Good evening (or morning wherever part of the world you are at)
Today was a relax day (sort of?) Got up this morning and got caught up with the world , funny how your on the other side of the world where you usually see this side on your television at home but yet here you are on that side and catching up with the rest of the world, good ol BBC.
Anyways off to the bakery for breaky fresh croissonts and fruit yum yum. Then we started our stroll. We found a stupa/wat/giant stairs to climb up to get a view of the mekong and the town. What a better way to start your day with some stair climbing :). The view was peaceful and relaxing it was about 9:00 am and in Laos things are laid back, no one is rushing to open shops or anything everyone kind of lazes the day away .... my kind of place. On the way around the Stupa we found some monks who spoke some english and wanted to talk to us. So we talked to one of them for about 10 minutes or so and he showed us what was apparently Buddhas footprint... Tyson was not believing it, it pretty much looked like big foots footprint... but you never know i guess. The monk was kind of enough to tell us how he came to Luang Prabang to study english and that it was expensive to study english here. He kindly asked us for some money .. i really couldn't resist i highly doubt it a monk would rip you off and so we gave him some money, plus monks are a higher class than normal people so i would not want to offend.
He showed us where he studied at school and then we needed to be going because we had to pick up our plane tickets to bangkok at a travel agent. After we picked up our tickets we went back to the hotel to switch rooms to a cheaper room and then decided to see if the morning market was set up along the river... to which it wasn't.. Tyson is not sure if there actually is a market there. We then proceeded to keep walking before picking up our laundry (yay clean clothes ) I decided that I needed a nap, still recovering from all the activities we did in Vieng Vang. So i took an hour and a half off to relax and nap. Tyson continued to stroll and he can tell his tale.
So I left Sara to her rest and headed out on the town. I decided to try and find a quiet bench beside a busy corner where I could grab people pictures. I went around looking without much success, so I decided to wander into a temple. As I entered the grounds a group of monks were studying something. As I was walking right by I decided to ask if they were studying english which they were. The one had a number of questions for me, so I sat down and helped with some grammer. We had to choose from on/for/to. Plus I helped explain a number of words such as cruise, and jogging. I sat and talked with them for the better part of an hour being tormented by red army ants at the same time. Those little buggers, once they start bitting they don't let go. At this point it started raining quite hard, so I agreed at their request to come back later (we agreed on 3:30pm to help some of the novices with english).
After than I checked out a couple of shops and headed back to Sara, because I was getting really hungry. Still need to find a busy corner for people shots. I choose to eat at this little place that always seemed to be busy. It was a Lao food place run by a Lao man and his white wife. The menu was very informative of the culture of the city and the food of the Lao people. We decided on two sampler trays (top shelf kinda place) and the food was good, I thought, very complex layering of flavors. Sara was nervous about eating off lettace but enjoyed half of the sticky rice samples. Sara didn't enjoy the flavors.
We headed back to the temple to talk with the novices, but when we got there the monk I had spoken with earlier had forgotten I was coming back. Oh well, at least we came back. Then we went over to another temple with mirrored stucko picture stories all over the outside walls. There we heard the monks sound the 4pm drum, quite a nice sound with the large drum and the brass dongs sounding.
After that we walked down bought our tickets for tomorrow. Tomorrow we are going on an elephant mahout training course. Where after being driven around on the elephants in the morning, we get taught how to drive the elephants in the afternoon, wash the elephants in the river, and then get to drive the elephants ourselves into the jungle where they sleep. We are both very excited about tomorrow.
Then we went shopping in an outdoor evening market that they set up by closing down the street. It is all tourist stuff, but if you look hard some of it is nice, and a little bargining and the price is reasonable. We got hungry before we finished the market and went for pizza, spring rolls, and beer. Now we are here catching you up with our day's activities.
See you tomorrow.
Tyson and Sara
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Over the mountain, through the rain, and to Luoang Prabang
Hello, and grettings from Luoang Prabrang or however you spell it.
