The Hostel Tales: How budget travelling can get you into the 4th dimension.

When you go travelling, the world is your oyster, you have no home and are free of all worries. Practically, you need a bed at night. Thank god for hostels ! But there is a bit of a trick there. See it’s an interesting reciepe (would I dare to say for disaster ?). Take a few travellers, some ready to paint the town red, some happy to read their lonely planet in bed after a hot cocoa. Then put them all together in the same room, more or less clean. Add a few (and more) drinks, hours of tiring journeys and different characters. Shake it all up. Here is your ready mix for some pretty special stories. I’m not going to lie, it mainly involves nakedness, alcohol and embarresent. But hey, that’s part of backpacking too isn’t it ?

« There is someone naked in my bed »
Working at reception in a hostel gets you to deal with interesting situations. One morning a backpacker asked me if it was possible to get some new sheets I replied for sure, but why ?
-Well, there was a naked woman in my bed. 
-Pardon?!
As I mentioned before you get very different people. Turned out that the naked woman had first of all visited the owner of the bed above and after some frolicking decided that in fact, it was far better to sleep in a fresh bed right there.
A pair of clean sheets later and 5 more complaints for « loud romantic noises » during night from the rest of the dorm, and everyone was fine.

The Excelsior, best hostel in Sydney - photo: Katie B.

«  I locked myself out of my room in tiny boxers » 
You thought it was great that your hostel had really nice bar to party. But how would you feel if you had to walk through it at 2am only wearing boxers ? Well. What if you just locked yourself out the room, went to the toilet and thought you would enjoyed  the dark corridors at night wearing nothing ? And what if  you finally realised that now you need to go down to reception to get a new key and therefore cross the entire hostel ? Always entertaining on a packed Saturday night.  Oh and don’t forget which room you are in.
Because there is CCTV. We can see you wandering naked through the hostel trying to figure out which door is yours.

« Why can’t I bring back prostitutes »
Sometimes it is not only a language barriers but serious mentality differences. No matter the nationality. But how do you explain to three drunk Polish backpackers that no, they can’t bring back prositutes. It went something like this:
- Why can’t they go with us ? We’ve paid for our beds and we’ve paid for her .
- Can’t have people who are not guests in the hostel. Safety policy. Especially for illegal paid sex.
- But it will be quick I only paid for an hour !
- No!
-Can we use the chill out room?
-NO!
-The Toilets?
-NOOO!

I could go on and on, but I think these three are fairly funny. So here is a few tips to get on with your dorm :
-Buy some pyjamas
-Stick to your own bed
-Keep your frolicking to a minimal noise. You know what, actually just don't.
-Don't bring back prostitutes.

Simple as. Enjoy your travels.

You can also find this article as a guest blog for my friends Cheap O Air! Check them out! Los Angeles Vacation packages

LaoLao - I feel fire burning

There is one thing I discovered in Laos apart from smiley people and that speaking french can get you discounts, the famous LaoLao. And as every dinner started by a shot of it (and finished by many) I wondered where that white alcohol (that tasted so differently from places to places and came into so many recycled bottles) actually came from. If you gonna burn your brain cells like there is no tomorrow, might as well read a bit about it before becoming blind from it.

First of all did you know that people from Laos are the heaviest drinkers in SEA? The Amy Winehouse of Asia has many rituals such as the traditional reception ceremony that involves quite a lot of drinking. Basically they make a mean alcohol and they are more than happy to share it with the backpacker by the litre.

So what was that in my bucket in Luang Prabang?
Well it was a rice whiskey. Depending on where you drunk it from it could have been a nicely made moonshine or some nail varnish drinking like experience made at the back of a shop. Although it seems to be the same word, it is actually two separate words when you can put the right pronunciation in. lao (falling down tone) means alcohol and Lao (rising sound) means, well, Laos. It is one of the symbol of the Laos pride and is often the second source of income for most of people (sell fruits by day, make whisky at night, wait for the tourist).
I really want to make some at home to remember these awesome hangovers from SEA and get all my friends in the same state I was in.
Sure my dear. Here is how to make it.
-Boil some rice (you should mesure the water needed with a buffalo horn)
-Let the cooked rice ferment for 5days in the open air until it turns into mash
Now the tricky part:
-Boil the mash in a copper kettle with a condenser tube so no steam escape at 150°F
-Filter the liquid that comes out of your condenser.
-Get the shot glasses out, you are done.

Liz and I, experiencing LaoLao Mai Tai bucket in VangVieng

I don’t feel like shooting it. Why should I do?
Make a cocktail!

Pygmy Slow Lorange
1/3 Lao Lao
1/3 Green tea
1/3 Orange squash/Juice
A dash of lime juice
Build/High Ball
Shake the lao lao, the green tea and squeeze a few bits of lime.
In a high ball glass, build your orange squash or juice at the bottom. Add some crushed ice. Use the strainer to slowly add the laolao and the green tea to create a nice layer. Garnish with mint and a slice of lime.
Enjoy!

Oh and I nearly fogort; you can flavor it by adding some scorpions, bees, or snakes. Niceeee.