nanamoose

Lanna Kingdom on a Plate

I am very proud of my top three cuisines list. I think it’s the best list in the world - Chinese, Thai and Italian. You might wonder, where is French? Foodies alike from all over the world seem to go weak at the knees for French. This I never quite understood. True the French have taken its cuisine to unprecedented heights by making the simple act of eating an art form. However, how many people can really eat French every single day? Can you sit through a seven course and at least 3 hour dinner with a sommelier better groomed than your boyfriend explaining the 100-page wine list with a heavy French-accent say, once every week? If not for all the fanfare, then can you really eat mediocre bistro French on a regular basis? I certainly cannot (though I have to admit, “Ratatouille”, not French Laundry, has changed my perspective slightly). And so my list includes all foods which can be eaten, if you like, as comfort foods.

To justify my love for Thai food I embarked on a cooking course with the Four Seasons in Chiang Mai. I have never realized what an intricate matter Thai gastronomy is. From the variety of the original ingredients down to the very cooking, everything is a journey in itself if not an ordeal - but to those who love cooking, the ordeal is a pleasurable one. At the first break of dawn and after having finished breakfast with freshly toasted bread from our very own private toaster on our very own private verandah, we met up with Por the cooking assistant for our local market tour.

It was my first experience in a fresh food market in Thailand. Everything is organized in perfect harmony, even the chilies and salty fish are arranged in little piles and plates according to price and category...

Suzhou Reinterpreted

The last time I went to Suzhou was some ten years ago when I did not know any better but to follow my parents around with a Hong Kong tour group. All I could remember about the tour and Suzhou were the endless history lessons in various gardens that looked pretty much all the same to me and semi-forced shopping in sketchy-looking commercial buildings.

I realized on this scouting trip for Kylie that the image of Suzhou I had all along had been heavily misconceived. Suzhou, just over an hour away from Shanghai is in fact cultured, beautiful, and full of pleasant surprises. Suzhou is known as the “Venice of the East” for a reason. Crisscrossing the city are numerous canals and waterways along which stand grey and white houses built in traditional Suzhou style generally part of a well-preserved old town community with cobbled alleys and easygoing inhabitants.

The best place to sample Suzhou’s old world charm is Shantang Street 山塘街, a water village closely resembling that of outer Shanghai’s Zhouzhuang. The difference is here you can sample freshly made 海棠糕 and 梅花糕（which are made from real flowering crab apple and plum blossom petals） by the waterways and my favourite 玫瑰酒醸餅 from Cai Zhi Zhai 采芝斋.

A Tropical Shangri-la - Luang Prabang

little monk struggling to keep up with the procession
Originally uploaded by nanamoose.

I have read extensively about how spiritual Luang Prabang is with its 32 active monasteries lining its narrow, dusty roads and seen a countless pictures in travel journals of its saffron-clad monks collecting alms from the local community every morning. Yet no reading quite prepared me for what I experienced in Luang Prabang. Buddhism is very much entwined in the lives of the local people the same way it is in Tibet, but here the monks are actually part of the local community. Perhaps due to the proximity of the monasteries with the city or perhaps due to the monks’ proficiency in English, novice monks here sit side by side with tourists in internet cafes and engage with them in conversations in Mandarin or English about anything from their daily routines to their hometown to Hong Kong.

This was the first time I visited a city nestled in the middle of the Mekong and was spellbound by the mystic air it exudes upon this ex-French colony. Though I have not quite anticipated the large number of foreigners in the city (thanks perhaps to UNESCO’s acknowledgement of Luang Prabang as a World Heritage Site in 1996) to the extent that they seem to outnumber the locals sometimes, Luang Prabang remains a sleepy little village where indeed, time has quite forgotten. Simple wooden homes creep down gentle slopes to the Mekong and Khan rivers where children frolic, naked, in the muddy rivers. Temples with tiers of slopping, gold-rimmed roofs sit side by side with grey, Angkor Wat-ish stone stupas. The architecture here is French and Cambodian, the Lao language reminiscent of Thai, the food a mixture of Thai and Vietnamese, yet Luang Prabang paradoxically reminds me of Shangri-la in Yunnan. There is no altitude sickness here, the village is decked out in palm trees and the monks are draped in ginger and saffron robes instead of maroon, but its spirituality and laziness, its gentle and gracious inhabitants and above all the tiny foreign community here working to preserve and market the local heritage via homeware stores, restaurants or cafes, suggest a tropical Shangri-la.

