Living the rich life!

If you enjoy feeling rich without actually being rich Laos is the destination for you. Bundles of 10 000, 20 000 and 50 000kip bills are in circulation, millions of kip pass through your fingers daily. Unfortunately they are only just worth the paper they are printed on. Life's great when you can live off $10 AUS a day, including a few beers as you watch the sun go down over the Mekong at the end of another hard day in southeast asia.

For breakfast you can indulge in a fresh baked baguette which is a blend of rice and wheat flour. These come plain for 3000kip (40c AUS) or fill them with pate, salad and flossy pork. A cup of rich strong Laos coffee kick starts your heart for a mere 3000kip.

Lunch time is great for a bowl of noodle soup, fine rice noodles cooked to perfection come in a bowl of steaming pork based broth with fresh greens, chunks of meat (your choice; pork, chicken, duck or beef) and crispy pork crackling. 7000kip (90c AUS).

Freshly squeezed fruit juice and shakes are avaliable on every corner for just 5000kip (70c AUS).

Dinner time, well anything goes! In Vientiane there are many restaurants serving up local cusine, French, Italian, Indian or Korean, there are even a few steak houses to be found. Depending on what's your flavour you can spend as little as 14 000kip ($1.80 AUS) or as much as 300 000kip ($38 AUS) for Foi Gras in the best French restaurant in town.

We keep it cheap so there is more kip for beer Laos! On the Mekong you pay for the view at 10 000kip a large bottle ($1.30 AUS), small bars around charge 7 000 to 8 000kip ($1 AUS) but if you buy from a distributor you can pick up a case (12 large bottles) for 63 000kip ($8 AUS).

1 litre bottles of 'Two Elephants' drinking water will set you back 1 000kip (15c AUS).

Eating and drinking around Laos is a fun,cheap way to mingle with locals and get a feel for there lifestyle.

They do love to eat!

Finding your "Happy" place

It seems that in this part of the country, "Happy" is a way of life. Unfortunately, in preserving this unique "island", the exact location must remain undisclosed. It is somewhere in the south, and the only way to get there is by boat.

This particular part of the Mekong is splattered with green, leafy islands.The depth of water, as well as the clarity, depends on the season. Nothing happens here too quickly, so you are best to just sit back, relax and watch the river go by.

It feels amazing to be in a place where nobody is concerned with rushing about, the river moving faster than anything, or anyone else, for that matter. It may well have something to do with the "happy" vibe found in many restaurants there.

Some of my favourite menu choices were, "All fried dinners will happily be made happy for 5oookip ($0.50), happy wedding party, happy birthday cake, please specify how happy you want your birthday cake. Tours, all tours are always knowledgeable, safe, memorable, and, of course, happy".

My personal favourite, "Hangover Brunch, scrambled eggs, garlic margarine, cheese baguette, french fries, 500mg paracetemol, 10mg valium, cold pepsi, fruit salad. US$4.00", which can if course be made happy!

Every couple of weeks, someone in the village may slaughter a cow, and it's roast dinner night. The beast is open roasted on the footpath, the incredible smell unescapeable. It will set you back about US$4.50 and includes salad, fries, bread, a few shots of local whisky and the biggest plate of meat you have ever encountered.

Just what you need after a day in the hammock.

Oiy's Bakery

The extreme south of Laos is home to Si Phan Don, or 4000 islands. There are many hidden treasures in this laid back and peaceful part of the world. A big surprise was a wonderful bakery run by the friendly Oiy, aka Darren, from Western Australia.

A short stroll through the village of Don Det will lead you to the Lamphone guesthouse. Adjoining this guesthouse is Oiy's bakery. Oiy, aka Darren, was born in Mount Barker in Western Australia. He did his baking apprenticeship in the seaside town of Dunsborough, the gateway to the world famous Margaret River wine region.

A holiday in SE Asia turned into something a bit more permanent. Darren really enjoyed the laid back style of southern Laos, and it's super friendly folk. So much so that he decided to set up his own bakery. Darren imported the bakers oven from neighbouring Thailand, along with all his other baking equipment. His day generally begins at around 9.00am, quite rare for a baker.

He prepares all his goods by about 3.30, sells some from the deck of the guesthouse, overlooking the Mekong. Then he packs all the remaining goodies into specially designed trays he stores on his push bike, and pedals his wears to the guesthouses around Don Det, first in, best dressed, of course.

You can choose from gorgeous baguettes, mushroom foccacias, carrot and chocolate cakes, and at least 3 varities of moorish donuts, cinnamon sugar, chocolate or banana and chocolate.

Decisions, decisions.

Stop Over

Finished work, oh what a feeling! On route back to Southeast Asia I had a stop over in Brisbane catching up with family and friends, reuniting with Megan, seeing Luke... Plus having a day at the football.

No day at the football is complete without some footy food. We indulged in a chicko roll, hot chips, hot dog and of course the good old Aussie Pie. Just like I remember it fatty, crumbly pastry with chunks of some kind of meat and thick sauce combining the inners, what a treat.

Megan and I were lucky enough to be in town for a fair trade fashion show where fibres and textiles were on display from various undeveloped nations. Local designers are proud to showcase these resources and nobody is taken advantage of in the production of items.

We caught up with Luke who is now working in Noosa (Australia), no doubt enjoying the sun, surf n turf!

But the time has come to get back to southeast asia for the cost of living in Australia is killing me........................

