Latimer: Ridley and I are working hard to get the second book of our Keeping Secrets series read for publication! But, in the meantime, we are daydreaming about the exotic and the far-away, reliving some holidays and thinking about some new ones.
Last I left off on my trip down the South-East Asian holiday memory-lane, I was in Laos, heading towards Vang Vieng and the capital city of Laos Vientiane!
In Vang Vieng, we were lucky enough to stay with a local family in a small village (just a few minutes from Vang Vieng central). It was a real eye-opener because we just don’t live like this anymore in Ireland. Everyone was really nice and the homemade food was yummy.
Village livingLittle piggys!
While in Vang Vieng, I checked out the beauty of the Blue Lagoon; petted a butterfly – no really, it felt like I was Snow White or something, it was crazy, I was surrounded for the briefest moment by a flock (?) of colourful butterflies! I trekked up a mountain and had a poke around an amazing cave, which really inspired me for writing! And then, I had some fresh coconut juice. I also had a bit of relaxation getting a brilliant Laotian massage – I definitely recommend them!
Blue lagoon… beautiful!!Stunning butterflyMy Disney/Snow White moment!!
We had a few relaxing days in Vang Vieng, ending the trip there with a beautiful sunset and some nice juices…
Then it was off to Vientiane, the most laid-back capital city in the world. It’s really small, but has this relaxing feel to the place, that just doesn’t exist in… well, basically any capital city I’ve ever been in. It’s such a cool, fun place. We managed to get lost walking around the whole city, but all roads lead to where you want to go eventually in Vientiane! On the detour we managed to check out some nice temples.
We didn’t have long in Vientiane before we were saying goodbye to Laos and GOOD MORNING to VIETNAM 🙂
Latimer: There are some interesting movies on the horizon. Just the other day I saw a trailer for The Boxtrolls, a beautiful-looking stop-motion movie made by the Laika group.
It’s been a while since I saw one of their movies (Paranorman) but I always look forward to them – because I love me some stop-motion.The Nightmare before Christmas is one of my favourite movies (and also, strangely, one of the movies that creeps me out most… not sure what that says about me!).
Paranorman was preceded by Coraline (one of Neil Gaiman’s books), which was on the TV recently and made me fall in love, all over again, with lovely Laika stop-motion.
What a beautiful art-form stop-motion it is. These movies are so detailed and so lovingly made. You can see how much time and effort went into crafting them. I love the wacky character designs, the seamless movement and yes, I love the eerie feeling that niggles at the back of my mind, because stop-motion, in a lot of ways, boarders on the very, very creepy.
They take years to make and I guess that’s the price we pay for the quality – the time. But, YES, time to look forward to The Boxtrolls!
Latimer: I continued my adventure through South East Asia by crossing from Thailand into Laos. I have to say it’s one of the loveliest, most laid back countries I’ve ever visited.I’ll put my hand up and say I really didn’t know anything about Laos before I went there. So, here’s a quick list of facts/interesting info, about Laos!
Laos is actually called; Lao People’s Democratic Republic
Hello is pronounced – SAA-BAI-DEE
Thank you is pronounced – KUP-JAI; Thank you very much – KUP JAI LAI LAI
Currency is called ‘kip’
Biggest export is coffee
New Year occurs in Mid-April
It’s the most bombed country; due to its proximity to Vietnam and Cambodia
75% people are farmers
67% Buddhist; 32% Phii (a jungle religion); 1% Christian
First stop on the journey through Laos was a trip down the might Mekong River. Which gave me some time to catch up on my note-taking from my trip, eat some traditional Laotian food and have my first taste of lychee!
Thai Buddha art catch up on the Mekong River!
We then went to the lovely town of Luang Prabang. Where I found myself up at 5AM to go and offer alms to the Buddhist monks, along with a lot of other visitors. This was a pretty special moment. My offering was some sticky rice; but… it’s very sticky (go figure!) and it was really hard to dish the stuff out without being overwhelmed by the sea of orange clad monks descending upon the streets of Luang Prabang! In Luang Prabang, I met some elephants and had a misadventure kyakking in a boat that had a hole in it and ended up capsizing, with me onboard, in a river full of elephants and their poo… yeah. That’s happened. The elephants were pretty cool about it though, looking on nonchalant as I resurfaced full of rage.
