Half Day Free and Easy Ventianne.

Man it all began yesterday, I woke up, ass frozen and all , and what more my balls got frozen too after I took a shower. The weather must have been 15C or something like that. I woke up early in the morning, my first one in Laos. Not exactly a very nice place to be, considering that it is a communist country and all, and the police are said to be everywhere. I had a briefing before I came over to Laos, they told me, we actually have a plain clothes policeman following us, wherever we go, I wonder if that is true.


I had a good time sleeping thank you, thanks to this bottle of Lao Beer. Only USD0.80, big bottle man, not the single one. I walked in the darkness of the night by the Mekong River, until I reached this Convenience Store, bought myself a bottle of RO water (USD 0.50) and a bottle of beer (0.80) . Thought I might forget , I also got myself a Laos Prepaid number, Tango Lao GSM provider. Mission accomplished la for first night, now can chat and sms with sayang oredi while I enjoy my local beer.

Breakfast
So after a quick breakfast of Fried Rice and Coffee at the hotel which costed my 6 dollars, my contact arrived and picked me up to work.

Lunch
By 12pm they asked me if I wanted to break for lunch. I said no, we will finish this up before we go. For lunch we took a little drive in their nice 4WD , to a nearby restaurant. The city is apparently slow moving, and by that I mean this people drive about 40kmh tops. They have many people on Motorbikes, thank god, there wasn't any Lao-Rempits here. We drove about 3 minutes from their office and stopped by one shop, we ordered, Ginger Onion Chicken, Kung Po Pork ( I think), Mushroom and Taufoo Soup and Rice. For my sake they ordered a bottle of mineral water for us to share.








After lunch we finished up the remainder of the training and the boss asked me, any place you want to go ? I said I wanted to buy Fridge Magnets. He looked blurr a while and said I bring you to one place, you might be able to find the things you want there. Off we went, to Ventianne's Morning Market. It was 3pm , and I wonder why the market was still open. Its called the morning market isn't it ? As we pulled over, we noticed 4 bus loads full of Thai tourists are also making their stop here. Its indeed how a market should be like, bustling with activity. This place is like a Pasar Pudu, except that it is not only a Wet Market, it has got shops which sells food, clothes, electronics, pirated CDs & DVDs, cameras, apparels, gifts, etc to make it short, everything but Fridge Magnets (FRAG !). The higher floor sells only jewelry. The thing that struck me was find a lady selling baguette kaki lima all. Didn't ask how much. On the same verandah a few meters away, another lady was vending somekind of more exotic foods, smoked fish, river weeds, pig parts which are deep fried.

I had another mission. I was on the look out for some deep fried worms, cricket, grashoppers, etc. Couldn't find any, but instead I saw some stalls selling Pisang Bakar, hmm something new, Ubi Bakar and very standard serving in ASEAN cultures, Jagung Bakar.

The boss sent me back to the hotel, after which I changed out of work clothes into something more comfy, shorts and Tees. Packed in a jacket , just in case la. So I walked along the Mekong River, which was supposed to bring me to the Evening Market. Now, you see, the Evening Market, as I thought the name suggested was like Petaling Street, or Pasar Malam, but actually ho, the place closes at 5pm too, just like its counterpart, the Morning Market. Only difference, this Evening market is ruled by Chinese and Vietnamese traders.

I walked and walked, but couldn't find the evening market. So decided to ask some tourists, the whereabouts of this evening market, they pulled out their lonely planet guide, referred to it, and said sorry, there is not evening market in here. In my mind , I thought, belah la, tunjuk pandai only show lonely planet guide all... In the end, had to pay the Tuk Tuk USD 2 for a short ride from where I was to the evening market. I was close, but not that close also. I over walked a junction for 15 minutes.

TukTuks in Laos are a rip off. They have a per entry or per ride fee of USD 2. Nevertheless, destination reached, I found out that they sell everything under the sun except for Fridge Magnets. Besides, the Evening Market looks more like a market place for the locals, rather than for tourists. I did not want to pay another 2 dollars for a ride back to the hotel so I decided to walk back to the hotel from there. It took me about 40 minutes to get back on foot, but I did get some really interesting shots of a local lawn bowl type game, interesting sights, and some interesting foods.

