Overdosing on vegetarian Thai green curry ...

Last time I wrote from Sonkhla in the south. After that we spent a few days on the beaches around Krabi and then a few days in Bangkok and then on to Nong Kai.It was green curry almost all the way, although I had a couple of veggie pad thai's too. That's just stir fried vegetables with noodles. I can't complain about the curries. They were all absolutely delicious and even though we have been in Laos for only a few days, I miss green curry already...

Laos is very different from Thailand. Food is plainer and simpler, Roads, fields and towns are all dustier - everything is covered in a fine red dust that gets into your clothes, nose, hair - everywhere. There are very few birds. In Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Thailand, wherever you see rice paddies, you see white herons - lot's of them. None at all so far in Laos. Judging by some of the things in the bazaars and on street stalls, it may be that the Laos have already scoffed most of the higher vertebrates in the country. It's an extremely poor place. The fields often look scruffy and we didn't see many chickens or other farm animals on the journey north from Vientiane. We came to a small town called Vang Vieng which is firmly on the predictable backpacker trail and got all sorts of negative reviews on the internet. We like it. It's all a bit surreal - clean young gap year kids cruising about in packs making loads of noise and getting pissed and stoned. Bars showing 'Friends' videos on the main streets but otherwise, Lao village life going on as normal. We;ll probably rest here for a while and there;s internet, so I'll have a go at blogging a few of the more interesting things that happen.

I;ve taken a lot of nice photos in the places we've been, so I'll bung a few on my cookbook. I posted some pictures from Sri Lanka already while we were in Nong Khai (along with a couple more 'Goldfish lexicon' cartoons).