While "random photos from around Asia" might not be the greatest blog title this is in essence what these are. I quite like the photo of the Beijing Bird's Nest Stadium and the tourist with the drone from Laos. Overall I think I am most happy with this set of photos. I guess with travel I saw new places so consequently the photos of those places are new. In Shanghai I often did just my daily life or saw the same things several times.
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Even American companies, like PepsiCo, American subsidiaries, like Frito-Lay, will make products or change the names of products for the Chinese market. While Lay's wouldn't sell a product called "American Classic Flavor" in the US it is likely that it is just whatever general potato chip flavor Lay's chips normally are. Other flavors, like "Mexican Tomato Chicken Flavor" might actually sell well in the US if it is sold there. I can't see Americans lining up to buy "Yogurt Flavor" or "Grilled Squid Flavor" potato chips as anything other than as a gag gift. Still, with a market of a billion plus people that is enough to make custom flavors. Some of these flavors, like "Grilled Squid Flavor" might sell well in other Asian nations like Thailand or Japan. I didn't actually try any of them though so I have no idea if any of these flavors of Lay's are good.
I made another attempt to use the massive box of bamboo I was mailed, this time some of my friends and I decided to do a Phat Thai type of dish with quail eggs and the bamboo. I would say it worked out better than my first attempt but the street guys in Thailand are still the kinds of Phat Thai. My two biggest problems this time around were that I cut some of the bamboo pieces a bit too large resulting in some that didn't cook right and the noodles were overcooked. I should have paid more attention to the noodles when I bought them because they cook in literally 3 minutes. It feels like by the time I dump them in the hot water they are ready to eat. They are faster than even the pot noodle type things. I did get use to the strange internal film of the quail eggs so using them was much easier this time around. I would say this attempt was more successful than my last attempt, even if it doesn't look pretty.
Last Saturday, some friends of mine and I decided to check out Mr. Pancake in the French Concession. As the name would imply, Mr. Pancake serves Western style breakfast items; no 包子 or 炒面, only a rather large menu of Western style diner foods. The actual pancakes were OK, not great, but my omelet and my potatoes were good. What was strange though is that Mr. Pancake gives you a fork and knife, the first fork and knife I used since I got to China. Most of the Western food I eat in China is stuff liker burgers or pizza that can be eaten with your hands. The Thai use forks but they do a fork and spoon combo, not a fork and knife combo. Since we went for a kind of late brunch, I also got a decent Bloody Mary and a good coffee. Overall, a good breakfast for someone who haven't eaten a Western breakfast in some time, though not as good as a proper Jersey diner.
While it is not like sitting on my patio in Chiang Mai, enjoying the sunset in Luang Prabang, or drinking the unidentified fresh draft of Hanoi, it is nice to do beer and cookies back in my own room in Shanghai. The Thai had better cookies and the Lao had better bottled beer though (the Vietnamese beer was better on tap). Now that I am back in China and had some time to stew I now feel like it is time for a South East Asia (Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand in my case) retrospective. The first thing I would like to note is that Thailand, particularly Bangkok, is clearly more developed than ether Vietnam or Laos. While Vietnam is trying, and to a fair degree succeeding, in becoming a developed country Laos is simply not. Chiang Rai did feel more like Hanoi in terms of development, but both cities were clearly more developed than Luang Prabang. I would also like to note that I think Luang Prabang is Laos's "model city." The problems I heard about Laos, like starvation level poverty and corruption, are not visible in Luang Prabang; this dosn't mean that these aren't issues Laos faces, it is simply that the government has put there effort into saving face in Luang Prabang for the tourists. Hanoi and all the cities in Thailand felt like better representations of their respective countries than Luang Prabang did.
