Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a lovely
Christmas and a fabulous break.
We landed back this morning after 3½ weeks
in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Malaysia. It was an amazing trip, but rather
than bore you senseless with the whole thing now, I thought I might do a small
series.
Liking as always to get the most of time
off, we headed off on the Wednesday before Christmas that turned out to be the
second last day of school and our work 1970s Christmas party (damn – never mind,
clearly didn’t know that when I booked, because I would have known all the words to all
the songs and been able to show off and show how old I am!). We had a 1.30am flight and were all so exhausted that when we got on,
we all fell asleep. Ideal because god love Air Asia for being so cheap
but you get nothing on board, including leg room. Exhaustion is a pretty good strategy.
We arrived in Kuala Lumpur and desperate to
go to loo, I noticed the only available cubicle was a squat toilet. “I’ll just whizz
in there,” I thought – and promptly whizzed on my boot. I'm out of practice.
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| Not the actual airport loo, (this one has its own story) but it looks just like it! |
A night in KL then off to Phenom Phenh where
I discover you do pronounce the ‘P’ on Phenom. We head straight to the local
market and take in all the aromas and sight – skinned frogs, fried bugs, lumps of
meat, whole plucked chickens and strange vegetables and plenty
of brightly coloured plastic bits from toys to kitchen utensils and other junk. It's hot so we settle down at a stall for some rice paper rolls loaded with Asian mint and
tiny whole shrimp, BBQ chicken and pork straight off the tiny charcoal grill served on bamboo sticks – and beer. The holiday is starting well!
We find a restaurant I’ve heard about and
make a booking for the next night – Christmas Eve. It’s a place where a dedicated NGO train street kids in the art of hospitality and then get them jobs in
restaurants around town. They also have great art done by the kids – curiously none of
which is for sale. To whet our appetite, the incredibly helpful manager brings
out one of their renowned delicacies, yet to be cooked obviously. We can hardly wait...
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| Note tarantulas have 10 legs...go figure. |
3 comments:
You are game all eating from a street stall early in the holiday!! You can keep deep fried tarantula - no thanks.
As for the loo - when you gotta go you gotta go. When in Rome....... :)
You never cease to amaze me....fancy missing the Christmas party ;-)
I know - bad planning. Never mind.... MWWx
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