Highlights of my 3-day stay in Luang Prabang:

ACCOMMODATION

The Grand

Since we had to move our dates around we scoured for hotels last minute at Bangkok airport and came upon The Grand. Situated about 10 minutes away from town, this hotel looks more like a small resort and boasts a large garden and individual terraces in each room. The rooms are a bit old however, and so were the guests (the average guest age looked about 65).

The Apsara

Our original hotel of choice, the Apsara is smack in the middle of town with decadent four poster beds and a small balcony overlooking the Khan river. The rooms are bright, clean and tastefully decorated, the waiting staff friendly and best of all, the food fabulous (see “Food” below)!

FOOD

Tum Tum Cheng

This casual restaurant along Sakkarine Road, which also boasts a cooking school, has the best Laotian spring rolls (very similar to the Vietnamese ones) in town.

Ban Vat Sene

Very cosy and charming little café also along Sakkarine Road with very good iced coffee (once again very similar to its Vietnamese counterpart and made with condensed milk).

The Apsara

Every time I think about the Apsara’s laap fish salad and buffalo sausages I will not be able to stop salivating. The Lao version of laap is not much different from the Thai version, but in Thailand the “larb” is usually served with minced chicken or pork (I think). This quintessential Lao national dish is made with fresh mint, lime and chilies and when mixed with minced fish produces an aromatic salad that just keeps you begging for more despite the heat. The buffalo sausages, on the other and, takes a bit more getting used to. Buffalo sausages boarder on the hard side rather like the Chinese Laap Cheung and are eaten with thin slices of ginger and garlic. Do not attempt this dish without an ample supply of mints.

Pho Shack


Laotian pho
Originally uploaded by nanamoose.

Two minutes away from the Apsara there is a cute little hut serving perfect Laotian pho (amongst other noodle dishes which I do not know the name of) al fresco under the shades of giant palm trees. I cannot tell the difference between a Laotian pho and its more famous Vietnamese sibling (both comes in a fragrant broth and generous helpings of herbs and chili), but who cares when the pho is this good?

Sandwiches made fresh along the streets

Here fresh French baguettes are wrapped around grilled chicken and chili paste and served like Vietnamese subs. The French baguettes were better than any I have had in Hong Kong.

SIGHTS

Wats

Wats litter the streets of Luang Prabang like Cha Chaan Tangs in Hong Kong and all are living, breathing museums & art galleries where the town’s historical and cultural significance is displayed. We visited Vat Xieng Thong, Vat Visoun and That Phousi (which boasts the best views of Luang Prabang).

Sisavangvong Road Night Market


Little handicraft hearts made by the Hmong ethnic minority
Originally uploaded by nanamoose.

You cannot miss this bustling night market where local merchants and artisans sell everything remotely textile-related, from slippers, duvet and cushion covers, scarves, table cloth to baby clothes. You haggle hard here, but even without haggling the prices are unbeatable.

Ban Phanom weaving village

I was told by a friend who visited Luang Prabang a couple of years back that live weaving could be witnessed in the numerous weaving villages located just outside of Luang Prabang. I was therefore a bit disappointed to arrive in Ban Phanom not seeing any actual weaving in action but instead taken to a small indoor market where weaving demonstrations were performed on request. I can only assume that this is another side-effect of Luang Prabang’s increasing popularity under UNESCO’s efforts.

Caruso

The nicest store in Luang Prabang selling Lao inspired homewares. I bought a pair of silver sticky rice canisters.

Kopnoi

The look is urban but the products are strictly Laotian handicrafts at this eco-friendly export centre next to Vat Visoun. We bought tons of bamboo-weave-inspired jewelry and was very much drawn to its Sticky Rice Exhibition which showcased the history and development of this Laotian staple.

Finding a new Shangri-la in Sichuan

Xiannairi Mountain
Originally uploaded by nanamoose.

My journey started in Shangri-la, with the blessing of a Geshe at Songzanlin Monastery and with the comfort of big fat momos. From Shangri-la we hired one of those so-called ‘bread cars’ (or small conversion vans) for RMB 300 per day and got our butts thrown backwards and forwards for almost 24 hours before finally reaching Daocheng and then Yading in south west Sichuan Province.