5AM in Luang PrabangMonks collecting almsPoor children from the mountains come into town and the monks toss some of their food into the children’s baskets. The children then take these baskets home to their families.Sticky rice offeringElephant riderBeautiful elephants having a snackThe RIVER… yesh…. hmmm, I have mixed feeling about you river…Views of Luang Prabang
No trip of mine would be complete without me waxing lyrical on the food! I had some good food in Laos…We managed to stop off at a local families house in Luang Prabang for some traditional food, that was so good. We were also given a Buddhist blessing by the family for luck on our travels. Then it was on to the next stop on our journey! Vang Vieng and the capital of Laos; Vientiane! But that’s another blog post!
Food, home cooked fooooooodYummy fresh mango and….. a traditional dessert, kind of tasted like coconut…. sorta!Blessings and welcomes; I would loose these along with my Buddhist blessing from Thailand when I fell in the river… damnable RIVER!!
Latimer: Lately I’ve been doing some globetrotting. Every time I hitch up my trusty wheelie bag and head off into the far blue yonder, I come back with lots of stories and lots of ideas. I think the most recent trip to South East Asia has me all inspired for writing!
Ridley and I are really excited to be working our way through our Keeping Secrets series, plotting and outlining all the books to come. We are back firmly on track now – and we’ll be releasing Book 2 by the end of August! So stay with us for updates!
In my recent travels I visited Thailand. It was a quick run through the north of the country from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, to a fly-by visit at Chiang Rai and then Chiang Khong (to cross into Laos). I didn’t see that much of Thailand really, but what I saw was stunning, beautiful, strange, inspiring and… stranger still!
Bangkok is a pretty cool place. There are lots of things to see there – when I was there I took a trip around the canals in the city and went to Wat Pho to see the huge golden reclining Buddha, which was amazing. Buddhism (and monks) feature strongly in my Asian travels; I sometimes think I’m starting to understand it, then I always get stuck and realise actually I don’t know much about Buddhism, but it’s really interesting.
Bangkok canal views Reclining Buddha… massive!!He looks like he’s pretty comfortable here!Wat Pho outside viewsMore of the PhoYet more Pho!Another Buddha inside another temple in Wat Pho – I ear-wigged as this guy was explaining Buddhism to these people!Lot’s of monks – notice how young some of them are! All men in Thailand must serve a year (at least) as a monk before they get married, to be considered ‘a good man’ for marriageThai green Curry… because… it’s Thailand!From the back of a tuc-tuc… the only way to travel in Thailand… I love tuc-tucs!
From Bangkok, I got an overnight train to Chiang Mai. Lots of people on the tour were worried about the overnight train, but having experienced the Chinese ones, I was no longer afraid. The ones in Thailand are actually brilliant; and compared to the Chinese ones, they are very spacious and comfortable – this coming from someone with extreme ‘creature comfort’ problems!
Chiang Mai was a fun place; we had a walk around in the blistering heat, went to see beautiful Wat Phra That Doi Suthep temple ate some lovely Thai food and went for a cool bike-ride around the city. While on our bike ride we stopped at an orphanage for Hill tribe children, for dinner. I bought some lovely artwork by the children – it was Naruto inspired 🙂
During my time in Chiang Mai, I was coming to terms with the heat, I won’t say I ever ‘got used to it’, just learned to accept I would always be dripping sweat and needing to drink water and isotonic drinks.
