Take it easy in Luang Prabang

After 2 day boat trip on the Mekong, we have to reach Luang Prabang, Laos second city ... It is difficult to give you a precise idea of the city. The atmosphere is special and the architect is... imagine you are in a city where trees outnumber homes, with the mountains along the Mekong and its tributaries. Luang Prabang boasts a charm the charm of its old colonial building or the most beautiful fountains covered with ivy in gardens maintained for more years. It feel much more relaxing and heavenly than Vientiane.

Luang Prabang remains a small town with easy access to walking. Apart from oppressive heat , we enjoyed ourselves very much during our walk that day. We set out at 11pm feeling rather relaxed after two days of boat. We decide to change hotel on our wake-up and move into the Ban Lao Guesthouse, a little more expensive but apparently that offers breakfast and with more channel on television ... We then took bath and afterward went out to change some local currency, the kiph. So you know what? For the first time in our life we are millionaires! And yes, not worth going to scratch a ticket and then turn the wheel on TV, come to Laos, exchange 15,000 baths, or 300 euros, and in exchange receive two sets of 100 to 20,000 tickets each kiphs. We exchange 300 euros into kiphs and got 4 000 000 kiphs! Then we began our tour of the city. So you are being talked about very nice atmosphere, it is true that Luang Prabang is a haven of peace. The kids are everywhere, and play all kinds of games, sometimes on the sidewalk, sometimes on the street ...

Speaking of houses, we can assure you that here lie beautiful buildings, heritage of the French presence in Indochina. Like Vietnam or Pondichery in India, the remains of this settlement are absolutely superb. Laotian buildings are impressive and large, yet very light and because they are made of several light materials like wood.
The tuk-tuks on Luang Prabang streets and the motorcycle greatly outnumber cars. We almost lost the habit of looking across the street ...

Restaurant street at night in Luang PrabangDans are green, quiet and calm, you will find good bread and delicious cakes. Fares are similar to the Thai cuisine but our hotel offers venison stew... We had a blast, chatting drinking and laughing. My Laos tours are full of memorable things but if you asked what I miss most about this country. The answer is Luang Prabang. Do not miss a chance to visit this lovely town while you travel to South East Asia.

Truly Laos Nem

Nem Thadeu (Lao rice salad)

Finally I find a little time to post a new article! Sorry for those who looked forward to the recipe Thadeu Nem. It's weekend today so I prepare a little complex dish.

The Nem Thadeu is a traditional Lao which is rarely appeared in cookbooks and culinary sites. This dish is less known than lap or tam mak Houng. A little nutrious ( there's no need to eat sticky rice with it) and a little fat because of the rice which has been priorly fried in a lot of oil ...

I do not know what part of the country the recipe for Laos Nem Thadeu originates, however,from my travel experience from Vientiane to Paske, I noticed that there were variations in ingredients and preparation of the dish ...depending on the cook and the region.

I propose the Nem Thadeu in my own way. Follow the guide!

The Nem Thadeu for 2-3 people

Preparation time: 45 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

Needed:
A frying pan
Tissue paper

Ingredients:
300 g cooked fragrant rice
2 eggs
2 onions, chopped
1 tablespoon of red curry paste
1-2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon of pa nam (fish sauce)
1 teaspoon monosodium glutamate
1-2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon chili powder
50 g grated coconut
50 g of crushed peanuts
1 large lemon or 2 small limes
100 g soft som (fermented pork)
Chives
Mint
Coriander
A few lettuce leaves
Some leaves of banana flower
Cooking oil

In a large bowl put the cooked fragrant rice, add eggs, red curry paste, chopped onions, grated coconut, soy sauce, monosodium glutamate and salt.
Mix well together.

Moisten hands and make balls of rice if possible to equal size (important: the balls should be firm not to break during cooking).

Put oil in a frying pan, wait until the oil is hot before dumping the balls of rice (the ideal is that the oil covers almost all the balls).

Wait until the balls are browned on one side before turning excess oil.
Allow to cool for a few minutes.

Wash and chop the chives, mint and cilantro. Wash the lettuce and banana flower. Set aside.

In a large bowl, crumble rice balls and the soft som.
Add lemon juice (note: not to put too acidity kills the taste!), Chilli powder, pa nam (fish sauce), crushed peanuts.
Season to taste (you can add salt, monosodium glutamate ...).
Add chives, mint and chopped cilantro.
Serve with vegetables such as lettuce and banana flower.