I started my eating trip with Laos Satay. BBQ Pork Gizzard and Roast Pork. One stick each. Walked around, saw some Chicken Feet Kerabu, din fancy those so I passsed. 5 minutes later I saw a Yaw Char Kwai Stall and decided to try some unfamilliar shapes, but they all tastes just the same. I also had some Keropok Pisang, tastes just the same like the ones we can find here and Thailand.

The boss came pick me up for dinner at about 645. By then, the sun was completely set. The weather at a cool 20C. Pretty nice for winter. I believe at about 4am, the temperature drops until 15C. We went on a floating restaurant on Mekong River for dinner. We had Mekong Fish for dinner, Mekong Fish Masak Tom Yam, Masak Kerabu and Masak Kari. Aiyak suddenly Jelak already, if you ask me, I will pass on Mekong fish the next time I am offered. Its just another version of the popular CatFish, however so, the fish is a much larger specie compared to the ones we have in Malaysia. I suppose he really took my word literally when he asked me, What would you like to eat ? My answer was Lao Food.








Tom Yam Mekong Fish and Ikan Mekong masak Kerabu(behind)


So we had Beer and after dinner, we adjourned to a Karaoke Joint. Nothing to shout about, but to them singing and drinking must be Laos' people's favourite past time. They have night clubs and discos too, but I felt like singing some old songs, so the boss brought me to a singing place. He opened a bottle and we finished it.

Sent me back to my room at about 12am. Watched some ESPN and eventually dozed off.

The next day will be one fragging day to blog about.

Up and Down , Lipis Jerantut

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The day has passed on to be quite eventful, although it seemed like I was gonna bitch about it since early in the morning. Apparently people who live in small towns do wake up before the sun rises, I am saying about 530am. What makes it worse is that I could hear my neighbour talk on the phone as if he was right next to me. If he pull that talking loudly on the phone again, I am gonna make sure he doesn't get enough sleep.

Alright , the morning was okay, we set off to Jerantut for a quick site visit before we started work on building the house at the site. Its raining season and the riverbanks are bursting. However so, the site we were visiting is about a good 15m above the maximum recorded river level. The river is flowing much more faster and is only slightly higher than the previous visit, which was about 3 months ago. One look at the river , it reminds me of Teh Si ... flowing , yucks... that gives a new meaning to the drink doesn't it ...

Lunch came soon after we quickly finished our work there, identifying the site where the building and equipment should be erected. Mak Long's Gerai was where we headed to. Standard Malay cuisine is offered here , I had Nasi Ayam. Whats nice is the keropok which they pack into little plastic bags. The one in pic is called Keropok Bawang. Hehe, and this stall has Cili Jeruk.. wow this one made me sweat buckets. Siapa Makan Cili Dia Akan Rasa Pedas, but me I just sweat... What else do they have here, Kuih balam, Kuih APit , and many more funny kuihs which they packed neatly for sale.

So this Gerai is situated right in the middle of the Jungle, or Palm Oil Estate on the way to Kuala Tahan, about 1 hour's drive from Jerantut. So after lunch we quickly rush back to Kuala Lipis as we have more discussions to make with our contractor.

Along the way we managed to stop by Kuala Tembeling Jeti, the place which marks a 3 hours scenic journey to Kuala Tahan, the main entrance to Taman Negara. Nice little jetty it was 20 year ago, today, you call it a huge under utilised jetty. As you can see, there are three other guys in the background, those guys work there. No tourists in sight.. oh ya, there is one... taking photo ma.... :rolleyes:




This jetty somehow got one of the nicest toilet entrances I have seen in this part of the country.
The entrance is graced by yellow curtains, as if inviting to go sit on your throne, for 30cents. Pricey but I couldn't resist the temptation of visiting my own throne for only 30 cents.

Anyway we adjourned back to our quarters, after making our way round this new jetty building. It is really one heck of a jetty complex without anyone using it. We had our meeting with the contractor and then we went back tidor awhile.
So after a short rest we picked up the guys at the hotel and then went had our dinner. Lipis punya Bahtera Karam, fuiseh, punyala glamour nama dish ni. At first I thought what was this hoo har all about this Bahtera Karam, see see, ceh, SeeFood Tomyam wo. Not complaining, the dish was ok la !! hehe

After that tried to blog but couldnt, grr !! Anyways here it is.... Hope to bring more nice food stuff during my travels here at the Lipis area... Hope to see some nice food in Jerantut town also. and perhaps one of these days when I can escape my Colleague I can find some really non halal food to share. muahahahaha !!!