This morning was just packing up, picking up some delious coconut bread, and getting the tuk tuk out to the bus station. The bus was suppose to leave at 10am but was delayed 30 minutes by the fact that one group of passangers slept in due to massive overconsuption of cheap alcohol the night before, as one could tell by how they sheepishly dragged themselves onto the bus.
Then we were off, Sara by request had the window seat. The air conditioning crapped out about 30 minutes in, but the windows could open so it wasn't so bad. The trip winded its way over the mountains twisting and turning every which way. Luckily no one ended up throwing up that we were aware of. I had my bets on a particularly hung over girl, but she didn't pull through for me. The scenery was some limestone krats to start then just rolling but very steep red clay mountains. The villages we passed especially very high up were quite poor. You could easily tell the difference between the wealth of each house. Poorest houses were built on wooden posts raised off the ground (all were raised off the ground at least a foot) and were weaved bamboo sides with a thatched roof. Next was either the thatched roof and weaved sides built on concrete pillars, or the wooden pillars with weaved sides but a metal roof. Next was the concrete pillars with the thatched sides and metal roof. Following that was the concrete pillars, wooden sides and metal roof. After that was the most expensive looking homes in town which were a full town stories with concrete pillars a metal roof, wooden upper story and concrete bricks filling in the area for the first floor. I had great interest in hopefully correctly figureing this out during the trip.
We passed through a number of rain storms, through the clouds once or twice, and had to stop twice once for the engine starting to overheat and once for the breaks starting to smell. Sara doesn't remember or disagrees that we stopped because the breaks smelled.
At the lunch stop, since we had brought food I was just walking around when I was approached by a number of kids. They ended up being from the local school and I figured that they probably came down here often, as their goal was to practice their english. I was happy to help and spent 15 minutes answering whatever questions I could. One of them was quite skilled, basic but skilled compared to most.
We arrived in Luang Prabang around 4:30pm (left at 10:30 after delay) and failed to reduce the price of the tuk tuk into town. We hoped that the hotel still had our reservation, which they didn't. But they still had a room open at their second hotel, which was the most expensive room in the place, but was very nice. So we took it.
We caught up with the world via BBC, and then went looking for dinner. On the way we dropped off our laundry, and Sara was invited to play badminton with some kids. As per usual she got competitive (go figure eh?) (note the kids looked no older than 8) and the birdy ended up in the sewer. Sara felt really bad and sent me back to the hotel for stuff from Canada. So we unloaded pencils, stickers, and an inflatable ball on the kids. Sara says if she finds a birdy she will buy one and go looking for the kids. Also on the way to dinner we saw a group of young men playing takaraw (a game like volleyball but no hands allowed we think) I remember trying it in gym once, and the whole class failing terribly. We would have watched for a while, but we were both hungry as we didn't eat much of a lunch.
We didn't bring the guidebook because we had an idea where we wanted to go for dinner, but we weren't impressed by the price or the lack of customers, so walked blindly around looking for a busy and nice looking place. It turned out to be only so-so and the menu didn't reflect what we got very well (I ordered from the stirfry part and got a soup). Sara has a bit of a headace and has had it all day, probably I think for dehydration, but we'll go relax and drink some water now.
Tomorrow will be an easy day, lining up a plane ticket to Bangkok for the fifth, shopping, and lining up tours, and maybe a Wat (temple) or two after we get our more appropiate clothes back from the laundry.
Tyson and Sara
This morning was just packing up, picking up some delious coconut bread, and getting the tuk tuk out to the bus station. The bus was suppose to leave at 10am but was delayed 30 minutes by the fact that one group of passangers slept in due to massive overconsuption of cheap alcohol the night before, as one could tell by how they sheepishly dragged themselves onto the bus.