Wild Foods

The small town of Hokitika is host to an outrageous food festival that has been up and running for 17yrs. Locals and foreigners alike come from miles around to take part in the festivities. Over the years it seems the food has tamed, but you can still get your laughing gear around some wildfoods......

The festival was held on March 10 (2007) and seems always to be around this time from year to year. Each year is themed differently for culinary purposes and fancy dress. This year was a French theme, ooh ooh ooh say it frenchie, chowder! Do you think I found any, NO!

People were dressed in the traditional red scarf, stripped shirt, white pants and beret, the more outlandish took the Where's Wally approach. It's not just restricted to themed dress up however, there were clowns, sheep, devils and my favourite: (start wearing purple,wearing purple for me now Jada -see LAM friends) dressed all in purple, occasioanlly blowing the rickshaw horn, the number 1 jimmer, dazzled!

That sort of sets the scene now lets get to the food.

Hu Hu Grubs; a big attraction, available cooked or raw, they are a small native grub that tastes like hazelnut. Funny the way so far along my travels I have indulged in one grub or another, its seems every country has a worm they are proud to eat.

Pickled Fish Eye Sushi; a pink coloured eye of a large fish (maybe snapper or gropper) was placed on a sushi roll, wasabi and soy was your choice. TRUELY HORRID!

Paua Paddy; a flour, egg and possibly potato batter with paua folded thru was pipped onto a BBQ. It looked like a black pancake and tasted of saltwater and mushroom. Try as I did , I couldn't get the secret recipe out of the chef.

Smoked Boar & Mussel Skewers; possibly the nicest thing I ate all day. New Zealand's beautiful large green lip mussels, suprisingly tender for their size matched well with the slight gaminess of the boar and the subtle smokey flavour.

Horse Burger; I felt like I was eating PAL (dog food)!

Bull Tail Curry; tender pieces of meat with a more robust flavour than ox tail, was cooked roganjosh style, YUMMIE!

Possum Jerkie; a little under dried for my liking and quite a non-descript flavour.

Possum Pie; "Possums are seen as a pest in New Zealand, destroying huge amounts of native forest. When you sample our pie you are helping save New Zealand forests." (Possum Pete, Wildfoods Festival,2007) Possum pie is produced in Pukekura, population 2.
Unfortunately, I did not do my part.

Cow Utter; utterly weird! Rubbery,fatty bite size that tasted of nothing for a few seconds then an over powering unpasturized, off-milk flavour hit and lingered.

I also indulged in some specialised drinks from Fiji; Karva: tongue numbing and Fire Water: reminded me of Malibu rum.

In all, it's a great festival that the everybody really gets involved in. Don't miss the 100+ bonfires on the beach Friday and Saturday nights, in fact some people only come to the festival for interaction between fires.

Character pool!

I met plenty of people from all over the world during my time in New Zealand. I lived and worked with a German, an Alaskian, a Canadian, two Swedes, two Dutch, an Australian and of course a few New Zealanders. As usual the German was the dodgiest (joke)!

Hasst pub was a great spot to mingle with the locals, my favourite became a 74yrs young, electrician by trade, now whitebaiter 'CUZ'. He was always up for a chat about his younger days, rhubarb chutney and of course whitebaiting.

Cuz originally comes from Dunedin, he arrived in Hasst 16 years ago for a job. On completion of this job he planned to return to Dunedin, however an electrical storm hit the region blocking roads and making travel unsafe. He was called in to do some repairs about the town and has been there ever since.

He considers himself a bit of a homebody, infact he has only been to the North Island once and never even dreamt of going overseas. Cuz can be found on any fine afternoon, standing at the bar having a quiet ale.

Oh Canada: I had the pleasue of becoming friends with a crazy country Canadian girl -Jada- who cycles 30 to 40 km on hazardous mountain roads, for fun. Making the most of every opportunity and living life to the fullest is what she is about. I watched Jada go from helping with guided walks, waitressing and general hand, to assistant manager of a wilderness lodge in a few short months. Always helpful, happy and generally a pleasure to be around must have helped, hey!

Day by day monotony was broken by gifts from India from Jada's friend Dave. Who does that? Send random gifts in the mail from distant lands, just for fun. Dave, what a guy! It was like Christmas everytime a package came. Once a rickshaw (bike) horn made of copper arrived, these are no longer made in India. Man, did we get some milage out of blowing that in the silence of the wilderness. BAR POO BAR POO!

Tramping

Getting around on foot is the best way to experience and appreciate the true beauty of New Zealand. Tramping is a term I'd never heard of prior to living in New Zealand, this is what they call hiking for days on end.

Day long walks are common on just about every main road on the south island. Walks can be found that take upto 4-5 days, cabins are located on these trails and reported to be a great social environment after a long hard day of solitude. A bunk is supplied for a small fee but food is your own responsibility.

Around Hasst there are some beautiful trails that lead to hot pools, waterfalls and beaches. If these options don't tickle your fancy there are plenty of mountains to hike up to excape from it all and enjoy the view.

Warning: A huge trend in New Zealand at present, is to hire a campervan and drive the islands. This is a great way to get around independantly and many companies offer good deals. Please however, keep locals in mind when you are driving at 40km\h in an 100km\h zone, stopping on one way bridges to take photos and driving up the middle of winding mountainous roads. Yes, these things all happen regularly and the locals hate it!