Ping An Village in Yading is where most tourists travelling into the nature reserve of Yading spends the night and, dear oh dear, was the accommodation one of the worst I have ever encountered. If one is ever looking for an epitome of the word “shack” look no further than the “villas” of Ping An Village. The “rooms” of the “villas” are basically cubicles demarcated by thin wooden boards about seven feet high and the “ceiling” a piece of synthetic fabric reminiscent of the infamous “red white blue” plastic bags in Hong Kong. During the night, uncertain whether being kept awake by the 4000 odd feet altitude or the hard floorboards from which the beds are made of, I was able to hear horses squealing (or however one calls the strange and peculiar cry horses make) and sand and small rocks falling onto the “ceiling” from the roof above. The conditions were so awful I remember swearing never to go back again, and yet, the beauty of what greeted me the next day was nothing I could ever have imagined.

So is the beauty of Daocheng and Yading enough for one to give up his daily hot showers and down-filled blanket? You judge for yourself…

On our way back, deterred by the “villas” of Ping An Village we drove for about 2 hours to “Azalea Hot Spring Villa”, which is en route Daocheng to Yading and costs a hefty (by Sichuan standards) RMB280 per night for a standard room. After a night without shower and two days of hiking the hot springs of Azalea seemed like heaven, even if that meant having to wear a hideous navy and lime yellow sixties-inspired swimsuit purchased on site. Heaven of course also comes with heavenly food and to me, there could not be more heavenly food than egg and tomato stir-fry, ma puo tofu and braised yak meat!

Before returning to Shangri-la we took a detour to Litang to get a feel for what their renowned annual horse racing festival is all about. Litang hosts the biggest horse racing festival in the Tibetan community every year for about a week’s time in August where supreme skills of horsemanship are demonstrated by monks and herdsmen alike at an altitude of 1350 feet and with the blessing of the Chinese army and the Chinese flag hoisted centre stage. Now, in the dead of autumn, though the vast grasslands of Litang were an interesting taster to the games, the excitement was after all over and so the delight of the day was relegated to Litang’s interesting mix of Kangba culture and Sichuanese food. Kangba is a generic name for the Tibetan areas of southwest Sichuan and its men noticeable for their elaborate hair ornaments made of bright orange corals, dark long hair, menacing looking features, and a fondness for riding motorbikes decorated with artificial flowers in -5’c temperatures.

Back in Shangri-la I stayed at my friend Afang’s Karma Cafe and spent my last day doing nothing more than sampling Afang’s famous Tibetan delicacies of momos and xiabalis (which are respectively steamed and fried yak meat dumplings), enjoying the winter sun on a small hill overlooking Shangri-la old town and listening to Diana Kroll while sipping butter tea on the Cafe’s terrace.

Truly, life can hardly be more beautiful than this.

NOTES:

There are flights from Hong Kong to Kunming and from Kunming to Shangri-la. Alternatively fly from Guangzhou direct to Shangri-la.

Shangri-la old town is about 15 minutes away from Shangri-la airport. You can reach Daocheng on a very tight one day schedule consisting of around 13 hours drive from Shangri-la. Daocheng to Yading is about another 3 hours. The state of all accommodation on the mountains of Yading is, as mentioned, quite poor and cost around RMB20 per bed space. No booking necessary. The most comfortable method of touring Yading is to stay at the Azalea Hot Spring Hotel en route Daocheng to Yading. From the Azalea Yading Nature Reserve is about a 1.5 hour drive away.

Back in Shangri-la, Afang’s Karma Cafe is by far the nicest hostel. Showers and toilets are in the courtyard but very clean and complete with rainforest showers. RMB60 gets you a single room with a large king sized bed. For reservations call +86 13508876901 or email: karmacafe66@yahoo.com

Provence, a Land of Steak Thieves

I remember reading about this cute luxury yurt camp nestled in a wood at the top of the Ardeche river gorge in the heart of Provence on the Conde Nast Traveller a few years back and it left such an impression on me I remembered it and its very charming website all this time while trying to find an opportunity to explore it.

We arrived at Mille Etoiles (or the more conveniently named Canvas Chic for its website) campsite in Labastide de Virac (which is about 1.5 hours away from Nimes or Avignon) on a very deceptive sunny Friday afternoon in early April, which marks the beginning of the tourist season for Spring. I say deceptive as though it looked like a warm and sunny day in early Spring, in actual fact it was very, very cold, especially during the night in a yurt with no electricity and hence no lights and no heating apart from a few candles and an oil lamp which meant that me and my girl friend had to endure romantic and atmospheric nights together snuggling in a single circular bed complete with heart-shaped red pillows and flowery blankets.