Then we were off, Sara by request had the window seat. The air conditioning crapped out about 30 minutes in, but the windows could open so it wasn't so bad. The trip winded its way over the mountains twisting and turning every which way. Luckily no one ended up throwing up that we were aware of. I had my bets on a particularly hung over girl, but she didn't pull through for me. The scenery was some limestone krats to start then just rolling but very steep red clay mountains. The villages we passed especially very high up were quite poor. You could easily tell the difference between the wealth of each house. Poorest houses were built on wooden posts raised off the ground (all were raised off the ground at least a foot) and were weaved bamboo sides with a thatched roof. Next was either the thatched roof and weaved sides built on concrete pillars, or the wooden pillars with weaved sides but a metal roof. Next was the concrete pillars with the thatched sides and metal roof. Following that was the concrete pillars, wooden sides and metal roof. After that was the most expensive looking homes in town which were a full town stories with concrete pillars a metal roof, wooden upper story and concrete bricks filling in the area for the first floor. I had great interest in hopefully correctly figureing this out during the trip.
We passed through a number of rain storms, through the clouds once or twice, and had to stop twice once for the engine starting to overheat and once for the breaks starting to smell. Sara doesn't remember or disagrees that we stopped because the breaks smelled.
At the lunch stop, since we had brought food I was just walking around when I was approached by a number of kids. They ended up being from the local school and I figured that they probably came down here often, as their goal was to practice their english. I was happy to help and spent 15 minutes answering whatever questions I could. One of them was quite skilled, basic but skilled compared to most.
We arrived in Luang Prabang around 4:30pm (left at 10:30 after delay) and failed to reduce the price of the tuk tuk into town. We hoped that the hotel still had our reservation, which they didn't. But they still had a room open at their second hotel, which was the most expensive room in the place, but was very nice. So we took it.
We caught up with the world via BBC, and then went looking for dinner. On the way we dropped off our laundry, and Sara was invited to play badminton with some kids. As per usual she got competitive (go figure eh?) (note the kids looked no older than 8) and the birdy ended up in the sewer. Sara felt really bad and sent me back to the hotel for stuff from Canada. So we unloaded pencils, stickers, and an inflatable ball on the kids. Sara says if she finds a birdy she will buy one and go looking for the kids. Also on the way to dinner we saw a group of young men playing takaraw (a game like volleyball but no hands allowed we think) I remember trying it in gym once, and the whole class failing terribly. We would have watched for a while, but we were both hungry as we didn't eat much of a lunch.
We didn't bring the guidebook because we had an idea where we wanted to go for dinner, but we weren't impressed by the price or the lack of customers, so walked blindly around looking for a busy and nice looking place. It turned out to be only so-so and the menu didn't reflect what we got very well (I ordered from the stirfry part and got a soup). Sara has a bit of a headace and has had it all day, probably I think for dehydration, but we'll go relax and drink some water now.
Tomorrow will be an easy day, lining up a plane ticket to Bangkok for the fifth, shopping, and lining up tours, and maybe a Wat (temple) or two after we get our more appropiate clothes back from the laundry.
Tyson and Sara
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Spider pig spider pig does whatever a spider pig does!
Hello and welcome to the death defying adventure we had (ok a little overstatment but it was pretty scary).
We got up the usual 7am time and packed our bags because we had to move rooms. We ate breakfast and all last night i kept dreaming about rock climbing and wondering if i was mental for wanting to do this.. i tossed and turned alot and then dreamt about work YUCK!
We were at the green discovery place for pick up at 9am to start the day. It was just the 2 of us and our guide who spoke good enough english better than the kayaking guide whos name he said was porn star. We had a quick stop to get our climbing gear , harness, really incrediable tight shoes (normal climbing shoes), chalk, ropes, helmets and caribeeners. Then it was about a 10 minute ride to the drop off point from which we had to walk half hour through a riverbed that didn't have any water in it and then the intense part came. We had to pretty much scramble up through thick jungle and big rocks up to our rock climbing part it was about a 15 minute climb and already i was crapping my pants wondering how the hell i was going to get down with out killing myself. Finally we made it to our destination and the huge limestone walls.
