we went to a market on the outside of viengchan - going to markets are one of my favorite things by the way - everything about it.
well, really this is my favorite thing about the market. i have eaten mangosteens so many times in the past week, i shoulda had my fill, but i don't think it's possible. if i was gonna get the option for a last meal before i died, mangosteen would be on the menu. and this might delay my executioners until they could get a trip to Laos to pick it up for me.
all the different types of sticky rice that you can find in Laos. in the usa, you can't get sticky rice from Laos, just what is imported from thailand.
so there are not only crickets, but crickets and crickets, and more types of crickets. (each type of crickets have their own name, and each has a different flavor. i know, because i tried one of each until i settled on my two favorites that i purchased to take with me. i couldn't find cool ranch doritos in Laos, so this really is the next best thing,)
some real nice tib khao. i bought a couple since the ones the sell in the usa (imported from thailand again) are real ugly and cheaply made.
just a quick post since i haven't been online for sometime now. i was out in the countryside, and i just got back a bit ago... i actually spent christmas out there in the baan nok - which is kind of funny considering how many places i could have celebrated christmas (like the philippines, or any of the big cities in Laos and thailand would've at least had decorations up around the town.) it just so happened that my schedule landed me in the southern most part of Laos where most people haven't even really heard of christmas. but before anyone feels sorry for me, i had a really nice time down there. i went to visit a family that used to live in the usa, but chose to leave urban seattle for rural Laos. they have electricity now, but that one little bulb wasn't enough to keep my from going to bed with the nightfall and waking up with the sun. well, i did stay up long enough to eat koi pa with khao niaow and cheo pong. i'm sure i've said this before, but there really is something so mesmerizing about rural Laos - all the sounds of the bugs and chickens and pigs and cows. and the neighbors stopping by to join you for some khao piak pet and ping pa...i didn't take many pictures, because i was focused on getting video. but i have some pictures i'll be posting soon.
i got to Laos yesterday, and we met up with kone's older brother (half brother - from one of his dad's mia noys) and he has been showing us around. lotta fun i gotta say, and i am reminded why i keep coming to Laos time and time again. and i don't think i am biased here; even foreigners that have travelled southeast asia always say how they like Lao the best. we did all the requisite stops: that louang, patou xai, dog restaurant, and the morning market.
today we came up to vang vieng and we'll play around here a bit before heading up to luang prabang tomorrow.
and just so i'm clear: i didn't take the above picture. i tried to upload some here but this internet cafe's usb thing aint workin right.
i went to china town, got fresh noodles at a spot recommended by my guidebook, and checked out the sights.
then i found manny pacquiao hanging out among the newest shipment of flat screen tvs. when he's not boxing or being congressman, he advertises for 3D televisions i hear.
i have no idea what this advertisement might mean... i can't even begin to guess. but i think i might call the number just so i can find out.
i had planned on taking the monumental (the raised train you see here) to see the chinese cemetery, but nobody could clearly tell me which line to take. i kept getting different answers from everyone i asked. so i finally gave up and went across the street to a mall where i stumbled upon a karaoke lounge. there was the guy in there singing whitney houston's greatest love of all... and it was awesome. he sang the verses in this whispy falsetto, but when he hit the chorus, he belt out the song like he thought i was randy jackson coming to audition him for idol. (i get that sometimes.)
rumor has it that jack bauer started working here at this little mini-mart after losing his job with ctu.
this is where kone and keo are staying - taken from the terrace on the 7th floor; their unit is up there somewhere on the 42nd.
kone throwing the football with justin and jerry
from the balcony
the mall is right across the street and its got everything you'd ever want to eat (almost.) jerry on the left and i chose to eat some japanese food (pepper lunch). its this hot plate that cooks the food when they bring it out to you. and justin prefers his dinner to be macdos. i can sympathize with both positions.
this mall sure knows how to set up a christmas tree
i landed safely in manila after an 11 hour plane ride (that included a stop-over in guam.) kone picked me up from the airport and brought me back to the high-rise condo that they're renting in the makati district of manila. keo is off translating for the hmong refugees coming from the camps in thailand; they are being processed here before being resettled in the usa. she will be back on thursday. justin and jerry have school today and tomorrow before they finish up for christmas break, and kone has to work a bit today and tomorrow, so i will be alone with my guide book.
here is a very dark view from the room where i am staying (justin's room):
on the plane in, i sat next to virginia, a filipina woman from new jersey, coming home to visit her relatives. she'll be in country roughly the same amount of time as me. she's lived in the usa for 45 years, and so now it's her "home, sweet home," she told me. the phrase propmted her to begin softly singing,
from the mountains, to the praries, to the ocean, white with foam god bless america, my home sweet home!
i listened to her as i looked out the window to watch the lights of the city rise as we got closer to the ground. and then, as if to balance out her two identities, she began singing again as the plane got ready to land:
philippines, my philippines, to thee i give my heart and hand...