Well, this could almost be the perfect romantic getaway (had we been a couple) if not for the fact that Provence, in early April, really is altogether, well, not that romantic. There were no lavender fields (as it was too early in the season), the towns were completely dead (over dinner we counted a total of about 25 people, including everyone in the restaurant and some very very scary looking men leaning against the counter of a smoky bar lit green by fluorescent lights), PLUS, most importantly, the steak we bought one day at the market and which we intended to cook for dinner that night went mysteriously missing! We pondered the whole night the mystery of the missing steak while sadly eating only an aubergine and tomato stew cooked in pitch darkness. Could it have been eaten by dogs, stolen by tramps hiding in the woods, or have we simply forgotten to bring it back with us from the market? This will be a mystery we will never be able to solve and hence will remain the highlight of our trip for years to come.

However, to be fair, Provence is after all beautiful, even in the cold. We had a great time browsing the morning markets (which wind their way through the various towns scattered around the area and set up stalls in the town about once a week) and becoming addicted to the Provencal roast chicken, looking through antiques as dealers prepare to set up stalls for the annual Antiques Fair in Barjac, running wild in a prairie we found in Uzez, and visiting the famous Pont du Gard, about an hour away from the camp.

On the morning of our departure, as I was enjoying my first warmer Spring day, sipping morning tea and looking at Ruth and her husband Lodewijk working hands on on a new addition to the yurts, I couldn’t help but wonder, what are big cities really meant for? Aren’t we all better off and happier living in harmony with nature? And then we climbed reluctantly into our hired car, breathed in one last breath of the heavy Provencal air, and set off for Paris.

I would say just one thing about Paris. Checked out this marvellous tiny hole in the wall, Le Timbre and decided I MUST share it with my readers. Le Timbre serves wonderful continental food in a bustling little restaurant almost bordering caustraphobic but manages to pull it off with an energetic English chef and friendly and knowledgable waitress (I was never quite able to figure out whether she was in fact French or English? Either accent was near perfect).

Le Timbre is at 3, rue Sainte-Beuve Paris 6 Tel: 01 45 49 10 40

Lijiang Day 5

A day to unwind before we head back to Hong Kong.

First thing to do was to visit my friend Afang whom I met in Zhongdian last year. Afang is a Taiwanese lady who used to work as an architect/interior designer in San Francisco and who apparently has the nicest houses in Zhongdian and Lijiang old towns – and they were absolutely right!
Afang, like the rest of the ‘tribe’ (as my pilot friend James like to call the group of foreigners united in their love for Zhongdian and all things Tibetan), was travelling in and around Tibet a couple of years ago and found herself in Zhongdian, a place so irresistible and opportunities so challenging that she stayed on ever since. Afang now runs the Karma Cafe in Zhongdian Old Town alongside her ‘adopt-a-house” preservation project. People who are interested in buying, or ‘adopting’, a traditional Tibetan style house can choose from some of the remaining houses in the Old Town upon which Afang and her team can redevelop and renovate the place for you. Prices for the houses are amazingly cheap. Foreigners are not allowed to own property in Zhongdian so for a two storey house about 2500 sq. ft you pay RMB$6500 per year for a renewable ten year contract!

After some tea at Afang’s we wondered around Lijiang Old Town looking for food. How much more pleasant Lijiang is during the day! Following Afang’s advice we walked into a less touristy street round the back of the old town called ‘Seven One Street’ (七一街) and found such nice little surprises: a cosy little bookstore/cafe, a very authentic northern Chinese dumpling eatery, sidewalk potato crisps ad chips, and a lovely teahouse overlooking the busier streets of the old town.

Lijiang Day 4

Impression Lijiang 印象丽江 - 雪山篇, a dance drama conducted by Zhang Yimou (amongst 2 other directors), doesn’t that sound intriguing? And it turned out to be quite my cup of tea. Me being my usual soppy self (who cries during the Lion King but not Titanic and who enjoys his movies like The House of Flying Daggers) cried at least three times during this show over its epical theme, the snow mountain backdrop, the moving Naxi music!

After the show was a horse riding session at Lashi Lake 拉市海 then dinner at Lijiang Old Town.