We had a 10 minute overview of how to tie the figure 8 knot and how to belay although Tyson only had to belay the guide so that he could set the top rope up, other than that the guide belayed for the both of us (good thing cuz i was scared). We started with a 5a on the French climbing scale which is the easiest required rope in climb. Tyson went first cuz i wanted him to test it out to see if he would fall ... just kidding.. i was shaking in my shorts but looked great with my harness on. Anyways Tyson did the wall no problem he was a like a spider pig (simpsons reference) (Tyson: it wasn't that easy i got sorta stuck in one spot and needed direction on how to continue) But none the less he made it.. and back down he went safe and sound. Next it was my turn... the first attempt i made it to the little ledge about 30 feet high and then attempted to keep going but just couldn't figure out how to get through the tricky part (oh let us remind you that it was hot out and we were completley drenched in sweat even when not climbing) anyways i came back down... after sitting for a couple of minutes i tried again and got past the tricky part which was an adrenaline rush but then came to another tricky part and couldn't get past it. The hand holds were beautiful, but the feet ones were tricky and i had not mastered the push with your feet part yet so i was exhausted, but i got 3/4 of the way up and felt satisfied ... frick i was on a rock face in laos how cool is that? (tyson: I think she could have kept going, but after a couple of failed reaches looking for holds she got nervous, plus by not using her legs as much as she should have I completely understand how tired she was.)
The next one we went to was a 5b and the first part was tricky and a little wet from water dripping and wasn't completely covered by the overhang. Anyways Tyson went again first and conquered that one as well, he makes it look so easy and he didn't even really want to do it. I tried and got past the tricky part but then again with the lack of footholds got scared and got exhausted and had to come down.. but it was worth a shot.
The last climb of the day was staright vertical wall for Tyson he skipped 4 grades and was at a 6b and it was high and vertical. It was a long climb he says and took the full rope. I opted out I needed to eat the cliff energy bar by this point. He made it 3/4 of the way up and slipped (not like fall.. just got away from the rock the guide had him in lock). (tyson: what happened was I got to this section where only half the normal route was usable due to water and slick moss covering the other half. I couldn't find any good footholds or a arm hold that i could have used to pull myself up, so after hanging by my right hand for realistically 30 seconds I called for tension on the rope, and tried to move up but slipped and fell off the rock. After that I hanged for a bit to try and catch my breath, re-chalk and tried again, but failed at the same spot. At this point I was too tired to try again, and statisifed with my attempt. So I came down. The guide said that if the rock hadn't been wet, he thought I would have done it.)
Anyways it was kind of death defying and scary but fun at the same time. We wer both exhuasted once we got back to town after death defying climbing fdown the krast. It started to rain when we got down and then it poured and hasn't stopped.. we stopped at the bakery for a bite to eat thinking the rain would stop like it usually does but it didn't so we tried to make it back to the bungalow but the rain actually was cold to us... so we headed for the closest massage parlour and got massages with cream (more like tiger balm).
Death defying incident number 2:
The massage was going good, a little different than the first one we had in vientiane, the cream felt good but we were still cold so it wasn't as comfortable as it could have been but still really nice. A Lao massage is when they massage your muscles and Tyson thinks they push on pressure points but i disagree anyways they push and rub and chop on you.. and stretch you... then the scary part came which wasn't in the first massage.. all of a sudden my neck was being snapped like as if you were at the chiropractor.... and then she snapped my back.. and i thougth for sure i was going to be paralyzed no i didn't . i actually like the chiropractor but Tyson won't let me go anymore becuase he always tells me these stories about how they can paralyze you with one mistake especially with your neck. But it was already done and the guy did it to Tyson too. It was a little scary... But we're ok... with some lose necks.
After the massage it was still raining but not as hard. We went back to the bungalow to shower and change. We tried to pay for our bungalow but there exchange rate from KIP to US was outrageous it was 10,000 kip to 1 US dollar when in reality it is 8,500 to 1 US dollar. Tyson was mad.. and said he wasn't paying that because the room was in US dollars, so we said we would pay later once we found a good exchange rate in town. But we were hungry and needed food.