Train station catching my ride to Chiang MaiThese trains are fantastic! So clean and comfortable. There’s a bunk that comes down from over these seats and the seats themselves are transformed into another bed – big and very comfy.I had the top bunk, which was fine… but not as big. I had some pocky for the trip!Some cool outside dining in Chiang MaiArtwork on the streetsBeautiful, random templeMore temple actionBuddha outside the templeA very cool dragon vomiting snakes… well, maybe not but that’s what it looks like!! Wat Phra That Doi Suthep Walking up to the temple, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep Wat Phra That Doi Suthep bellsWat Phra That Doi Suthep Wat Phra That Doi Suthep Wat Phra That Doi Suthep Wat Phra That Doi Suthep Getting my fortune at Wat Phra That Doi Suthep Monks visting Wat Phra That Doi Suthep I got this white blessing bracelet from a monk in Wat Phra That Doi Suthep; he said a prayer over it, for luck and safety in travel.A delicious vegetable spicy soup…. it was feckin hot though!Buddha overlooking the river on my bike ride around Chiang MaiHandle bar views in Chiang MaiBuddhas in Chiang MaiMore views from my bike in Chiang MaiChiang Mai templeChiang Mai templeChiang Mai templeCool artwork done by the Hill tribe orphansMore temples from my bike ride Chiang MaiBuddha and candle wax – from bike ride Chiang Mai
From Chiang Mai, we stopped off briefly in Chiang Rai to see the White Temple, which is a bit like Sangrada Familia in Barcelona, in that it’s unfinished at the moment and being built by the artist that designed it. It’s full of demons and cultural references – though I never got to go inside, as we were late getting there and it was closed! It’s supposed to have like cartoony stuff inside and be really strange and interesting. This temple was badly damaged after we had seen in, in the earthquake that hit Thailand – so I feel lucky to have seen it before that happened!
Batman and Pinhead… heads.. .weird!!Freddie, Pinhead and Hellboy… retro weirdness!
Yummy food in Chiang Khong
Then from Thailand, I took a bus into Laos! But that’s a post for another day!
Latimer: I love me some funny podcasts and Smodcast by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier is one of my favourites. I just love listening to these two old friends talking about random stuff and joking around.
Smodcast is full of bizarre stories and funny nerdy references, and life lessons.
I just love these two, they make me laugh but they also have all this funny random advice about taking risks on doing the things that you love, and being creative and surrounding yourself with ‘why not?’ people. All this inter-spaced with Kevin’s obsession with Batman and Canada, and fascination with Jaws (or just sharks and being eaten by one).
“But… what would Batman do Scott?” and “Can you give me that in Jaws measurement*? How many Jaws’ would that be Scott?” (*Jaws measurement being one of Kevin’s ways of measuring things in the standard unit of a Jaw’s shark!)
I’m so happy to say that Ridley and I will be heading off to see Kevin Smith doing a live podcast in Dublin in June! I can’t wait 🙂
If you don’t mind swearing and you like to laugh you should check out Smodcast!
Latimer: We’ve both mentioned before that we are fan-girls.
We get obsessed about certain things very quickly and have done for years. Because of that we have a waste land in our hearts of broken down, forgotten obsessions – the ones that got away, or atrophied due to lack of obsessive energy. But sometimes… sometimes you aren’t as free from an obsession as you think you are! They can come back.
I used to be a massive Star Wars fan.
Back when I was, there was only the original trilogy; the prequels hadn’t come out yet. I would obsessively watch Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi (my favourite) over and over again (on cassette). And if I could have back then, I would have bought lots of Star Wars junk, but it wasn’t really an option – cos, no internet buying and no money!
Reminiscing MLR style
When news of the prequels came out, I bought the script book/story boards for the first movie before it came out (I don’t know why they released it!).
I read it and was really looking forward to seeing the movie (still a fan!) then I saw it and… yeah, it’s really bad. Although I still went to see Attack of the Clones and the last one (which wasn’t bad, actually). But by that point the obsession had run its course with me and I haven’t seen Star Wars in years.
Now we’re all getting news of forthcoming new Star Wars movies, which are going to be about Luke, Leia and Han. I don’t think my broken down obsession is going to suddenly revive, but I am looking forward to seeing JJ Abrahams take on Star Wars, he did such a good job with Star Trek!
Check out the fan-made posters for the new moviesHERE!!
It’s going to be an interesting cinematic few years!
Are you excited about seeing new Star Wars? Or have you been recalling any old obsessions lately 🙂
Latimer: Well, all things must come to an end and Hong Kong is a pretty nice place to end things.
I was only really there for one day, but I got to go to the cool Sino Centre, which was like being back in Tokyo, with all the Asian drama and anime stuff.
Then I headed across on the ferry to Victoria Peak to check out the views of the city.
And then it was more or less homeward bound!
Having been out and about travelling a bit again, reminds me that there is so much to see. As the Discworld’s first tourist, Twoflower, once said:
“Sometimes I think a man could wander across the disc all his life and not see everything there is to see. And now it seems there are lots of other worlds as well. When I think I might die without seeing a hundredth of all there is to see it makes me feel… well, humble, I suppose. And very angry, of course.”