I'm about to be very honest: although I would rather lie and say that I am having the best time of my life, i gotta admit that its a sad sad situation over here in hawaii. the rain keeps coming down and the beaches are about as fun as a fist in your face. luckily the rain is only forecast through sunday... oh, wait. that's the day that I'm leaving! yeah, i would like say that everything is sunny and awesome and that I'm enjoying my time on the beach. but its kinda like cheating at the scrabble on my phone: what's the point of a blog if i aint gonna tell the truth. besides, i think i am gauranteed some sunny days when I get to the philippines and Laos.
and i am still entertaining myself. i went to see my niece perform at the polynesian cultural center last night (she was in the lead role and had several nice tahitian solo dances,) and the rain was coming down on the stage, which added a nice intense element during the fijian fight scene. and at least the seats where we were sitting were covered. (here she is below - in the white dress)
afterwards, ko'olina (my niece) brought me backstage - which was pretty cool. so then i sat on the bench by the dressing rooms, playing scrabble on my phone, waiting for her to finish changing. i heard her wishing some people merry christmas, and then talking about something or nother as she was exiting the dressing room - and i had just made 25 points on my scrabble game! so i jumped up to walk with her so she could punch out, and i let her know: "i just made 25 points on scrabble!!!" she answered me with a limp, "that's nice." so i just walked with her to punch out, and told her to hurry, all the while looking at what points i could make next.
well, finally, i looked up to see what was taking so long, and then i had this sinking feeling: my niece had completely vanished! she had disappeared into the huddle of people around the time card machine... in reality, it really only took a second though before i saw her again, or at least, i saw who i thought had been her before: this girl, about the same height as my niece, same hair (kinda), voica kinda similar, but not the same person - she was not ko'olina. my face dropped about 20,000 leagues under waimea bay, and i quickly retreated back to the bench to wait for ko'olina and my self-image to return.
wow... i didn't even look at her when she exited the dressing room... i was so excited about my points on the scrabble game. (i am still undefeated on this thing. i don't even think i'm that good; everyone else is just really really bad.)
well, now for the moral: you're better off playing scrabble on your phone while driving on the freeway than you are while waiting for your niece to exit the dressing room.
when i go somewhere, i like to bring along some books or novels about that country or that takes place in that country. so this is my list of books that i am thinking about for the upcoming trip to the philippines and Laos:
biggest elvis, by p.f kluge this is a loaner novel from a colleague of mine (a teacher at the local high school, and the co-sponser of the khmer mien Lao club that i help out with). i really know nothing about it, but it is set in the philipphines and i am looking forward to checking it out. he said it's pretty good.
tears in the darkness, the story of the bataan death march and its afteramath, by michael norman and elizabeth m. norman. i have two uncles, including my uncle ralph who i was named for, who experienced the fall of bataan during world war two. and my uncle art died in the philippines in a japanese prison camp after undertaking the death march. this book is to better understand that history.
creating Laos, the space in between, by soren ivarsson this actually maybe a little bit too academic for a vacation, but i'm taking it along anyway...
we ordered three dishes. the nem, the koi koung, and the tom khem. (they romanized the Lao words differently - and that's really my only complaint with the place - i feel like people should follow the french romanizations as closely as possible; it's consistent and looks nicer than the thai free-for-all transliterations.) in fact, their menu spelled padek so ugly, (badaik), i couldn't bring myself to order the tam makhoung. i can't believe that padek would taste as good when spelled that way. so sawatdee, when you ever update your menu, let me know if you want my help on this.
using their menu's spellings, we ordered goi goung, toam kaim moo, nhem mou (see the problem here? the moo and mou are the same thing -pork- but spelled two different ways.)
but i did enjoy the food. the nem was very good (eaten with fresh herbs, wrapped in lettuce.) however, the tom khem didn't seem as sweet as what i've had in the past. and i have only had goi when the shrimp is raw, and this was cooked, but i enjoyed the unabashed flavor of the dish: salty sour and spicy. we killed all three dishes, as you can see.
