Just Step off the pavement and walk

Kids are in heaven, after a few weeks of roughing it and being constantly on the move we are in a clean modern hotel, free internet, cable TV and room service. We left them to enjoy and head out to explore Ho Chi Min City (Saigon).

We had heard from a few people about the traffic in Saigon. The only way to cross is to just step of the pavement and walk, trusting all the drivers to flow around you. It is quite a thing to get your head around and I had thought about it a lot. Finally here Louise and I were at one of the busiest traffic circles in Saigon opposite the main city market and we had to get to the other side. Taking a deep breath we stepped of and walked……..like schools of fish the hundreds of scooters, motorbikes, and taxis flowed around us without missing a beat.

Our trip through Asia has been like this, no plan or agenda just step of the pavement and walk, often putting our lives in other people hands. We are coming to the end of the first half of our journey and are once again on the banks of the mighty and inexplicable Mekong River. From the northern most tip of Thailand near the Chinese border, through Laos, back into Thailand, through Cambodia and now close to the ocean in Vietnam we have been zig zagging the Mekong.

We had used every mode of transport imagineable - busses, scooters, boats, canoes, trains, bicycles, tuk tuks, elephants, pontoons, rafts and rickshaws. Traveling this way has its rewards, slow travel lets you appreciate where you are and gain an insight into the daily life of the locals. Your rhythm changes, distances become real again, you acquire a sense of discovery and adventure sharing your days, meals and boredom with people you would otherwise never meet. The humanity that moves about with bundles and children while the world of the aeroplane passes over their heads in every sense of the word. Slow travel is for us, but then I guess you have got to have the time.

What a great and pleasant surprise Ho Chi Min city turns out to be, feels like the Paris of SE Asia. We arrive at the market and after 2 seconds Craig is bored, anyway we end up in the food section and he is no longer bored - funny that. We sit down to Vietnamese spring rolls and a beer from one of the many stalls yumm, Craig’s in heaven and he could have stayed all afternoon but I dragged him off to look at all the groceries and delicious delicacies.

The food market is staggering and we realize that there is a whole new world to food in Vietnam. After spending so much time in little rural towns and villages we are back in foodie heaven. We start thinking about dinner and having seen lots of fresh seafood we decide to fetch the boys and hunt down some chilli crab. We walk back to the hotel, down-load, un-pack, freshen up and then get our concierge to flag down a “real” meter taxi to dinner. Bill is mortified as he is missing his Arsenal game to come and eat with us, shame poor deprived child!!

This restaurant comes highly recommended from an article given to us by the foodie of all time Irene and boy was it an incredible experience! The restaurant is packed, mostly with locals, which is a good sign but after a few minutes at the entrance we are shown to a table by our friendly waiter. There are 15 different kitchens surrounding a central courtyard with each kitchen preparing its own delicacy. A salad section, a barbecue section, a steam section, a soup section and so on and so on.

After being taken on an impromptu guided tour by our showman waiter through all the various kitchens we are flummoxed - how to decide when everything is so mouthwatering! We finally settled on a papaya salad – spicy (just for a change) a chicken mince meatball packed around a sugar cane stick- deep fried, a prawn toast/fritter and the piece de resistance our Crab steamed and stir fried in a Tamarind sauce - God it was sublime. Kids have salad and chicken – a few beers, a bottle of wine all bloody marvelous and happiness all round.

Back to the hotel to drop the kids and we decide to hit the town. It’s a Friday night and the city is busy, the streets are lined with bars, clubs, restaurants, massage parlors packed with people and noise. We settle on a corner bar and try and get a take on things, we are in the touristy part so there is lots of action. People on the make everywhere sex being the central theme- “love you long time one dollar”. Tomorrow we leave and are feeling sad, having caught a glimpse of the shade we want to see the sun. Vietnam we hope to see you again soon.

Last Night in Bangkok

So Nicky, Bill and Lou set of for Bangkok again with a card of a hotel in Ko San road area. We arrive at the Wild Orchid something or other and I just think nooooway anyway I go and check out the room and then the next price range up and then eventually the top range room which is on the 6th floor with NO LIFT- huh?

We decide to leave and get a cab to our trusty hotel near the river when some sweet Thai girl says we have a better hotel just round the corner called Villa Cha Cha and it has a pool. We are sold, she grabs a heavy pack – lucky Nicky and head for the mad streets with us in tow, it’s not just round the corner but a lengthy walk and when she slips into this alley I’m thinking paranoid thoughts. Then out pops Villa Cha Cha from the swirling mass of stalls and mess, we check in very excited and happy to have found a home.