It is interesting to compare temples in the three countries, since I seemed to spent most of my time in Buddhist temples. Vietnam had temples but they seemed touristy. I did end up in one temple that was actually used by real Vietnamese Buddhists and many of the restaurants had little shrines but the Buddhism was not as visible. I think Luang Prabang gets tourists by marketing itself as a Buddhist temple city. The locals are apparently religious but all the temples did feel like they were set up to handle tourists. The Thai are a remarkable religious people. All of the temples, even the touristy ones, were all used by real Thai Buddhists and basically every public building had a spirt house that people would pray and make offerings to. Another interesting comparison is the attitudes toward their colonial past. Being colonized seems like it plays a big role in the Vietnamese national identity, at least historically. Vietnam is moving past that but it is still very evident in many of the historical sites in Vietnam and I would argue in some of modern Vietnamese foreign policy. While Vietnam and Laos had the same colonizers, the French, Laos seems way more accepting of the French then the Vietnamese. For instance, many young Lao can still speak French while most young Vietnamese can't. I believe that this is because Laos was granted more self government under French administration than Vietnam was. Thailand has a totally different colonial narrative. Thailand was never actually colonized and remained independent through the Age of Imperialism. In Thailand this is attributed to the wise leadership of the House of Chakri (the family of the current Thai monarch). The depictions of The House of Chakri, in particular the late Thai King HM Bhumibol Adulyadej, and Ho Chi Minh were remarkably similar. Both are show as wise leaders who are above criticism and are loved by all. Their images can be seen around, although I saw way more of HM Bhumibol Adulyadej and even the current King HM Maha Vajiralongkorn, who is far less popular than his father, in Thailand than I did Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam. Still, Ho Chi Minh is still on all the money and he is sitting in a glass box in Hanoi (while Bhumibol Adulyadej was also sitting in a glass box when I was in Bangkok the government had plans to cremate him soon). The reverence for Ho Chi Minh extended to Laos, who's current governement was put in place by Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese Communists during the Vietnam War. Ho Chi Minh seemed to pop up more randomly in Luang Prabang than he did in Hanoi actually. The relationship between Laos and Vietnam andros and Thailand is kind of odd. All three are ASEAN member states so Lao, Vietnamese, and Thai citizens can all easily travel to and work in any ASEAN member state. This seems to mean that Vietnamese and Lao citizens go to Thailand to work and not the other way around. Furthermore, while the Lao language is actually closely related to Thai (and are actually mutually intelligible) and Thailand (still called Siam thrn) even ruled over parts of Laos for a time, Laos is still closer to Vietnam. While I could go on, this post has to end somewhere and that might as well be here. If I end up feeling like I have more to say I will do a part two. Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Changsha, confused yet? I am now sitting in Chiang Mai International Airport waiting to my flight to Changsha, Hunan Proviance, China. I think the names should start to get less confusing from here on out. My only problem is I can't take an airplane picture from out of the windows in the airport.
I decided to combine two days of touring in Chiang Mai because my plans today all fell flat. I was going to go for a massage at the local prison vocational center thing, but they were all booked up. I had a whole selection of bad jokes prepared and everything. It is important to note that the inmates were doing actual massages, not "oil and lotion massages" from attractive Thai women who the monks would prevent from entering the Wat's because of their black micro mini skirts. The next thing I wanted to do, check out the museums, also didn't work too well since one of them was closed for renovations. I did get to see a lot of really cool temples, check out the Lanna Folk Life Center, and eat some Northern Thai food. The old parts of Chiang Mai remind me a lot of Luang Prabang, since it seems to be 50% temples and 50% tourists. Though, Chiang Mai seems to have more normal people who hold jobs outside of tourism/Buddhism. Also unlike Luang Prabang, most of the temples in Chiang Mai are free. The style of temple noticeable changed from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, I read that the northerners have their own style of temple. The Lanna Folk Center discussed it a bit. It seems like some of the natives of Northern Thailand have their own traditions and forms of ancestors worship, in addition to standard Buddhism. It is important to remember that the Buddha dosn't demand exclusive adherence like the big three monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) do. He seems cool with you worshipping other entities as long as he is in the equation somehow. Chiang Mai also had more Burmese style Buddhas than Bangkok, Chiang Rai, or Luang Prabang. The food is similar to Chiang Rai, both being northern. The biggest difference I noticed between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai and Bangkok is that both Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai actually have more Thai food, Bangkok seems to be super into forign food. I would also like to note on food that the Cream-O company should stop knocking off Oreos and make exclusively their Choco Plus cookies because those things are wonderful. I guess even with my failures I still had fun over the last two days.
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AuthorI am a junior at Juniata College spending a year studying abroad at East China Normal University. Please feel free to join my on my journey to China and beyond. Archives
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