they have khao poun on their menu as well, so i'll be back there really soon to give it a go, and i'll tell you about it. check out their website linked above - i like how the links change to thai script when you go to click on them.
so go try em out. it's nice to have another option for Lao food in the seattle area (the other two restaurants are viengthong and thai palms, both down in the south end.) and people on yelp are loving the place. and one of the reviewers posted a picture of savatdee right off my blog! hahaha. http://www.yelp.com/biz/savatdee-seattle#query:sawatdee
so my december trip is kinda planned, kinda not. but i did get my philippines guide book, (and learned how to spell the name of the country and its people: filipinos), so i think that's the most important thing.
so i am first going to hawaii for 3 days. then to the philippines for a few days before going to thailand. (in the philipphines i will meet up with kone and keo and their kids) - and we'll spend a day or two in thailand before taking a train to Laos. we'll stay there for a week or so before heading back to thailand - then back to the philippines for some touring around there. then i am back to hawaii for a couple days, then back to seattle. (hence the name: inception vacation - because i have to revisit every layer of my vacation (with Laos as the innermost layer) before returning home. sorry if i insulted anyone's intelligence or made my joke "not funny" by explaining this.)
far east movement scores 3 points: one for diversity (the members of the group are of korean, chinese, and filipino ancestry), one point for the catchy beat, and one point for the clubs that will surely see their alcohol sales go through the roof over this song:
so yall already know this, but i just found out. (thanks jason and erika). one of the final contestants from project runway season 8 is Lao! represent!! anyway, he didn't win, which means that there ain't 2 project runway winners from Laos. a previous winner from season two, chloe dao, is from Laos, although she is ethnically viet. andy south woulda really begun a Lao dynasty of winners for ths show! (a big number 2!!!)
well, like i said, he lost. and he also lost the rest of his name. apparently, he used to be andy southiphong, but he or somebody else trimmed off the last two syllables of his name and tossed it to the floor like discarded scraps of cloth from one of his project runway creations.
but i guess he stayed true to Lao culture and all things Lao by ordering cloth from Laos for his final creation and dedicating it all to his mother. i've never watched the show, but it seems pretty interesting. they make clothes out of nothing, (or something in this case) and here is how andy's final line turned out, and at the bottom of the page you'll find a recap of the final episode -
it is pretty amazing that anyone would vote for sharron angle over harry reid (searchlight in the house! or the senate in this case.) she continues to open her mouth and reveal her stupidity, (much like palin of snl-fame.) here is her latest: she told a group of latino students that she doubted that they were all "hispanic" because, "some of you look a little more asian to me!" which was met with gasps from the kids. wow.
and in trying to describe the melting pot that is america, she went on to make this incomprehensible statement: "i've been called the 'first asian legislator' in our nevada state assembly." melting pot or smoking pot? not sure which fits her better... wow #2.
and this alongside juan williams anti-muslim remarks on fox news. i was really sad to see him fall from grace (dropping from the sky like middle-eastern missile.) i guess the take-away lesson for juan is that fox news brings the crazy out of all of us. see you later juan. npr fired you, which means i will never hear your voice again, because i sure as heck ain't watching you on no fox news.
i attended a great fundraising event on saturday in graham washington. jai lao foundation works to build schools for elementary-age children in Laos. they've had some great success already, with more to come! great job yall!!!
jai Lao supporters and officers outside of thai mekong restaurant in graham.
jai Lao made padek to sell and it all sold out... i didn't get none. which aint right.
to find out more about jai Lao and their mission, visit:
this is the funniest thing i've seen in a long time:
but... (and i shouldn't have an opinion on this, but i do,) ...the only problem is the country is not really called "Laos" either; it is Lao. the country is Lao, the language is Lao, the people are Lao. (unless they're hmong, mien, khmu, thai dam, thai deng, akha, leu, kalom, prao, prai, lahu, then they're not Lao.)
the country name, "Laos," is a french construct where the "s" would be silent, unless followed by a vowel, rendering the pronunciation as "Lao." (i made a post on this some months back.) so if somebody says, "i am Lao from the country of Laos..." well, aint that wrong too? so they might as well get it all lined up: "i am Laos, from Laos, speak Laos, eat Laos food, (padek!) and i like the old Laos flag, not the new one." (and by the way, i am the united states of america.)
so despite the perfectly sound rationale of the above video production, i propose that if you wanna say you're Laos, then say that then; claim that "s," be all you that you can be, be a country.