The problem is Craig is on a plane from Turkey and then onto the Wild Orchid villa and we are not there, how to get a message to Craig with no phone and no computer. So I found an internet café logged onto Craig’s email gmail and sent an urgent message from Craig to Craig??? Hehehe
The boys and I hit Fuji and had sushi yippee; love Bangkok did some good shopping whilst boys got their fix of Games in the big Kids entertainment emporium.

I get the message as I arrive in Bangkok which after Turkey is starting to feel like home, easy transfer into the city taking no bullshit from the taxi drivers and find my way to the hotel. What a relief to walk into the Cha Cha and see my tanned and chilled family sipping mango lassies around the pool. Louise has chosen a particularly crazy part of Bangkok, restaurants and shops line the streets, and in front of these a second tier of restaurants and bars line the pavements.

We emerge from our alley and fall into a papaya salad, chilli fish and Tiger beer. Much later I weave of nonchalantly down the road with promises to find a trip to Cambodia. Feeling jet lagged and spaced out I catch a tuk tuk across town to the train station, find an agent, stared earnestly into his eyes for a sign of honesty, think I see it and pay over good money for 4 tickets and a hassle free ride to Siem Reap in Cambodia the next morning.

Evening’s arrived when I return, we dump the boys in air conditioned comfort watching scratchy pirated DVD’s and head back into the human tide looking for a night on the town. Dinner is Indian, lots of white wine and ends with a hubbly hubbly shisha pipe watching the second tier of restaurants through the haze on the pavement. It has been particularly hot and humid even by Bangkok standards, the heavens open up and a tropical downpour engulfs the world outside.

Total non panic as rickety awnings emerge, restaurants and bars continue unabated – wires stretched overhead, bare light bulbs, grills, fires, dogs, chickens, rabbits, gas and all. Our last night in Thailand …… just over a month from North to South and everywhere in between - we love it!

How to make a Green Papaya Salad

Whilst Louise is learning to cook me and the boys jumped in a taxi and went of to nearby waterfalls for the day. (See pictures) turquoise crystal clear deep pools, jumps, swings, climbs, lots of bikinis - boys stuff.

Afterwards whilst waiting for a taxi we stopped for my favorite meal meal, skewered chicken (or fish) on a stick, sticky rice, green papaya salad ……..and a quart of Laos Beer.

So this is how you make a Green Papaya Salad (Som Tum)
Use a big mortar and pestle
Chuck in a few small dried garlic cloves, leave husks on
Couple of dried red chilli’s
Spoon of Palm sugar (she used normal sugar)
A pinch of shrimp paste
Fish sauce (about 2 tablespoons)
Grind to a rough texture
Squeeze in juice of 1 or 2 small sweet limes and then roughly cut and add the rinds
Cut up and add a few rose tomatoes
Some baby dried shrimps if you like
Some roasted peanuts
A few roughly broken long green beans
*Skin and grate up enough green pawpaw for a good helping

Grind it all together so tomatoes kind of break up and all juices start flowing together nicely
Finding the Paw Paw is part of the planning, in SA we normally steal one from Justine and Marks tree which overhangs my parents balcony. If you jab a fork in and milk comes out its ready, it must be green and firm. Don’t fall out the tree now.

Sticky rice is easy, buy it from the Chinese shop, read the instructions.

See picture of chicken on stick, chicken cut up Chinese style loaded with one of Cape Herbs mixes or your favorite MSG concoction like in Thailand, baste with some peanut oil. Cook very slowly over coals. Slice the flesh into thick slices but leave on the bone, serves with a couple of limes.

New Year and Food in Pai

On the food front Pai is a delight all round, Tiks kitchen was the kids favourite - Phad Thai and noodle soup sorted, us the burnt chilli stir fry, beef, chicken, pork or Liver. Charlies and Leks organic smanic a lettuce salad brown rice and all things tasty and the best lime drink eva.

The afternoon food market was always an option lots of little stalls selling dozens of different dishes served up in Papaya leaves on sticks or in little plastic bags. Our favorite lady opposite the bus station was our source of green papaya salad which we just couldnt get enough of.

One of the best meals happened by accident, a real little local place next to Ting Tong
(one of the happening bars). We didn't have a clue what the deal was but it turned out to be a Barbecue Thai style. A clay pot is placed on top of bricks on your table and filled with coals. This is covered with something like an upside down water bowl with a domed lid and a gully around the side. It arrives with a sizzling piece of pork fat to oil the grill you pour water into the gulley, collect all the different meats/fish from a central table, pick herbs like vietnamese mint, basil, coriander, spring onions, veggies like kale and you place all the green stuff in the gulley place the meat on the top and as the meat sizzles all the juices run down into the water, making a stock while you barbecue, we drank the local rum ate ourselves happy and then the end was a fabulous soup to which we added noodles chillies fish sauce lime juice, yummm.

