The journey to Chiang Khan required an hour and a half introduction into yet another method of transport - the songthaew. Essentially, an old pick-up truck with bench seats in the back that acts like a local bus, picking people up and dropping them off along a prespecified route. The beauty of the songthaew is that it's semi open in the back allowing the fresh air to rush past your face as you creep towards your destination, observing water buffalo rolling around in the mud and rural Thai life pressing on in the distance.
Chiang Khan is quite a hit with Thai tourists however is, as yet, quite undiscovered by us nosey farang. It's a beautiful old town filled with old teak houses that have now been converted into kitschy (did I really just use that word?) bars, cafes and clothing shops.
We'd read how beautiful Chiang Khan was however it was the promise of a particular regional culinary speciality that got us over the line. On a TV program a few years ago we'd watched the presenter chow down on the dish in the video below and we had the simultaneous epiphany that we had to have it
Apparently it was going to be on offer at the Kaeng Kood Koo market, five k's out of town so we set off one morning, unable to justify what seemed like an exorbitant price for a tuk-tuk, and walked the hot, sweaty five k's to find our Kûngtên, Dancing Shrimp. We wandered around hopelessly for half an hour, I think expecting the shrimp to jump into our mouths, but had no luck. Until a Thai lady with perfect English walked by and asked if we needed help just before we were about to walk up to a counter and spout Kûngtên at someone.
Before long we were sat on the bank of the Mekong in a little bamboo hut with Ray and her family enjoying unfathomably fresh, grilled fish from the river, a Thai style papaya salad with the Lao addition of fermented crab and the pièce de résistance (how f*cking fancy am I?) - our Dancing Shrimp.
The little bastards are full of life when they come out, hence the plate, and the idea is that you pop them in your mouth immediately to feel them jumping around before you crunch down on the little suckers. Along with the fish sauce, chilli and lemongrass that they're covered in, they are a seriously flavourful delight. Mission accomplished.
The rest of our time in Chiang Khan was spent watching the longboat races,
getting up early one morning for the almsgiving,
discovering Miang Kham ('wild pepper leaf' wrapped around other tasty stuff that you should just read about here) which after her first bite Nicola implored, "will you have one of these so you can experience the flavour explosion that I am right now!",
and finishing our days with a beer on the most romantic of rivers - the mighty, mighty Mekong.
There are many very apparent reasons why Thai people love this place so much.
If you haven't gathered yet, we're excited for and energised by travel again. A day of travel in Asia equates to about five in Europe and we're only just touching the tip of the iceberg at the moment. Next stop is a city we've longed to visit for a v long time.
