A list of crazy things that happened to me on the road, around Asia. Want to read it in French?
The 1 day Alzheimer experience (aka the motorbike accident)
I fell asleep on my motorbike while driving in Vietnam (seriously, they drive like snails over there… so boring!). I hit my head, grew the perfect face to scare all the kids off, but mostly, I lost my memory for a few hours. Where was I? Why the hell in Vietnam? Waking up at a small village’s doctor with all asian faces around felt like being cast to the 37th dimension. Pretty cool, for a first travel in time.
Bargaining with the police & getting officers’ numbers
I was arrested by the police in Laos, for riding a motorbike without license. They let me bargain the fine and in the end, the chef offered me further protection… in return for my telephone number. Why not? I ended up surrounded by 5 guys in uniform pointing Jennifer Lopez to me in a random magazine somewhere at the Mekong… and I was made proud owner of two police officers’ phone numbers. For my safety, of course.
Mimetism, you’re doing it wrong
I violated a secret beach guarded by the communist army in Vietnam. How? A random guy offered to drive my friend and myself on his scooter through some sandy jungle (off road with three people on the bike, hell yeaaaah!) so to skip the guards. Incognito… well not really, considering my shiny paleness.
It’s dehydration, hell yeah!
I ran and jumped through the cliffs in LongDong, Taiwan, in the midst of the night. I ended up totally dehydrated, with the heart beating at a 300km/h rate, my tongue sticking out and my body refusing to walk. Gladly enough, somebody identified the issue and fed me 2.5 liters of water at a speed I could easily enter in the Guinness of World Records. Safe!
Longdong's beautiful cliffs, in Taiwan
Throwing a party for a ghost
I was wandering around the Mekong in some lost village in Laos when I heard a traditional orchestra. I followed the sound and got invited to take part in what was a thank you celebration for a ghost. I was served and fed like an honored guest, and got to take part in their offering tradition, and got treated their awesome village made food. Ghosts are cool.
View the two videos I took of this incredible celebrations where old ladies dance for hours, changing their clothes many times, and guys dance with candles on their swords. You can also view all my photography taken in their village in my portfolio.
Ghost celebration in a village in Laos
Road tripping, but not with a broken arm
I went for a 2’200km motorbike roadtrip through the deep north-eastern Thailand, with a friend… who managed to broke her arm on the 6th day: cast away, back home! I had to keep going on my own. Empty tank, crazy drivers, missed romance, highway, highway, highway, kind people, annoying people, encouraging people… I saw everything, including ‘warning! wild elephants’ signs. Everything, except the elephants.
a tattoo and a bowl of blood (how badass is that?)
I got a shaman to tattoo a magical and powerful ink on my back, in the heart of the jungle in northern Thailand. After that, I drank raw pig blood, and I liked it.
The raw pig's blood, after the tattoo
I still need to try balut…
I ate all kinds of weird food from here and there. After the raw pig bloog, I had the dancing shrimps (slowly dying in your plate), all the single parts of a beef, a pig, a chicken (including the ass), buffalo hide, stinky tofu, snake (blood, poison, meat and… semen), insects (worms, grasshoppers, etc)… I-am-not-done. Keep them coming!
You can view sabkrab’s video of the goong dten (aka dancing shrimps).
This is me eating snake!
Not sure if beautiful or unpractical
I was bridesmaid in Sri Lanka, with the saree dress and all! A saree, that’s sublime… yet not really practical when you have to go every five minutes to toilet, and you’re not even sure where your daily food is going to come out from… You’d better either manage the fabric like a pro, or get naked and don’t dare to move out of the restroom for the rest of the wedding.
More adventures coming soon ;)