Detours of a south east asian prairie girl

Not too shabby, everything for Asia is fitted in two 39L packs, along with our satchels and with room to spare. These are carry-on size as well, so no checking in luggage! I mean, I knew I wanted to travel light, but for the love of Jesus, Maria and Jose, this is ridiculously light, heh!

Everything nicely (for now) organized in mesh bags or ziplocs. My digital camera and accessories in a sock, each of a pair. 7 books which we will read and trade off in due time. A set of mask and snorkel each. Sandals, headlamp, and all liquids and gels carefully transferred to their 100 ml or less containers. A basic first-aid kit of various anti-histamines, stomach and motion-sickness cures, painkillers, bandaids, moleskins, and oral rehydration salts. A tin of macadamia nuts and a ziploc bag of crunchy party mix. And a Lewis & Clark retractable cable lock to boot. There’s even a tripod for the camera, heh heh.

Truth – the Edmonton leg of the trip is completely different. That one has skis, boots, extreme cold weather clothing, cakes, ingredients and tools for making more cakes, miscellaneous from-Vancouver gifts, you name it. Yeap, Edmonton-bound, not so light.

Bone-tired as I have been lately, a night out with two of my Japanese girlfriends truly saved the day. A meal at The Clubhouse was awesome. We had Kimpira Gobo (burdock root marinated with sesame, very crunchy and terrific with beer), unagi maki with cucumber (simple and done very well), sauteed kimchi with octopus, and a gigantic serving of okonomiyaki, presented on a piping hot plate with yakisoba. Very nice. And since Chi-chan just adopted a kitty, Hatch, from the SPCA, dinner was promptly followed up by dessert and kitten-play at her place. Hatch is so cute!

You two, thanks for the yummy gossip, laughter, and advice on Japan. Tomorrow, I pack.

Amongst the Chinese community in Vancouver, I am often asked normal things, like whether I am married, whether I have kids. It used to be whether I lived with my parents, whether I have a boyfriend, but I suppose the years are showing on my face, thereby graduating me to “marriage-able” status. It doesn’t matter where I go: to a restaurant, to play badminton, to a community centre.

At the gym in the early mornings, there’s a lovely older Chinese woman. Over time, we have gotten to know each other a little by little. She speaks to me in Cantonese. I reply with my embarrasing smattering of Cantonese and English. Sometimes, I mix up my words and unwittingly throw in Mandarin or Hakka. She understands me in the most gentle way.

This morning, the inevitable happened:

She: Nei off? Holiday?
Me: Mou. Mou. Me work till December 31st. But me go holiday 2 months in new year!
She: Wah, so nice. Holiday. 2 months. Where?
Me: Tai-kwok, Cam-bou-dia, Yuet-nam, Lao. And Nippon!
She: Ayah, very nice. You have so much fun.

… a few minutes follow with advice on how to eat and avoid getting sick …

Me: No worry. Me bring Pepto-Bismal!
She: Ahhh, very good, very smart. Hey, nei married?

Me: Ummmmm, hai.
She: Oh, nei husband go with nei?

Me: Ummmmmm (desperately searching the word for “wife” in Cantonese) … my .. lou-po. Hai, she come with me.

I see the familiar perturbed look cross her eyes and face. Then, just as sweet and gentle as she’s always been, she says:
Wah, very nice, you two have so much fun. You enjoy yourselves. Me so happy for you. 2 months, wah!

Now the thing is, I probably can’t be as liberal with my nouns on the road, but E and I have an agreement. We’ll play it by ear and if needed to, we’ll be like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears: the bestest BFFs ever.

