Turnbull Family Pacific Tour 2015

We visited a Belgian restaurant last evening which served a hundred different varieties of expensive beer to go with steamed clams and fries. Come to think of it, we've been eating western food for quite a while now. I think partly as a change of pace from local Asian cuisine, and partly because the recommendations we get on-line tend to favour western style restaurants. We mixed it up for lunch and dinner today and ate some local Lao style meals. One of my meals came with some tasty fat mushrooms I couldn't identify, which reminded me that I've seen a large variety of mushrooms on offer in Laos. Back in Luang Prabang the locals would pick wild mushrooms and sell them in the market, either fresh or dried. The first time I walked down to one of the main street corners in Luange Prabang I had to watch my step to avoid the mushrooms laid out on the sidewalk to dry in the sun. We were walking around the night market last night and we spotted the first busker I've seen in La...

Our last night in Thailand was low key. We picked up some take-out from the local markets and relaxed at the hotel. Elizabeth spent some time after dark flashing lights on the pond frogs and trying to spot the geckos in the trees that were so loud and sounded very odd. I spotted a gecko in the kitchen as we were getting ready for bed but I didn't want to cause a stir by mentioning it to anyone. I don't think the creature caused a ruckus during the night. We had an early start from Koh Samui in the morning to catch our flight to Laos via Bangkok. The Koh Samui airport was small but scenic. My favourite part was the aquarium fish tank above the urinals in the washroom. The flight over was uneventful, although the duck for breakfast was an interesting choice for Bangkok Airways. I think I was the only one to try it. In the afternoon we arrived at our hotel in Luang Prabang along the Mekong river, which snakes its way along the border with Vietnam for part of its course. Flying ov...