trekking

After departing from the farm we hopped several buses, boats, and tuk-tuks on our journey to Lao. Our first stop in this stunning country is the town of Nam Tham; a mecca for travelers looking for treks through the mountains and jungles that surround it.

With many options to choose from we opted for a two-day trip that brought us to a village of a Lao minority group called the Akah. Throughout the journey we took in some incredible views, inadvertently fed some leeches, and learned about medicinal jungle plants.









 
 Enjoying our picnic lunch including sticky rice, pickled eggplant, and bananas. Yum!



 
Lunch break with our group! Please notice that the guide on the far right was wearing white skinny jeans and flip flops as he wielded a machete and led us through the jungle. We were impressed to say the least.



 
A view of the village that hosted us over night.





Laura resting
 
Hilary posing by a rice paddy.




Jumping a bus to Luang Prabang!







 

Enjoying a baguette for breakfast at our favorite cafe:)

We're excited to fill you in on Viet Nam soon!

Happy Trails,

L&H

working the land

Our time at the farm has come to an end and while we're excited to head to Laos, we sure are going to miss all of the amazing people that we met here.

Most notably...

Cooking and being sassy with Ba Muan--our adoptive mother, favorite cook and Thai teacher while on the farm.

 

Playing with Ba Dao and her 7 dogs.  Ba Dao initially introduced herself to us as Dao; however, after she was put in charge of us on the farm she informed us that her name was now Ba Dao since she was our boss.  Since Ba Dao speaks no English and our Thai is minimal at best, it was quite fun miming in order to figure out what we would be doing each day.  We are now fluent in body language--it's going on our resumes along with French and Spanish.

 

 



 

Talking food and learning life lessons from Ale and David--our fellow wwoofer friends from Italy.

 

Now onto the rest of our trip--Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia and Hong Kong here we come!

Happy Trails,

L & H

run to the hills

With the expiration date of our Thai visas fast approaching we had to get the heck outta dodge in order to reset the clock on our travel documents. For us, this meant taking a bus to another northern city in Thailand called Chiang Rai, and then another bus to the Myanmar/Thai border. When we reached the border all we had to do was have our passports stamped and walk back across a bridge to Thailand.

This little adventure left us curious about the country of Myanmar (formerly Burma). We have read cautionary tales about the challenges that Myanmar faces, and how tourists are often used as accessories to government corruption. That being said, we have also met a couple of other backpackers that have gushed that it is the most amazing place they have ever visited. Unfortunately, time was not on our side during this leg of the trip, and the temptation to visit remains.

While we were in Chiang Rai we were able to take a little detour outside the city and visit Wat Rong Khun, know as the White Temple.  The temple was built in the late 90s which made it much more modern than all the other temples we had seen.  The architecture is different than the usual Thai temples with the entire temple being white to signify Buddha's purity.

 

 

Now back to the farm for one last week of country living.

Happy Trails,

 L & H

and we're back!

Sorry to all of those anxiously awaiting our latest posts:) We’ve been on the farm and away from internet access for the past couple of weeks, and then an inconvenient bout of illness struck. Now we are happy to be back in good health and in Hanoi, Vietnam--a city with Wi-fi!

Here’s a recap of our time in Chiang Mai where we enjoyed a couple of days off from the farm:

We stayed at the bed and breakfast that our WWOOF host runs near Chiang Mai University. We enjoyed the cute cafes and walking around the beautiful campus that was literally in our backyard.

While visiting a mountainside temple we ran into hundreds of teenage monks parading to prayer.

We spent one day swinging through the trees on zip lines. Our guides were hilarious and the experience left us wanting to explore some more “outdoorsy” activities!

 

 

 

Hilary went on a daylong trek through the jungle, rode an elephant, and went white water rafting. Meanwhile, Laura stayed in the city and went to a bookstore.

 

  

Next stop Chiang Rai for a border run, stay tuned.


Happy Trails,
L & H

just a spoonful of mango jam...

is what we are eating for breakfast...and lunch...and dinner.  Since the day that we arrived in Chiang Mai at the bed and breakfast and canned our first batch of this godly nectar, we can't seem to eat much of anything else.  Our internship host has more mangoes than she knows what to do with and has started a new business venture--enter mango jam.  She has developed a recipe that we will be following, and with our help she is marketing the jam to local businesses in both Chiang Mai and Bangkok.  The jam has taken off in Bangkok and she has high hopes for its success in Chiang Mai.  The mango season is about to finish up, but we're happy that we had a chance to partake in the jamming experience.  We're excited to go back home and experiment with more recipes and different flavors.  With the last mangoes picked from the trees, we're not quite sure what else our farm host has in store for us in the next few weeks (after all, there are only so many weeds to pull in a 4x6 vegetable garden).  Whatever it is, we'll have lots of fun trying to mime through communication with the Thai staff.  While they don't speak any English, and our Thai is minimal at best, we still chat and get to know each other with lots of wild hand gestures and laughs.  There will be much more to come on these flamboyant conversations and amazing characters later!