Suggestions:
For those who want to put a little more spice, do not hesitate to add to the decoration of flat dry bird peppers (very spicy !). I do not (see photo) because I did not have that day.
You can the soft som (fermented pork) is what I prefer to eat with the Nem Thadeu ... I always put a lot in preparing the dish. For me it is an essential part of the recipe Thadeu Nem. So do not be so afraid.
If you have a surplus of rice balls, you can freeze them.
It's high time you prepare a Nem Lao. You don't need to take a tour of Laos to taste this dish, right?

Images of Vientiane

It was 4 o'clock in the morning when the bus stopped as if for a new break. However, before scrambling to find our luggage and getting off the bus, we realized that we are in Vientiane, the highlight of our vacation in Laos .


Then begins a long search for guesthouse in the middle of deserted streets. In vain ... The majority of hotels closed at 23:30. Around 5:30, finally I saw a small shop that had just opened. The coffee is not yet ready, but the owner, a Lao very welcoming, invites us to wait. It was time to talk with him about certain features of Laos, more than strained relations maintained by the country with its neighbors Thailand and Vietnam ....

Unlike its neighbors Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, Laos is seen as a very authentic and preserved. Thailand was marked by its modernity, Cambodians moved us by their hard work and determination to succeed. Everywhere, the stigma of the "Khmer Rouge" are visible . Throughout our trips by bike in the streets of Vientiane, we saw street scenes and meet new warm and happy people.

There are many street stalls filled with men and women who take the time to drink a coffee or sip a beer. You've probably noticed the "Beer Lao" is a speciality here: men and women drink all day. In Cambodia, beer is much less widespread, although the country has its own breweries. But above all, we never will see men and women spend an evening together drinking. The men sometimes meet at the weekend but these evenings often resemble large "organized drinking", 100% male.

In a random walk, we discovered a superb night market full of dishes all delicious alike. We finally tried skewers of pork and caramelized Laap (minced meat mixed with mint, the coriander, lemon and peppers), all accompanied by sticky rice eaten with your fingers.


Other unusual scenes are those of Laos playing petanque. We couldn't resist the temptation to play with them. Despite our great tiles,we finally lost. Final score: 7-11. Whew! The honor is safe.

Several reasons may explain the authenticity of Laos :

- The location: without access to the sea, Laos is a landlocked country and difficult to travel to

- The Communist regime that may slow down the interaction with the market capitalist countries and Western culture.

- The development of ecotourism. This particular form of tour, developed primarily by Germans, encourages people to preserve the biodiversity of their region to the detriment of their economy (without deforestation and animals that destroy the fields, agriculture is less profitable ...).

With the development of ecotourism, many plant and animal species are protected and the ecosystem Laos remains one of the most diverse in the world. Laos, you guessed it, has not left indifferent. One frustration: there isn't more time to discover Vientian.

Visiting Vang Vieng

Visiting Vang Vieng

From Vientiane it took us three hours to travel to Vang Vieng. Around 6 p.m the car stopped right at the centre of Vang Vieng town. Upon getting off I was surprised since it was different from what I expected before our Vang Vieng tour. It is very small and a little shabby but full of tourists and bars. That amazement soon went by as we had to start looking for a guest house, which is expected to be very difficult. We call places, walking down streets leading to the river but all the guest house had been fully booked. Luckily, at last we found Bountang Guest House right near the centre of the town. Several people came up to us offering us to share a room but we five people needed a big one. In the end, a Thai guy appear suddenly telling that he had found a large room and wanted to share. The rent for each per day is 15000kip. So we stayed in this room all the time in Vang Vieng. It was really spacious, occupied by six people but it was just only half full.

At 9 p.m we started going out for dinner and asked Net to join us. We chose Sanaxay Restaurant which specializing in Lao, Thai food and some Western dishees. We had a nice meal there with fish, stirfried bean pork, steamed fish and sticky rice. We also tried fruit shake( a mix of ice and ground fruit such as orange, coconut, banana, mango, papaya) a very tasty and cool drinks that we often drink in Vientian and Luang Prabang, too.
After dinner we strolled around the town. Curiously, it was barely 10.30 pm but the streets were very deserted while it was still busy just one hour ago. The most noticeable sound is from televions in bars. These bars can be call TV bar or Friend bar with a big screen showing Friends all the time. Here bars are often divided into small cell and the visitors can have their knee leaning against separating wooden bar watching the movie.
On the way back to the guesthouse we are attracted by the good smell of Pancake made in a mobile stall. It is 10000kip each and can have different flavour depending on your taste… The next day we went on a city tour of the surrounding of Vang Vieng. We dropped by a market to the north of this town and found it very interesting and charming with all kind of stuff exchanged. (to be continued)