiled eggs. Anyway, after that we went and got some fresh fruit (mangos, bananas, and young Thai coconut) for smoothies later on.
Aunt Sandy and Uncle Vic left for Canada yesterday morning. On the night before they left we went out to a fabulous Burmese restaurant called INLE. Wow! This was my first experience with Burmese food and it was fantastic! I have heard one description of Burmese food from someone else: "a mix between Thai and Indian." But, I don't think you can call Burmese food a mix of anything. For anyone who visits, I highly recommend the yellow bean appetizer. Mind blowingly good. For dinner, I ordered some sort of noodle dish that had chilis, chicken, sesame seeds, some vegetables, and some other spices that I could not identify. INLE is inside Peninsula Plaza near the downtown area. As it turns out, Peninsula Plaza is sort of like a "Little Burma." Inside the mall are all sorts of Burmese provisions shops. After dinner we all wandered around the shops looking at all the Burmese ingredients. Out of all the shops, I think I could identify maybe two things. No wonder the Burmese food tasted so unique: because I had no idea what any of the ingredients were!

Eric and I share a similar travel style: we like to just walk around aimlessly for hours. So far we have covered quite alot of ground in Singapore. We went to Chinatown, Little India, the financial district, Clark Quay, Boat Quay, Orchard Road, Bugis Market, and much more. Walking for hours is great because you see the way people live everyday.
I think my favorite area in Singapore is Little India. I was talking to Aunt Sandy about this and she said many people think Little India is the antedote to Singapore's almost sterile cleanliness. It definitely has alot of character, but in my opinion, so does the whole country. I was disappointed to find out that my favorite area of Little India, Tekka Market, was closed for construction. Oh well. We wandered around Little India and found a Hindu temple. It must have been an Indian holiday because the place was packed full of people eating special food watching yogis walk around doing blessings.

On The Road Again....

Greetings from Singapore!
I seem to have woken up today and found myself in Asia. This is my second major backpacking trip to in SE Asia and I couldn't be more excited. I arrive in Asia this time not by myself, but with my boyfriend Eric in tow. We are both travel addicts affected by wanderlust, so I think this experience should be fantastic. It will definitely be a much different experience than my first Asia trip. On my previous journey through this area I was traveling mostly alone. I got up when I wanted, went to sleep when I wanted, and traveled wherever I wanted. It was pure independence, and one of the best experiences of my life.
But, I am equally excited to share those experiences with someone else. On my previous trip I found myself constantly overwhelmed with emotions, thoughts, sensory experiences, and wonderment that I was content keeping to myself and writing down. But, it is great to be able to share those things with somebody else. On my first trip I learned that value of the written word. I wrote everything down, which equated to 12 full journals by the end of my 10 months abroad. I vow to continue to write everything down that I feel. I have found great pleasure in flipping through my old journals. It is entertaining, and often hilarious to see what sort of things I was thinking on certain days... It is nice to be able to read what I felt on my first day in Asia, and later my first day in Kathmandu. The feeling I had when I first stepped off the plane in Kathmandu, I think, is a once in a lifetime feeling. Everything that lay ahead of my was unknown. I didn't know anything about traveling, bartering, eating foreign foods, gesturing, or Nepali toilets.
At the beginning of this trip I did not have that same nervousness that I did then. I feel much more experienced. That first trip gave me the confidence to feel like I could take on anything, and I will take on anything that happens during the next three months.
Eric and I will be traveling in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. (At least that is the plan at the moment.) I will continue to keep note of what happens on my blog: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Both of us consider ourselves very adventurous travelers, so I have no doubt that we will come in contact with some pretty interesting people, food, and situations in general.
We will also be experimenting with some organizations that I have heard alot about and have been excited to try out. The first is called WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). We will be working at one or two organic farms in Thailand, which I will be sure to report lots about. We also hope to try out
Couchsurfing.com. It is gonig to be a great three months!

On The Road Again...

Greetings from Singapore!

*Note: Everything below the this line is from my 2007-2008 Asia trip. It may be confusing because I will be going to many of the same places that I visited on my previous trip.
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