Dances with Shrimp Starring Chiang Khan

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.

Part of the Isaan 1%

After Bangkok the real travel began again. On a rickety old train, with the wind in our hair, we headed northeast into a part of Thailand that not many travellers go, unable to pull themselves away from the islands and beaches of the south. There's always time for lazing around on beaches though, we wanted to see a side of Thailand that not many tourists do, only 1% of travellers to Thailand in fact.

Northeastern Thailand or Isaan, as it's called, is an interesting melting pot of Thai, Lao and Khmer people where the culture, food and language take influence from all three. It sounded interesting enough to us so from this point on it was all squat toilets, fan rooms and ring burning helpings of chilli. Oh, and amazing hospitality, like a lady and her son sharing their lunch with us on the train. Do we really look that destitute?

First stop was Korat and first stop in Korat was the nightly food market. We sampled some regional speciality Isaan sausages (an amazing sausage made from fermented pork, sticky rice, chilli and a heap of garlic) that came with a handful of birdseye-like chillies, som tam (papaya salad), pork scratchings and some little tapioca ball things that we've grown to love. It was a good intro to fiery Isaan cuisine.

Then the next morning the strangest thing happened. We went out of our way to go and do something that wasn't food or drink related. Crazy hey.

Prasat Hin Phimai is one of the biggest and most important religious sanctuaries found in Thailand and, rather uniquely, reflects Hindu and Buddhist influences. The main tower inspired some of the work at Angkor Wat and the overall complex is believed to be the end point of an ancient Khmer route from Angkor. All of that aside, it's a pretty spectacular site and one of those places that you can hardly imagine being constructed these days, let alone during the 11th century.

Our next destination was Khon Kaen. Only a four hour bus ride sat next to the biggest Thai man in existence stood in the way of us getting there. This guy would cradle you like a newborn, MM.

First stop in Khon Kaen was again, another market. This time the Saturday Walking Market which is a cracker. We wandered through the non-food bit and were tempted to drop a few thousand baht on the pug and beagles pups we saw and I asked Nix if I could buy all of the sugar gliders and set them free but unfortunately we walked away animal-less so decided to eat some instead.

We followed the lead of the rest of the locals and grabbed a heap of food and ate ourselves stupid at a little squat table. Highlights being a rotisserie quail (check out that rotisserie!), more Isaan sausages and a pandan flavoured sugar syrup drink.

The following morning we were back on the temple trail this time the nine storied, and very spectacular, Phra Mahathat Kaen Nakhon. Each floor becomes more spiritual the higher you ascend up the stupa starting off at depictions of rural Khon Kaen life (including those of a very obvious ladyboy with breasts and a young girl blowing a fart at an opposing tribe) up to the ninth level which houses relics of the Lord Buddha. We could actually get into this temple thing if they can keep this up.

Look out for the next post on the final stop of our Isaan adventure.

Pug Sightings - 6. It appears that Isaan love its pugs.