the return to steam buns

after all kinds of overland travel through Thailand and Laos, our return to China via the golden triangle yielded us a welcomed and trusty culinary tradition: STEAM BUNS!!!

southern Yunnan province's rolling hills were covered with 1 crop: rubber trees. no acre goes unused

it was citrus season in southern China, and we got to eat some of the freshest of our lives (aka it wasn't shipped halfway around the world before we ate it).

mini rooster!! (note his size in comparison with a milk crate)

 a fried noodle/rice stand at the corner of the market: Yunnan's version is a little spicier than most in China

a delicious, heaping bowl of donkey noodle soup, catching the afternoon rays

neal's sunflower seed heaven... in brown!

a visit to the park on a Saturday in Kunming means dozens and dozens of performances: people come equipped with their own back-pack PA systems and a handful of string players - every ten yards you find a new performer competing for the crowd.

theatre, too!

 a smaller ensemble

in a different city park, it's mahjong day

how many kinds of tofu do you count?

Kunming's own streetside denture artisan

spicy fishies

it takes MSG to please me

Anshun adventure: Guizhou province

train landscape, headed to Fujian province

Neal finds street nougat

pu'erh cha

corn harvest in southern china

train gorge bridge

it took us a couple of days to figure out why it always smelled like poo in our rented apartment in Anshun: turns out our back yard was full of chickens!

looking over the spiderman cave

outside in...

inside out...

happy water buffalo man

hay harvest and typical Guizhou province landscape

driving past a wedding: the whole village is helping to cook and celebrate

chicken soup!

fermented fish is the name of the game in Laos

fish fermenting in buckets at the market

 pork filled banana leaves and rice roll fixin's

 spicy fermenty-fish pho-like Lao soup, one of our favorite meals in Laos, found in a back stall of the market in Luang Prabang

 night buffets in Luang Prabang

 Neal chose the frog

 head, feet, intestines and more!

 traditional packaging for most market ingredients

 ff salad - delish!

 more fish

 Hmong papermakin'

 Hmong corn grinder

 our leachy jungle pick-a-nic

 sticky rice row markers

 looking out over the golden triangle

 wild long beans

 village piggy

rubber trees for miles

Luang Prabang's south side just before sundown

sunset on the Mekong

Luang Prabang by slow boat

 Like many Luang-Prabang-bound backpackers and Lao river villagers, we hopped on one of these long boats equipped with up-cycled velour bench seats from the back of a car, some plastic picnic chairs, and bags of rice to sit on.

The two day boat ride took an overnight hiatus in a small village.  We sampled soup, salad, and sticky rice.

Every once in a while, the boat would stop at a sandy riverbank to pick 

up Lao and their loads bound for Luang Prabang: in this case, dinner.

Day two found us stuck with bags of rice for cushion. But at least we made some new friends.

Our new friend let Neal try some of her on-board snack: bbq mole. Unfortunately, the stink glands had not been removed.

A peaceful, never-ending ride down the Mekong.

Arrival.