i sometimes get asked where to find good thai food. (and the answer: thailand.) i'm kinda joking - seattle does have a couple of good places to get thai. but a lot people going for thai food just end up ordering pad thai; so if that's the case, it doesn't really matter where you go. in fact, just make it at home: get some noodles, mix it with cat sup and maybe a little bit of egg, peanuts and bean sprouts, and save $10. but that's not what this post is about. it's just that i've been wondering if the popularity of thai restaurants and thai food may have opened up this small space for "thailand" in american popular culture. thailand has been a vacation destination for some time, and its also known for its kickboxing, islands, elephants, and temples. but in the past 10-15 years, more people seem to be aware of thailand (and are even able differentiate it from taiwan. my mother got these two confused on occasion.)
recipe books, chang beer, survivor: thailand, and remakes of thai movies (bangkok dangerous, shutter, the eye) all seem to follow this trend. but here i list two thai references in american pop culture that really need a thai horror-movie-style exorcism to rid us of them.
first: nicki minaj, a rapper/singer of indian and african descent, is all up over the place, (and she aint even released an album yet!)... she's in the young money song (featuring lloyd,) "bedrock" and in trey songz's new club number, "bottoms up." and now she has this new song, "your love," with an asian theme. see below:
nicki does a rap on this song, and she raps herself into a corner saying something like, "i was a geisha, he was a samurai," so she has to follow it up with a rhyming line something like, "i understood him when he spoke thai." (did she mean japanese???)
well, as long as it rhymes, i guess it don't matter, right? (her lyrics are of very low quality, so if you don't wanna watch the whole video, just ffwd to about 2:15 in, and you'll find the aforementioned segment.) but in the end, nicki really does owe an apology to thai people everywhere.
second: sanuk shoes (sorry, not shoes, sandals...) i don't wanna hate on the shoes, even though they're overpriced and fit small. but the name? sanuk is a thai word meaning "fun, happiness!" well, how do you pronounce it? the sanuk website has a help up in the right hand corner! you click on it, and they have someone saying "sanuk" for you! well, the voice seemingly belongs to some sun-soaked surfer of suspicious character. and he clearly is not thai. the pronunciation is all wrong. he says the second syllable like "nuck" (rhymes with "duck.") the word should really be sa-nook, the second syllable sounding like "nuke." c'mon shoe people! if you're gonna name your shoes a thai word, and then go through the trouble of having a pronunciation guide on your website, could you at least make it correct?
did he really say that? (rick sanchez tried to defend his anti-semitic rant on jon stewart and the "jewish liberal media" by using the classic phrase.)
and then my other favorite line: in defending his assertion that jon stewart is a bigot, he says, "well, that's what happens when you watch yourself on his show everyday, and all they ever do is call you stupid." (in case it doesn't make sense to you either, it seems like rick thinks that because he's latino, if someone says he's stupid, then that person must be bigoted.)
see rick run, see rick open his mouth and insert foot, see rick lose his job at cnn. well, one of my best friend's is is jewish too (jon stewart) and i am blown away by this hot mess of an interview that rick sanchez did on pete dominick's radio show.
dr. laura, move over, here comes the new crazy: rick sanchez. listen to him self-destruct below:
everytime the united nations gets together for their annual general assembly, the american media is just sitting around waiting to hear what crazy new thing that ahmadinejad or hugo chavez might say. but what about president choummaly from Laos? well, he was there in new york city too and apparently attended some very important meetings; although his attendance was without the fan fair of the iranian president; in case you weren't aware, fan fair means crazy in this context. but choummaly has returned to Laos, and all is well. see link below.
we went to a market on the outside of viengchan - going to markets are one of my favorite things by the way - everything about it.
well, really this is my favorite thing about the market. i have eaten mangosteens so many times in the past week, i shoulda had my fill, but i don't think it's possible. if i was gonna get the option for a last meal before i died, mangosteen would be on the menu. and this might delay my executioners until they could get a trip to Laos to pick it up for me.
all the different types of sticky rice that you can find in Laos. in the usa, you can't get sticky rice from Laos, just what is imported from thailand.
so there are not only crickets, but crickets and crickets, and more types of crickets. (each type of crickets have their own name, and each has a different flavor. i know, because i tried one of each until i settled on my two favorites that i purchased to take with me. i couldn't find cool ranch doritos in Laos, so this really is the next best thing,)
some real nice tib khao. i bought a couple since the ones the sell in the usa (imported from thailand again) are real ugly and cheaply made.
