Exotic food and wild life
Really, this is the odds-and-ends bit of my adventure that didn't fit well elsewhere, but might actually be more entertaining. :)
Let me start with the food. I get to eat exotic food right here at home as you have witnessed from previous blogs, but it was a treat to have a different set of spices and all the fresh fruit I could eat. We often ate from street vendors in Thailand, but not in Cambodia, where the street food was deemed, "for the hygienically adventurous." Our average lunch cost less than $2 on the street and consisted of fresh fruit/ juice, pad thai, satay, and/or unrecognizable yet delicious items. My hands-down favorite dish was Khao Soi, a Northern Thai recipe. This is a savory curry noodle dish with any variety of meat or tofu you choose. We also liked the pumpkin soup in Cambodia that had coconut and coriander in it. One of the stranger things we tried was miang kham. This fab dish took a leaf and filled it with coconut, lime, chilis, ginger, peanuts, and dried shrimp. You fold this up and dip it in probably a hoisen sauce. mmm. I think the worst thing we ate was labeled juicy king lobster fritters. We ordered this on principle because the name was hilarious, but it turned out to be a large, over-cooked crawdad.
As for the wild life, I make this two separate words because on this trip it refers to both the animals and the people we encountered. Our guide in Chang Mai made the comment that the only wild animals left in the jungle are the tourists. I guess I believe him. We didn't see anything wild in the jungle, but we saw plenty of strange animal life in other places! Every trip has it's classic line that you quote forever, and I think for this trip it will be, "Claire, get closer to the monkeys!" What Melanie couldn't see through her view finder was that I was already close enough to pet the monkey, and when I tried to squeeze in just a bit more, it turned in to a toothy demon monkey. I guess I reacted rather badly to this because our tour guide nearly wet himself he was laughing so hard.
We nearly wet ourselves when we saw a large reptilian head poking out of the water when we were in a paddle boat in Thailand. I thought it was an alligator at first and then a giant snake, but I'm pretty sure Melanie was right in deciding it was the same sort of giant lizard we saw while touring the canals in Bangkok. This would be a water monitor, and the one we saw sunning on the rocks was about 4ft. long. I can only imagine how big the one in the water was since I could only see it's head, but it was a big head. And we were in a little boat.
My favorite animal was the elephant, and mostly because we kept running into them. You can have tours of cities, ruins, or the jungle on an elephant, so they were pretty much everywhere we went. The best elephant spotting was while we were climbing the elephant trail to avoid all the crowds heading up to see the sunset at Angkor Wat. The sign at the bottom said "Careful elephants!" I laughed that I sure hoped the elephants would be careful, and the first time they came running around a corner (I'm not kidding) I realized that this wasn't funny. While cute, they are a bit intimidating when they are coming down a narrow path at high speed.
The strangest animal we met was the Irishman, or men to be more exact. Part of their mating ritual is apparently to toss the female of the species high in the air. One of them would hoist multiple women at the same time. It sort of reminded me of the log tossing competitions you see on weird sports channels sometimes. We celebrated the New Year with a group of them at a massive block party in Siem Reap. It was great fun. I think the fun was enhanced by the bucket drinks though......
Let me start with the food. I get to eat exotic food right here at home as you have witnessed from previous blogs, but it was a treat to have a different set of spices and all the fresh fruit I could eat. We often ate from street vendors in Thailand, but not in Cambodia, where the street food was deemed, "for the hygienically adventurous." Our average lunch cost less than $2 on the street and consisted of fresh fruit/ juice, pad thai, satay, and/or unrecognizable yet delicious items. My hands-down favorite dish was Khao Soi, a Northern Thai recipe. This is a savory curry noodle dish with any variety of meat or tofu you choose. We also liked the pumpkin soup in Cambodia that had coconut and coriander in it. One of the stranger things we tried was miang kham. This fab dish took a leaf and filled it with coconut, lime, chilis, ginger, peanuts, and dried shrimp. You fold this up and dip it in probably a hoisen sauce. mmm. I think the worst thing we ate was labeled juicy king lobster fritters. We ordered this on principle because the name was hilarious, but it turned out to be a large, over-cooked crawdad.
As for the wild life, I make this two separate words because on this trip it refers to both the animals and the people we encountered. Our guide in Chang Mai made the comment that the only wild animals left in the jungle are the tourists. I guess I believe him. We didn't see anything wild in the jungle, but we saw plenty of strange animal life in other places! Every trip has it's classic line that you quote forever, and I think for this trip it will be, "Claire, get closer to the monkeys!" What Melanie couldn't see through her view finder was that I was already close enough to pet the monkey, and when I tried to squeeze in just a bit more, it turned in to a toothy demon monkey. I guess I reacted rather badly to this because our tour guide nearly wet himself he was laughing so hard.
We nearly wet ourselves when we saw a large reptilian head poking out of the water when we were in a paddle boat in Thailand. I thought it was an alligator at first and then a giant snake, but I'm pretty sure Melanie was right in deciding it was the same sort of giant lizard we saw while touring the canals in Bangkok. This would be a water monitor, and the one we saw sunning on the rocks was about 4ft. long. I can only imagine how big the one in the water was since I could only see it's head, but it was a big head. And we were in a little boat.
My favorite animal was the elephant, and mostly because we kept running into them. You can have tours of cities, ruins, or the jungle on an elephant, so they were pretty much everywhere we went. The best elephant spotting was while we were climbing the elephant trail to avoid all the crowds heading up to see the sunset at Angkor Wat. The sign at the bottom said "Careful elephants!" I laughed that I sure hoped the elephants would be careful, and the first time they came running around a corner (I'm not kidding) I realized that this wasn't funny. While cute, they are a bit intimidating when they are coming down a narrow path at high speed.
The strangest animal we met was the Irishman, or men to be more exact. Part of their mating ritual is apparently to toss the female of the species high in the air. One of them would hoist multiple women at the same time. It sort of reminded me of the log tossing competitions you see on weird sports channels sometimes. We celebrated the New Year with a group of them at a massive block party in Siem Reap. It was great fun. I think the fun was enhanced by the bucket drinks though......
posted by Claire | 7:07 PM
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