A word of advice: try avoiding coming to Lijiang Old Town during the summer months. The sheer amount of local Chinese tourists takes away half the charm here, especially during the night!

Lijiang Day 3

The early morning bliss was broken at around 7:30am by the sound of heaving thumping and workmen shouting. It was then when I realised that our room was directly across a small construction site where the Naxi owners were building an extension wing to the existing rooms. Ah Lee Shan (the lead horseman and relatives of the owners whose Naxi name has nothing to do with the famous Taiwanese mountain) told us that before the Tiger Leaping Gorge became a popular tourist destination generations of their family lived up here in the remote mountains relying mainly on meagre supplies of corn and other crops for a living. Travel in and out of the mountains, before proper roads were built linking several popular pit stops, often took days. Nowadays, with tourism booming, most families who live in the gorge have converted their homes to guest houses and horses used to transport people and luggage.
And so, after an adventurous indulgence in some highland breakfast: crepes, omelet, egg and “bacon” sandwich (which bacon turned out to be fried chunks of pork), pizza and some very milky and very sweet “milk tea”…

… and energised from the sweet, crisp morning air, we embarked on our journey, with the company of Ah Lee Shan, the guest house owner’s wife and father, to the middle path 中虎跳where Tsering, our Tibetan driver whom I met back in Zhongdian, was waiting for us at Tina’s Guest House. This part of the gorge turned out to be a much easier hike and to our surprise, more dramatic then ever!

One thing worth mentioning is the cutest little guest house we passed by on the way called the Half Way House, which was featured in Michael Palin’s travel series “Himalaya” (including the self-proclaimed “No. 1 toilet on heaven and earth”). We sat down for a break at their cute little balcony with low tables made out of slate and tree trunks overlooking the gorge. And the rooms… ah… for RMB$120 you get a clean, airy room with en suite bathroom and laden with Naxi tie dyed fabrics!

Lijiang Day 2

Today we set off for the Tiger Leaping Gorge.

The Tiger Leaping Gorge lies between Lijiang and Zhongdian and is formed by the surging Yangzi River (at which point known as Jinsha Jiang, or “Golden Sand River”) cutting through two mighty snow mountains, the Haba Mountain and Yulong Xueshan (or Jade Snow Mountain). Trekking the gorge has in recent years become one of the most sought-after activities for foreigners traveling into Lijiang and since I have heard such wonderful things about it I decided to check it out myself, fully equipped with horses, horsemen, and a local Naxi guide of course!

... and once I embarked on the journey, its easy to see why it has become so popular...

We arrived at the Tea Horse Trade Guest House at around 7:30pm after 4.5 hours of trekking, starting at Qiaotou up the notorious 28 bends (where we selfishly all rode horses and worked the horses so hard I nearly cried. Never in my life have I seen a horse sweat before but that day when I tried to brush the neck of my horse in recognition of its hard work my hands were covered in a sticky, salty liquid that could only be sweat!) and finally arriving at Bendiwan where the Guest House stood. Despite the fact that it was still relatively bright at 7:30pm we were already the very last trekkers to arrive and before us in the courtyard gathered about 4 / 5 groups of people, all foreigners, some getting ready for dinner, some lounging around playing with the household dog and some animatedly discussing routes for the next day.

First thing I decided to do was to check the rooms, which were basic but clean with magnificent views which look out across cornfields onto the Yulong snow mountain, and at RMB$40 you cannot get any better. I decided to call it an early night and after a quick "dark" shower (no lights were available when I took the shower which was when the sun was just setting and the moon only half out) and a basic but delicious meal (the tomato and egg stir fries around here are gorgeous!), went to bed in the behold of two majestic snow mountains.

Lijiang Day 1

I left for Lijiang via Kunming on 5 August 2006 heart-filled with nostalgia and a sense of longing (and belonging) brewed from that one month I spent in Zhongdian (a.k.a. Shangri-la) last year in September during which I worked as a volunteer English teacher teaching underprivileged Tibetan kids. Lijiiang is not quite Zhongdian yet (and the people living there belonging to the Naxi ethnic minority instead of being Tibetan), and yet it is the closest I can get to "Shangri-la" with the limited amount of time I have and so I quite happily took it. And so I arrived at the new Banyan Tree Lijiang. Ah… I take it back. I would gladly accept the Banyan Tree as Shangri-la any day!