Foodies and yogis head for South African Buddhist Retreat
Pudding and Prana had us do a lot of yoga with Amy Best and cooking demos (followed by eating) with Paul Atkinson. Vegetarian curries and a Moroccan stew. A beet and feta salad. A “bejeweled’ cous cous. Poached pears in a yummy rich chocolate baked pie topped with whipped cream blended with double-cream yogurt. All were recipes he had perfected while working in the Buddhist Retreat Center kitchen and were destined for Plentiful: The Big Book of Buddha Food (Jacana).
Thailand travel 27: Wat Plai Laem, Mr Pong and the Big Buddha
My outsize shibori scarf is the most useful item in my luggage. You can use it to cover your shoulders at the Big Buddha temple in Koh Samui, sit on it on grubby bus seats, keep the sun off your arms and shoulders with it, don it in the evening to add a touch of elegance, dry yourself with it, wipe your hands on it when you’ve eaten, use to to keep you warm when the breeze comes up of an evening and lots more.
Laos travel 24: Laung Prabang alms parade and morning market
The morning market opens at 6am, just after Sai Bat. To quote from the official Luang Prabang website: Lao cuisine draws almost exclusively on fresh foods. Few homes traditionally have refrigerators and modern supermarkets are rare. So at this market, you’ll find every possible type of food regionally available, including an amazing mushroom selection. Everything fresh is seasonal.
Laos 23: Massage and monk chat
When I see a young monk sitting at a little table inside a temple ground reading, I smile and he smiles and says Hello across the short distance and the wall. And tells me he is practicing his English and invites me to come and check the book he’s taken from the library. His English is good and his name is Bakh and he says he became a monk to get an education and he is turning 19 the next day. He is from a Mekong village where they had no high school.
Laos 21: Cafe Ban Vat Sene Luang Prabang and how to travel solo
Almost stop in at a place called Chill. But not quite right, even though what “right” is, I won’t know, till I find it: a Lao breakfast menu at a pretty elegant place that also has a bakery. When I search I find it in my Rough Guide too. At Café Le Ban Vat Sene on Sakkaline Road I sit outside and order the Khai Jeun Jaeo Mak Len (omelet cooked with herbs and served with tomato relish, sun-dried beef and sticky rice) 30,000 kip and Lao coffee.
Laos 20. From Luang Prabang’s Delilah Cafe to Mount Phousi
At Delilah’s Cafe in Luang Prabang I order the Rough Guide brekker suggestion. The banana pancake that comes with lemon, ginger and cream and a Lao coffee. Here, like everywhere, there is WiFi. (Sometimes I doesn’t work but for the most part does).
Thailand travel 9. Monk chat with Nit and foot massage envy
The young monk’s English is broken, but OK. I have been surprised at the unselfconscious lack of English to date. “Thailand has never been colonized,” the young man explains. Guess a self-confidence comes with that. Of “just being Thai.” He says here in Thailand they belong to the Theravada school of Buddhism. Asks me if I know anything about Buddhism. I tell him I lived for three years at the San Francisco Zen Center. Have meditated for many.
Wolf Totem and French kisses with wolves: an interview
French director Jean-Jacques Annaud talks about making Wolf Totem, the relevance of the film to China, Mongol culture, French kissing a wolf and wolf whisperer Andrew Simpson, ice sculpture horses, his relationship with religion and more in an interview with Wanda Hennig in Durban.
My backpack, my daughter and me: Part 1
We set off on our European summer backpacking vacation one warm and sunny winter afternoon late in May. My daughter was 13. I was 30-something. We flew from Durban to London via Nairobi and found from the very beginning that learning while on the move is easier than ABC. Things are there all the time, waiting to be noticed, grasped and stored away in the memory with minimum effort.
My backpack, my daughter and me: Part 2
Our first night in Athens after arriving late in the evening and desperate for a place to drop our bodies and our backpacks, we found ourselves in the sleaziest hotel I have ever seen. But on the whole, Greece was great. So great, we spent almost a month there instead of the planned two weeks. This story recently won ‘Gold’ in the Bay Area Travel Writers internet travel article award category.