Laos

Luang Prabang Parade

We crossed the border from Thailand to Laos painlessly and arrived to find out that it was the start of the annual 3-day festival celebrating the end of the rainy season. Our first day in country we roamed through the streets playing dart games and trying different foods at all the booths lining the streets. Drew won a box of juice for hitting 3 balloons out of 4 and then he tried some BBQ, but couldn't figure out what kind of meat it was. It kind of gave him a scare when Liss reminded him that they eat dog, rat, and many others animals you wouldn't think of eating.

The next day we jumped on a 2-day boat ride to Luang Praban . Our boat was the 'slow boat' and luckily we were going down river. The boat is about 80 ft long and it was packed with tourists. We made the best out of the ride by admiring the natural beauty of riverside villages, lush green mountains, watching the boat races which is part of the festivities. The boat ride stopped in a small town in a steep canyon for the night and we quickly fell asleep despite the continuous firecrackers going through the night. After the second day of sore bums on the boat we finally arrived in Luang Prabang which is a World Heritage Site with strong french influence. We made it just in time for the biggest night of the festival. We watched a parade of people of all ages singing and dancing and carrying bamboo boats glowing with candles. We participated by shooting roman candle fireworks over the parade and then we followed the parade to the temple were all the boats were blessed and then the monks shot off roman candles over the crowd. We also took part of the festival by lighting a floating candle and incense and putting it into the river hoping our wishes will come true. Then we watched all the boats float down river. We barley made it home while kids threw firecrackers at our feet. We then took a windy bus ride through the edgy mountains of Laos, where we realized we had a man guarding the bus with an AK47. We arrived at 1am in Vang Vieng, a very creepy backpacker town where every restaurant plays reruns of Friends or Family Guy. The best part of Vang Vieng was the river tubing. We booked a river tour that took us to a village to see a cave temple and then explore a massive cave. The enterance to the cave was a few small holes where a stream came out of the mountain. We jumped into our tubes and ducked under the rock and emerged into a giant cave with stalagmites everywhere you looked. After the cave tour we headed down to the main river to start floating 5 km back to town. The river is absolutely gorgeous with mountains towering over the river. As we floated down the river there was numerous bars to stop for a drink. The main attraction to the bars was the giant rope swings, water slides, and zip lines. We spent hours on the swings acting like kids at 'Raging Waters'.

Our next stop was the capital of Laos, Vientiane. This city has a strong French influence with many bakeries, french architecture, and a look-alike 'Arc de Triumph'. There was also many beautiful temples, old and new.

We took a night bus to our next stop and this was no ordinary bus. It was a two-story sleeper bus and each bed was the equivalent to a twin but shorter and for two people. It wasn't too bad of a ride and next thing we knew we were in Pakse where we jumped on a van to the 4,000 islands. The 4,000 islands is in the very south of Laos where the Mekong fans out creating many little islands. A short boat ride took us to the island of Don Det that was a beautiful little island with rice fields in the middle and bungalows on the shore. The island was very quiet with many locals busy harvesting rice and fishing in the Mekong. We found the perfect bungalow right on the river that had amazing sunset views, night-time lightning shows, and overlooked Cambodia on the other side of the river. We rented bikes to explore the island to the south which was home to the largest waterfall (by volume) in Southeast Asia. This water streched as far as you could see and massive amounts of water plunged over rocks. At the far end of the island we took a boat to see the fresh water dolphins which are some of the last in the world. We spent a week in the area to take a break from moving around so much and because it was so cheap and the food was so fresh and so good.

We spent our last day in Laos back in Pakse which is a small, bustling town. With not a whole lot to see in town we rented a motor bike to see some of

the local life and that led us to a  national park. We saw some incredible waterfalls and had lunch at a beautiful restraurant uniquely built with local timber.

Laos was filled with natural beauty and friendly people and we highly recommend a visit.  

Peter, the friendly little monkey at our guesthouse who was saved from a Cambodian BBQ.

Trekking

Well, we just got back from our 3 day trek to the hill tribes just north of Chiang Mai. The first day we explored a beautiful waterfall, then hiked 3 hours to a Karen tribe village tucked in the mountains. We had one other American solo traveller, and 4 Spanish lady friends who did the trek with us and our guide was a Jackie Chan-look alike named Som Dee. It was up and down slopes through hot sun and misty fog, and then we came upon the small village surrounded by tiers of rice fields and lots of bamboo houses. We stayed in small bamboo huts on stilts and the villagers made us dinner of delicious vegetable curries and rice. The next morning we got up early and hiked for 4 hours again through the blazing sun. Our Spanish ladies complained enough to give us plenty of breaks...which was really very much appreciated and then we finally came down the mountain side into a small valley where 10 elephants and lots of water buffalo were bathing in a river at a small elephant camp. We loved hanging out with the big wrinkly guys, and watching the kids give them all baths before our trek. We rode them for about an hour through the jungle, until we got to the next Karen village. That night Som Dee serenaded us with his Thai versions of American classics...Bryan Adams, "Everything I do, I do it for you" became "Avry doooo, dooooo faaa you"....very entertaining :) The next day was the biggest adventure yet...Bamboo rafting. Which sounded very peaceful and relaxing meandering down a big calm river- We were so wrong! At 8am Som Dee loads up all 8 of our bags on a bamboo tripod and we all line up in a single file trying to distribute our weight. In about 2 minutes our feet disappear, then our ankles and then Som Dee says " Very quick...OFF!" Som Dee and another villager found another piece of bamboo to tie on making it16 pieces instead of 15 pieces keeping us afloat. Drew and the other American guy were given the job to maneuver us through the river, which they realized quickly was much harder than it looked. We were banging against rocks and ducking under trees until they figured out how to put all of their weight on their 15 foot bamboo poles while pushing off the river bottom. Our favorite part was when Som Dee said, "OK, sit down...small waterfall" All of us looked at each other, and stopped laughing when we started going over fast rapids, hitting rocks on the way down. Liss was hanging on by one hand until someone pulled her back on. It was quite the adventure! Next stop Laos.....

Sawadee Ka

Mae Hong Son Province

We arrived in Bangkok about a week ago and Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Henry gave us a royal Thai welcoming. They treated us to a fabulous meal of local cuisine on the river and our train trip to the north.

We are now in Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand and we have fallen in love with this little mountain town. We are staying at a nice quiet place near the river with free bicycles for us to wander around town and whiz through all the motor bikes. We are enamored with the food and local markets...and the $0.60 fresh fruit smoothies are divine. We met up with Morgan and Kataneh (Congrats again Newly Weds!) for a Thai Boxing match which was as Drew states "Bloodsport" quality. Ten fights, 2 KO's, bloody faces, and so many kicks to the kidneys made us sore the next day.

Motorbiking the Mae Hong Son mountains

We headed up to Pai in the mountains for 3 days and had an amazing adventure exploring on a moped. We found waterfalls, canyons, and even elephants! (Aunt Roxanne I did better than an elephant pet, I got a hug :) Pai itself was a very small, bohemian style town, with great live music every night and an incredible variety of international cuisine.

Pambok Waterfall

We met up with Drew's godmother's friend, Ronny, last night for dinner. She is an inspiring woman who picked up her belongings 3 years ago and relocated to this fabulous town, Chiang Mai. She is an amazing artist who volunteers at the blind school for children and who is very much young at heart and who knows how to enjoy every moment of life.

We plan to go on a 3 day trek to the hill tribes via elephant and bamboo raft. Then eventually Laos....if we can pull ourselves away from Chiang Mai.

A tiny bar in the middle of Pai.