Northern Laos & Thailand

Sometimes life just treats you right. Vang Vieng was a fun little town. We lucked out on our room. It was gorgeous, new, and only $5 a night. It is a very interesting little town full of restaurants playing Friends re-runs, Simpson's, or movies; all while relaxing at a table on stilts with cushions so you are completely comfortable and really don't want to leave.

However, during the day who wants to sit around and watch Friends when you could be out tubing down the river, with some English guys who were nothing short of fun times. You not only float down on a tire tube, but you swing on these flying foxes, and have a few bevi's along the way too. Recipe for a good time!

The following day I rented a scooter and went exploring some nearby caves. It is low season for water here so a guide and I hiked 16km in a pitch black cave. I thought my headlamp would be enough, but it barely lit up the ground beneath my feet. What an experience. I kept exploring on the scooter and started to get a little to comfortable, and might have encountered some gravel followed by a little wipe out...ending in a free Southeast Asia ta too. The common norm here.

Another bus trip, but this one curved up and down mountain ridges, and again the scenery was something else. How little towns were situated along a steeply winding road, with horns blazing as we round a corner, is something I will never grasp. Ending up in Luang Prabang was a treat. This french colonial town situated along the Mekong has to be one of my favorite place. So quiet, good food, and a great bakery where I actually met many people who I would travel with or who I had previously shared adventures with. Joma soon turned out to be a favourite hang out!

While travelling I have had numerous people ask me if I am really from Canada or if the flag on my pack is just there for looks?!! It has shocked my how many people actually ask me this, so one night I decided to ask another fellow with a flag on his pack. Sure enough he was, and he was from Manitoba. To top it all off Mike and Steve were actually from Dauphin and were fellow ukies!! We had a great time together biking in the rain, exploring the numerous temples(Wat's), visiting the night market, and of course sharing in some typical Ukrainian evening events.

On the day of my photo's being lost I met Mike from the States who had a liquidation sale of everything, 'cleaning out my life,' as he put it, to come travelling. Him and his buddy had both quit their teaching jobs to go adventure seeking. I still love hearing stories like that from people. It makes you feel better about not knowing exactly which road to take in life, or more so that there is no right or wrong road to take. He nicely offered to send me some pictures of Laos that he had taken, and somehow in the process convinced me flying to Thailand was a much better option than the 2/3 day boat/bus trip. I toyed with the idea, and just before the travel agent shut her doors booked my flight to Thailand. Definitely a great idea. One hour of painless travel, what a change.

Chiang Mai was great. I ended up meeting 2 girls from Norway, Siri and Helena, and a Mexican fellow, Tyrone, who I shared a the next few days with. We explored the city, took in some more Wat's, the famous night Bazaar, visited a club where this Thai band was playing cover songs (so crazy), and enjoyed each others company. The girls and I went on a day hike; consisting of elephant rides, bamboo rafting where the water ate my sunglasses, hiked to different tribal villages, and saw a small waterfall. I also took a cooking course for a day and leaned to make some of my new favourite recipes!!

But I might have to say the most exciting event, besides the recovery of most of my photos!!, was BUNGEE JUMPING!! I had tossed the idea around in my head, but didn't want to do it alone. So in passing one day I mentioned it to Mike to see if he was interested and he was game! Crap no backing out now. So away we went. We had a great chat all the way there, signed our lives away, rock paper scissors to see who jumped first and I won. Away I went, jumped to the edge and all of a sudden it hit me! What on earth am I doing!!! Ahhhhhh. I remember watching Brett and Kirby's video's when they both did it but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to do it. But having Mike at the bottom laughing at me somehow made me realize it can't be all bad, and besides I came all the way out here so 3...2...1...

What am amazing feeling! It was great. We had a great day, followed my some nachos and beer before catching the night bus to Bangkok to continue my journey south to start my diving!!! I can't wait

Southern Laos

One single word can encompass Laos...

.....QUIET........Peace and quiet......

After our wreck less private car ride, numerous boat/bus/car transfers we arrived in Southern Laos in an area called 4000 Islands. Here we shacked up in these cute bungalows on the small island of Don Det where a generator runs from 6-10pm providing the whole island with electricity for only those hours of the evening. This couldn't have been a more relaxing place to come to, especially after our car ride from hell and all I we experienced in Cambodia.

Here all I wanted to do was relax, and maybe explore a little, oh and maybe kayak, oh and... well I just wanted to go with the wind. There was something sooo relaxing about Laos. The people were more mellow, not as in your face and we were out of a city which was a great change. The first day we were befriended by a group of travellers renting a boat and going exploring around some of the islands...sure why not?! It was great fun meeting a whole new group of travellers full of new stories and many laughs.

The next day I embarked on a little 13km kayak adventure where I saw; two sets of waterfalls, one which was the largest in all of Southeast Asia; paddled through some small sets of rapids, still enough to get the adrenaline pumping; and while eating lunch on a rock in the middle of the Mekong River Delta (the 2nd largest river system originating in China and ending in Vietnam), Laos on my left side and Cambodia on my right, watched the rare species of Irawaddy dolphins jumping in the water around us. Could it really get any better??

Somehow there is always another adventure ahead of you. Galit, a new travel friend from Israel, and I decided to make the trip to Northern Laos. Well the boat from Don Det to the mainland was fun as we bailed water out of the old wooden longtail boat only to reach land, transfer into a pickup truck with 3 benches in the back, and me at the end of the middle bench pretty much out of the truck. By the end of the 3 hour trip, not only was I covered in a film of red dust, I had wished I could have rode on the top of the truck like the locals did!

Stop over for a day in Paksay, just long enough to walk around and go for a massage before catching another night bus to the capital city Vientiane. Night buses might become the death of me if I keep having snoring machines behind me!! The capital city is a very small and yet very quiet and relaxing, with numerous delicious bakeries with real bread not just white baguettes!!! Oh and how can I forget, good coffee too!! A day and half of walking around meeting more travellers to swap stories with, and it is off to the next city Vang Vieng for some tubing and cave exploration.

Laos is proving to be an amazing country, so beautiful and at much slower pace. The people are friendly, always greeting you, I feel very safe as far as cleanliness and safety, and the country side absolutely takes your breath away.

New Post

Hey everyone.

I made a post for Cambodia, but it is just below the one about my picture dilemma, which has been slightly resolved..yeah!!

Check out Cambodia and its' pictures!