The liquor deal works like this, you buy a combo which consists of a bucket of ice, a bottle of local rum (Sangsohm) a few bottles of soda and glasses. You run your own cocktail bar from your table.

It's been 10 days and we haven't had a bad meal yet (or a bout of the runs) but damn we have missed the odd cold glass of cold white wine!

We spend Thai new year in Pai, is about saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new. This is where the water comes in, water is sprinkled on you to cleanse you. But as the days go on its an excuse for a water fight on a grand scale, talk about wet T shirt competition, Water pistols, hose pipes, buckets, drums, people line the roads and as you ride/walk/run past you get drenched. Nicky thought he had died and gone to heaven. He bought a water machine gun and just jumped into the fray for 4 days.

You start losing your sense of humor after about day four and especially when you crash your scooter with your kid on the back. (Nicky poor child crashed first with his mom and then a spectacular wet skid with Dad down the main drag, so Craig and Nicky are sporting excellent war injuries).

Before we knew it we had been 8 days in Pai and so draws to an end our time in Pai. We have met so many people, locals farangs and learned the difference between Sawadi Kap and Sawadi Ka. We are slowly morphing into travellers and its time to hit the road on our next big adventure down the Mekong River.

8 Days in Pai

There is a road that leads from Chaing Mai to Pai, It has 335 bends in it and although its only 138 km it takes 31/2 hours windey windey up into the mountains.

Lulu and Bill found Paradise Guest House which was exactly what we wanted to find, it was Paradise - cute little bungalows with bathrooms and fans, free wireless internet, a natural spring water fed pool, tropical gardens all owned and cared for by a Gentle Thai family.

Pai is like the name, it conjured up nursery rhymes and lazy do nothing kind of feeling and we were not disappointed. Its a little village backing onto a broad winding river, Pai is filled with an eclectic mix of shops, restaurants, bars, massage, book shops, guest houses and lots of street vendors. Most of the businesses work from converted houses run by the family who live over or behind the shop so you see mama papa granny, granpa and lots of cute Thai babies. No cars are allowed into town so its all on foot, scooters or bicycles.

Scooters are the mode of transport in Pai and for 100 Baht a day (R25) Lou and I were soon whizzing around merrily exploring the town and surrounds.

Yoga keeps you young and flexible and one of our missions for the trip was to continue where we left of in India. We found Mama Lin, a 62 year old - half Thai - half Hindu, ex beauty queen, model, activist, sage, travel agent and much more. We suspect she ended up with Anorexia and at 25 was packed of by her wise mum to live on an Ashram in India. She came back a yogi and has taught the art ever since. She willingly shared her wisdom, taught us to laugh and 5 two hour lessons later we were starting to stretch.

One day found us in a national park with hot springs. Whilst we submerged ourselves in this hot sulphuric water Craig went up to the source and boiled eggs (yes he did) that he bought from the stall on the way up so we ate the boiled eggs with soya sauce for lunch.



As Africans we decided to visit the elephants and go for a ride. Up close Indian elephants are BIG and there are only 2 ways to mount them, up the trunk or up the front leg both seem a daunting task. The first option entails tapping the elephant on the shin and after a few commands from his instructor he helpfully bends his leg so that you step from ankle onto the knee and grab his ear to climb up. The second option involves tapping his trunk prompting him to hoist you up onto his head which was is done without any apparent effort from the Elephant. From there you leopard crawl down his neck and end facing backwards 12 feet off of the ground on a moving beast. Nicky and Lou were on the little ellie (relative term) and Craig and Bill on the big mama. She had a spine like a scaffold plank - sideways, thank god Lou bought cushions because we were riding bare back with just a simple piece of cloth and one rope around the Elephant for some sort of handhold.


The first hour was pretty hellish a slow ramble up into the jungle and then of course down which is pretty difficult on your legs bum etc. Lous and Nickys elephant keep sneezing, blowing snot all over them and Craig was squirming around trying to find a position on top of the sideways plank. We laughed the whole way; I mean what else could you do. During the second half we ambled along the river and then into the river. Its hard to describe the experience it was like riding a whale. Such fun, the four of us, the guides, the ellies and a couple of locals - we were loving it.

They squirted gallons of water at a time, they played, they flicked us off, they rolled over, bucking bronco on an elephant! They are magnificent creatures and by the end of the day sitting around drinking Singha beer with the guides we were looking at these domesticated beasts with a whole lot more insight.