Latimer: I know Saint Patrick’s day is long over, but this year was the first I’d spent ‘off world’ and it was a little out of the ordinary!
I didn’t really expect to see any Paddy’s Day stuff in China and just as well because I didn’t. I had to explain Paddy’s Day to my Chinese guide. In primary school we all learned about Patrick from An Bhreatain Bheag (Wales, that’s what we were told anyway), and how he was kidnapped by the Irish slaver Niall of the Nine Hostages and taken to Ireland.
I got a bit of a way into this story and paused.
‘Well, Saint Patrick’s day itself is more about celebrating your Irishness’; the guide looked confused, so I carried on, feeling the weight of the whole of Ireland bearing down on me. ‘It’s for the people that went away’, I smiled, ‘you know like in China when people leave and then they want to feel connected to home?’
He nodded. I’m not sure I explained it well enough in the end!
It’s just an Irish holiday to celebrating your culture and where you come from, or just having fun (or craic – Irish for fun)!
I spent the day in a monastery! I had fun letting everyone back home know I was in a monastery on Paddy’s Day!
During the day I climbed the Giant Stone Buddha at Leshan, looking for any ‘signs’ of Paddy’s Day – haha, which I didn’t find!
There were no signs – no green, no shamrocks, nothing… BUT! When we got to the monastery to check-in we were introduced to our local guide.
Aside here: in China, people take Western names (like Tom, John, Seamus, Charles) so it’s easier for Western’s to say their names (their parents don’t actually call them John etc). These names are usually given to the Chinese people by their English teachers.
The local guide introduced himself; “Hello, my name is Patrick!” And I just started laughing. Brilliant.
So that was my Paddy’s Day in China – a simple name had me smiling all day!
Latimer: I’ve said this before (a lot!!), but honestly one of the best things about going to a different country is getting to eat their food! And I’m the sort of person who takes photos of the food they eat and Instagrams them – hence this post is photo heavy!
I love Asia food but I wouldn’t have ever said I particularly liked Chinese food. As with most countries, we have Chinese takeaways in Ireland and they’re fine. But having been in China, I don’t think they are making proper Chinese food (I think it’s Westernized to suit our palettes). But, I wish they weren’t, because as it turns out, proper Chinese food is so freckin’ good!
I was asked a lot about the food when I came home – people would grimace, ‘what did you eat?!’ Well, okay, to be honest in Chinese food, they use everything and the food is always fresh (i.e. the fish is alive in the tank then cooked and put on your plate). It’s harsh to look at, but you have to respect that Chinese people know where their food is coming from; we eat the steak and the pork and we don’t think about how it got there.
Weighing the fishAnd here the fish is cooked moments later (it’s called Beer Fish a dish from Yangshuo)
And they have some amazing food markets! The Muslim Quarter in Xi’an was one pretty cool food spot…
Muslim Quarter Xi’anThe yellow stuff is rice cakeThey are making this sticky bar type stuff from peanuts and honey… beating the crap out of it with mallets!A prune, fungus drink… wasn’t nice! 😦Roasted walnutsKitchen in the Muslim QuarterA kitchen in the Muslim QuarterMaking fried wrapsYummy fried wrapsSquid on a stick!
From hotpots to noodles, to taro chips… I ate well in China!
Meet in a bun… sooo good… and spicy cauliflowerNoodles in Xi’an (they’re known for their noodles – this was the only time I had noodles actually! wow)Spicy beefYummy spicy cabbageSweet and sour fish in BeijingDumplings in Xi’anSome seriously spicy hotpot in Chengdu (they have the best hotpots apparently!)Do you see the brains? Yup… I did not try that! ah… ha… nooo…Spicy potato… Love me some spuds!
We stopped off at a local woman’s house for lunch in Yangshuo. This green stuff (a type of lettuce I think?!) was soooo tasty… I could have ate the whole plate!These were homegrown in the above woman’s garden… yummy!Taro chips…. They could give potatoes a run for their money!!I went to a cooking class and this was my end result…. not too bad?!
If you ever go to China know that you are going to eat well!
And to round things off you’ll find some nice drinks too!!
This beers quite nice… and bloody massive – I could hardly hold it for this photo!Strawberry sodacoffee art… how can you drink it now!!More coffee art… so cute!!
Carwicky 