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March 21, 2006
st patricks day
a few pictures of team lao, courtesy of (k)nik.
Posted by ames at 11:47 AM | Comments (0)
March 16, 2006
bitter bamboo and international women's day
hey folks- i know you're shocked to see yet another new entry so soon...don't get used to it. last night dorian and i accidentally discovered that when our friends have asked how to exclaim things they enjoy saying in english (such as "indeed" in the case of alex, mittens, chaim and paul, and "oh, sure" on dozza's side of things) we've both introduced our loved ones to a favorite (not favourite) all-purpose lao phrase: men leeeeeo.
onward to a description of the photos. IUCN ran a cool project related to non-timber forest products/improving marketing systems for bitter bamboo a while ago, and the office has been revisiting the field sites this year to gather some lessons/feedback from the experience on what worked and what didn't. a few weeks ago, i received my very own bag of bitter bamboo from the field team - the folks who work at our favorite friday post-work watering hole were quite interested in what in the world was in that bag, and in fact, asked, "what you got in that bag?" (for you, chaim. let's see you throw that into regular conversation) because bitter bamboo is a delicacy in vientiane.
after boiling the bamboo for about 40 minutes, peeling all of the layers off, and attempting to eat the wrong parts, i think we got it right - and it was pretty good - but definitely bitter. here are some photos:
we spent international women's day (8 March) celebrating, as elona, keeley (who was visiting from chiang mai) and i are all clearly international women. dorian and nik did their best to honor us on our special day. we traveled twenty something km outside vientiane to the buddha park to explore the sculptures and toss around a disc.
amy struggling to escape through the mouth of hell
elona smooching buddha
tossing a disc near the mekong, much to the amusement of everyone else at the buddha park
elona, our yoga teacher, mid pose
that's all for now! happy st. patrick's day!
Posted by ames at 4:15 PM | Comments (1)
March 13, 2006
erroneous! -vince vaughn, wedding crashers
sorry it has been so long. we've just been having way too much fun to even think about the blog. well, that, and a few days before Christmas, a cat burglar took a crowbar to our door, liberating 2 digital cameras, along with cash, a pair of earrings, a bottle of red label and dorian's belt.
we're fine, and on the lookout for anyone wearing dorian's belt. identifying feature? a crease that dorian claims he can identify. interesting.
the robbery set the stage (literally) for the theatrical display that was the "investigation". photographs were taken, fingerprints were dusted for and elona and i were able to educate members of our fine nation's police force about the existence/location of albania, and about the exchange rate for canadian currency (which, though it was easily accessible, was not stolen). interesting.
throughout the whole ordeal, elona and i kept saying, "man, i wish i had my camera!"
fast forward to january...i took about 2 weeks off of work to "discover halong bay", eat catfish spring rolls, check out houaphanh province, lose to dorian at mastermind and make fun of various ways of saying the word "potato".
here are some pics from that adventure:
ames and dozza on the deck of our halong bay boat.
at the other side of cat ba island after several hours of exploring on a motorbike. (translation: dorian driving, amy talking.) this was one of the highlights of the whole trip- drive ten minutes out of the touristy port area and suddenly you're in the rice fields, winding up and down mountains, past marshes and through ecotones.
amy in the corner of our cramped, cozy boat quarters.
dad, this one's for you. i'm not so sure i'd want to visit the dentist in hanoi...
hanoi traffic = madness
the army cave, viengxay, houaphanh province, back in lao. more than 1000 soldiers lived in this room- a mostly natural cave- during some or all of 1964-74, protecting the leaders of the lao people's revolutionary party during heavy american bombing
view from among the pathet lao caves
bomb crater at the plain of jars, xieng khouang province, most heavily bombed part of lao
plain of jars, site 3, i believe. dorian took several gorgeous photos during our trip - this is one of my favorites.
so that's a look at a bit of our trip. apologies for the delay in posting...can't believe that was already 2 months ago! currently vientiane is getting HOT. yesterday i'm pretty sure it was at least 100 degrees fahrenheit - and i hear it snowed in new mexico yesterday- crazy.
from all of us in ban nongbone, a special thank you to ted james for the endless entertainment we derive from www.chucknorrisfacts.com - for example, chuck norris always knows the exact location of carmen sandiego. help me out guys, in lao: chuck norris tuk tuk meu hu carmen sandiego yu sai (?!)
Posted by ames at 3:02 PM | Comments (1)