Travel tips in Sri Lanka-Lao

Sri Lanka traveling

• Sri Lanka has attracted travelers for centuries. Marco Polo delineated it as the finest island of its size in the world. Balanced just above the Equator amid the balmy waters of the Indian Ocean, the island’s legendary fame for natural beauty and plenty has influenced an almost magical regard even in those who have never visited the place.
• Romantically inclined geographers, poring over maps of the island, compared its outline to a teardrop falling from the tip of India or to the shape of a pearl (the less softhearted Dutch likened it to a leg of ham), while even the name given to the island by early Arab traders – Serendib – gave rise to the English word “serendipity”.

Sri-Lanka-Sigiriya-Rock

• Marco Polo’s bold claim still holds true. Sri Lanka packs an extraordinary variety of places to visit within its modest physical dimensions, and few islands of comparable size can boast a natural environment of such beauty and diversity. Sri Lanka boasts more than two thousand years of recorded history, and the noteworthy achievements of the early Sinhalese civilization can still be seen in the continuation of ruined cities and great religious monuments that litter the northern plains.
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  The glories of this early Buddhist civilization continue to provide a benchmark of national identity for the island’s Sinhalese population, while Sri Lanka’s historic role as the world’s oldest stronghold of Theravada Buddhism lends it a unique cultural identity that permeates life at every level. There’s more to Sri Lanka than just Buddhists, however.
• The island’s geographical position at one of the most important staging posts of Indian Ocean trade laid it open to a uniquely wide range of influences, as generations of Malay, Arab, Portuguese, Dutch and British settlers subtly transformed its culture, architecture and cuisine, while the long-established Tamil population in the north have established a vibrant Hindu culture that owes more to India than to the Sinhalese south.
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  However, this very diversity that has long threatened to tear the country apart. But now, The island is experiencing peace for the first time in a generation, and although the physical, political and human scars of war remain raw in many places, most Sri Lankans are now once again looking to the future with secured optimism.

Sri_lanka_fishermen

In My blog I have  useful travel articles for people who travel in Asia as in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand.

Best time to visit Laos

The best time to visit Laos depends on your preferences.

• Do you plan to travel Laos, You should know: having two distinct weather seasons in Laos. Laos’s weather system is relatively simple compared with much of Asia; including a dry season (October to late April) and a rainy season (May to late September).
• Within each season there are transformation in temperature, with the dry months causing to the wet season (March and April) and the early rainy season (May and June) usually being the hottest of the year.

Laos weather summary

The dry season from November to April has almost no rain and temperatures are more moderate. The rainy season from May to October is marked by tropical heavy rains in the afternoon, though some travelers prefer to visit Laos at this time, when fewer tourists come and prices are markedly lower.

Rainy season

• The early months of the rainy season (May to July) remain very hot and rainfall is often short lived, while in the latter months (late July to September) the rains trend to get more constant and can be heavy at times. Especially in southern of the country. Further north and in Luang Prabang, rainfall trends to be lighter and you can often expect rain during the night or mornings with some relatively clear afternoons. Across Laos, throughout the rainy season, daytime temperatures average around 29°C in the lowlands and 23°C in the mountain valleys.
• Temperatures throughout the country are also greatly effected by height with much of the country at a level that degrees the country’s average temperatures by several degrees °C. As a general rule north, central and eastern regions are at a higher area than those in the south, where at its lowest, in the Mekong River valley, humidity is higher and temperatures in exuberancy of 35°C are not uncommon between March and April.
• Throughout the country in all but the hottest months is often advisable to have a jumper or fleece for the evenings, when there is a tendency for it to get quite cool.

Laos landscape

 

If you are having a Laos traveling plan, please read more about The best food in Laos.

 

The best desserts tourists should try in Laos

Lao cuisine is unlike some others in the region, partially due to its location – it is landlocked and has no trading ports. The staple of traditional meal is sticky rice and its rolled into little balls and eaten with fingers – chopsticks are only for noodle dishes. A typical meal consist of sticky rice, jeow, spicy vegetable dipping sauces similar to salsa. But Laotian cuisine is influenced greatly from Thai and Vietnamese cuisine. Local markets are overflowing with chicken, duck, pork, fresh water fish, water buffalo and goat. They also cook with a number of ingredients such as pea eggplants – tiny, bright green eggplants the size of blueberries that grow on branches. They use lots of herbs and try to balance the flavors of their dishes with bitter, salty, sour and spicy things.

Lao Eggplant Dip – Jeow Mak Keua

These jeow recipes are really easy to prepare, and it can be mild or very spicy.
Lao Eggplant Dip – Jeow Mak Keua is made eggplant or garlic bulbs, tomatoes, whole shallots and chili peppers onto skewers, and roasted them right on top of red-hot coals until they were blackened.

Lao Eggplant Dip – Jeow Mak Keua

Nam Vam (Na Va) – Tri Color Drink

Nam Vam is a nice treat commonly served at celebrations and big events. It’s also good on a hot summer day or as a dessert. Traditionally it has multiple parts (color beautiful layers) with different variations and degree of difficulty. It can be as complicated or simple depend on who make it. Boil the Tapioca, drain and add fruit (mango, lychee, …), and diced coconut jelly, kaong, macapuno strings. Put into some honey to coconut milk until sweetened to taste. Nam Vam is quite same to Vietnamese desserts for summer.

Nam Vam (Na Va) – Tri Color Drink

Khao tom

Khao tom is a Laos and Thailand dessert of seasoned steamed sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves. this Laos traditional dessert is sweet and savory it hits the spot all time!!
This dessert can be either savory (with pork fat and mung bean inside) or sweet (with coconut milk and banana inside). In Thailand, Khao tom is sometimes colored blue with Clitoria ternatea flowers.
The khao tom variety with black beans is known as khao tom mat .

Khao tom

Lao recipe – meekatee

This is one of three recipes for gaeng naw mai from the cook book “Food from Northern Laos”. Lao recipe uses yanang juice and fresh bamboo shoots. The recipe was recorded in ant egg season (April – May), thus ant eggs and acacia fronds were added. Lao recipe is perfectly fine without the ant eggs. This is a mix of beans, mak buab (or zuchini), squash tendrils, sawtooth herb and Lao basil.

Lao recipe – meekatee