But for now, feast your eyes our delicious mango jam that, if you're lucky, you may get to try in a couple months when we get back!

 Mangoes ready for some jamming.

 

The process (Rin Rin was our patient teacher)...

  

  

  

 

At the end of the day, the fruits of our labor were accepted as a new product in a local restaurant!

 

 

Sticky and smiling...SUCCESS!

Happy Trails,
L & H

backtracking to bangkok

Laura's first week in Thailand was all about the hustle and bustle of Bangkok-the number one place in South East Asia for vagabonds and backpackers.  This city is the place that Hilary has called home for the last five months while studying at Thammasat University.  We spent the week: sightseeing beautiful temples, chowing down on street food, attending a Taoist meditation session, enjoying a sidetrip to Kanchanaburi and the bridge over River Kwai, and taking numerous express boats over the Chao Praya River.  Here's some images that capture our first week...

The view from our favorite breakfast place just down the street from our guest house near Khao San.  Amazing breakfast for no more than $1...don't mind if we do!

 

Laura's first street lunch!  Clear noodle soup and a new favorite.

 Enjoying the scenery and tour at Jim Thompson's House were we learned about the rebirth of the silk trade in SE Asia and popular aspects of Thai architecture.

Tuk-tuks  lined up near the University and a busy shopping area.

Feeling royal at the Grand Palace.

A familiar view from one of our many taxi rides across the city.

 

 Wat Arun, our favorite temple in Bangkok.

 During a trip to Kanchaniburi where we hung out riveside, and hiked up to waterfalls.

 Hilary's parents looking bronzed after a week on the beaches.  One last dinner overlooking Wat Arun before they head home.

Off to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand...stay tuned!

Happy Trails,

L & H

sweet, sour, and a hint of the unexpected

Our favorite Thai dishes include the following characteristics: sweet, spicy, sour, a new or unexpected flavor, a variety of textures, and a hint of something that we're not quite sure of at first but grow to love the more we eat.  Take the dish som tam for example, a spicy Thai papaya salad, that contains the main tastes of Thai cuisine.  There is the tartness of the lime, the kick of the chili, the saltiness from the fish sauce, and the sweetness of the sugar.  Then there is the green papaya that acts as a vehicle to combine the ingredients into a perfectly balanced dish.

With our trip in the beginning stages, we couldn't help but notice the similarities between the popular Thai salad and the adventure that we are embarking on. After spending the first leg of our trip in Bangkok, today marked the first day of our organic farm internship.  We were lucky to find a wonderful entrepreneur in the city of Chiang Mai.  She has a bed and breakfast as well as a start-up organic farm (focusing on the production of organic mangoes) just outside the city.  Over the next month we will be splitting our time working on projects at the farm; which may include building a chicken coop (comedy scene sure to ensue) and having some free time at the bed and breakfast where we can explore the city of Chiang Mai.

Tomorrow we'll get our hands sticky making our first batch of mango jam.  Mangoes, ma muang as they are called here, are a staple fruit (or at least for us) in Thailand.  When they are ripe, they have a sugary sweetness which we also see reflected in the kindness and sweet nature of the Thai people that we have met so far on this journey.  Having only been at the bed and breakfast for a day, we have already been the beneficiaries of their hospitality through delicious homemade meals and tours of our temporary home.

After farming, we have a tentative travel route that will take us through Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and back to Thailand to explore the sport of muay thai as well as the southern beaches.  Through traffic jams in Bangkok, sweltering heat, and long days of travel, we know there will be some bumps in the road.  But, like som tam, we hope that the experiences will work together to become a trip that we will never forget.

One of our favorite Thai phrases is mai pen rai.  It embodies the Thai attitude of no worries or the importance of not letting the little things weigh you down.  With mai pen rai and mangoes setting the tone of our trip, we hope to have the perfect balance of lighthearted attitudes assuring sweet experiences.

As we eat our way through this region, we'll keep you posted on the foods we come back to time and time again, the uncomfortable (but safe...hi mom!) situations that we're bound to find ourselves in, and what's too hot for our Midwestern taste buds to handle.  Come along with us for the ride...

Happy Trails,
L & H