Me, I’m a morning person. I get up, full of energy. E, not so much. The following took place this morning:

Me: You know, we have to wake up early, like 4 am, on some days while we’re travelling, eh.
E: Why, why so early?
Me: Well, there’re some places, like we get up early to climb Angkor to watch the sunrise.
E: Not fair, I’m on holiday. No. No. No.
Me: But you have to, you have to watch some places at sunrise.
E: Well too bad, we don’t have a travel alarm clock to bring with us.
Me: Don’t worry about that, I’m bringing my (not-so-small) one.
E: Oh.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so thanks to Google Earth, above is a pic of our journey in January 2007! What is included is Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. What isn’t included, but is part of the trip, is a kick-off jaunt to snowy Alberta (my hometown! politics and all!), and a finish in Japan with our awesome friend Mit-chan. And if you look close enough at the bottom right hand corner of the pic, you’ll see the teeny tiny country where I grew up.

E and I will fly to Bangkok via Hongkong, then we’ll hit the Southern Thai island of Koh Pha Ngan, which is famous for its full moon parties (we’re not partying, but will be snorkelling and lazing instead). Then it’s back to Bangkok and overnighting it to the beautiful moated Northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. From there, we will head to riverside Chiang Kong on the eastern border of Thailand and Laos, cross the border by boat, then slow-boating it for two days on the grand Mekong to the Laos city of Luang Prabang. Then it’s off to Vang Vieng for some river tubing and onwards to the Laos capital of Ventiane. Then it’s back across the border to Thailand, in the Northeastern part and transit again to cross the border into Cambodia. Supposedly on a rutted road from hell, we should arrive in Siem Reap and the stunning temples of Angkor Wat (the first reason why I wanted to visit this area).

Breathe

Then off to Phnom Penh, where we’ll get our visa for Vietnam, and take a boat to cross the Vietnamese border into the Mekong Delta. If we have time left, we’ll head to Phu Quoc Island (more snorkelling, more lazing, sigh, life is so hard …). If not, then it’s straight on to Saigon, and train it up to Hanoi for the Tet and Chinese New Year festival!

Having said all that, the plan is pretty flexible, and a bout of stomach upsets can easily change things, heh. Stay tuned, more to come on how to travel as light as we plan and eat well on the road. Trust me, the food will be worth a few posts on its own.

E needed to sleep last night, so I went to my collection and pulled out a CD which I got a few years back at the Chinatown night market. It was Anita Mui’s, and I haven’t listened to it in a while. Shortly after I bought the CD, she passed away in Hongkong. As I listened, I remembered how I adored her when I was younger. Last night, I realized that I still do. In a time of muted Asian convention, she had the audacity to push public images. She was feminine at will and androgynous when she wanted to be. Her voice can be playful in one sentence, and fill all the ranges in the next. When most other pop artists in Hongkong were singing love songs, she sang of sojourns, displacement, the pull of wills, and the piquancy of love through the ages. As I drifted off, I thought, those western chanteuses and divas have nothing on her. She was a damn fine class act. And a damn cool actress to boot.

Fresh from the oven, chewy gingerbread cookies with crystallized ginger chunks and rich bittersweet chocolate clouds with fleur del sel. Gonna wrap them up and along with donations to the food bank this year, these are my gifts for the ones I love. Simple and it doesn’t add to clutter in anyone’s home.

14 days to go. I have some serious work to complete, then it’s off to my hometown in the prairies to see my mama, and then to the other side of the world for 2 months. Edmonton and Bangkok, here we come!

Meanwhile, my home services need to be disconnected, the cat has got to pack up and go to her lovely sitter, there is a winter solstice fire show to perform (my pyro-loving mate, E, is performing; I’m just part of the tech team making sure no one and nothing burns), the finances gotta go in order, and cookies need to be made for gifts. Oh, and did I mention an entire Christmas dinner will be cooked and served at our place this year? Complete with all the goodness and richness of trimmings and fresh relishes. Hmmmm, I can smell it now, yum.

Ahhh, it is bliss I am after, and I tremble, literally tremble, at the thought of the next two months. I promise I will not drink too much Beer Lao (okay, mom?) and I will try to pick up some new words. I will definitely go after street food on the road, observe as I always have, chill whenever possible, and hopefully learn a little more for all that.

Joyeux Noel and Xin Nian Kuai Le, everyone!!! Clink on those flutes! Cheers!