So dinner was had and then we found an exchange rate for 8,700 kip to 1 US dollar much better and Tyson is happy.
Sorry for lack of pictures it takes forever to download. I guess you will all just have to have dinner with us and see them then. Especially our wicked rock climbing photos.
Tomorrow we are off on a 6 hour bus ride (wish us luck) to Louang Prabang which is our last city in Laos before back to Bangkok. There we hope to explore the city and ride an elephant, and maybe kayak the mekong and maybe explore some mountain villages.
See you there.
Sara and Tyson
We got up the usual 7am time and packed our bags because we had to move rooms. We ate breakfast and all last night i kept dreaming about rock climbing and wondering if i was mental for wanting to do this.. i tossed and turned alot and then dreamt about work YUCK!
We were at the green discovery place for pick up at 9am to start the day. It was just the 2 of us and our guide who spoke good enough english better than the kayaking guide whos name he said was porn star. We had a quick stop to get our climbing gear , harness, really incrediable tight shoes (normal climbing shoes), chalk, ropes, helmets and caribeeners. Then it was about a 10 minute ride to the drop off point from which we had to walk half hour through a riverbed that didn't have any water in it and then the intense part came. We had to pretty much scramble up through thick jungle and big rocks up to our rock climbing part it was about a 15 minute climb and already i was crapping my pants wondering how the hell i was going to get down with out killing myself. Finally we made it to our destination and the huge limestone walls.
We had a 10 minute overview of how to tie the figure 8 knot and how to belay although Tyson only had to belay the guide so that he could set the top rope up, other than that the guide belayed for the both of us (good thing cuz i was scared). We started with a 5a on the French climbing scale which is the easiest required rope in climb. Tyson went first cuz i wanted him to test it out to see if he would fall ... just kidding.. i was shaking in my shorts but looked great with my harness on. Anyways Tyson did the wall no problem he was a like a spider pig (simpsons reference) (Tyson: it wasn't that easy i got sorta stuck in one spot and needed direction on how to continue) But none the less he made it.. and back down he went safe and sound. Next it was my turn... the first attempt i made it to the little ledge about 30 feet high and then attempted to keep going but just couldn't figure out how to get through the tricky part (oh let us remind you that it was hot out and we were completley drenched in sweat even when not climbing) anyways i came back down... after sitting for a couple of minutes i tried again and got past the tricky part which was an adrenaline rush but then came to another tricky part and couldn't get past it. The hand holds were beautiful, but the feet ones were tricky and i had not mastered the push with your feet part yet so i was exhausted, but i got 3/4 of the way up and felt satisfied ... frick i was on a rock face in laos how cool is that? (tyson: I think she could have kept going, but after a couple of failed reaches looking for holds she got nervous, plus by not using her legs as much as she should have I completely understand how tired she was.)
The next one we went to was a 5b and the first part was tricky and a little wet from water dripping and wasn't completely covered by the overhang. Anyways Tyson went again first and conquered that one as well, he makes it look so easy and he didn't even really want to do it. I tried and got past the tricky part but then again with the lack of footholds got scared and got exhausted and had to come down.. but it was worth a shot.
The last climb of the day was staright vertical wall for Tyson he skipped 4 grades and was at a 6b and it was high and vertical. It was a long climb he says and took the full rope. I opted out I needed to eat the cliff energy bar by this point. He made it 3/4 of the way up and slipped (not like fall.. just got away from the rock the guide had him in lock). (tyson: what happened was I got to this section where only half the normal route was usable due to water and slick moss covering the other half. I couldn't find any good footholds or a arm hold that i could have used to pull myself up, so after hanging by my right hand for realistically 30 seconds I called for tension on the rope, and tried to move up but slipped and fell off the rock. After that I hanged for a bit to try and catch my breath, re-chalk and tried again, but failed at the same spot. At this point I was too tired to try again, and statisifed with my attempt. So I came down. The guide said that if the rock hadn't been wet, he thought I would have done it.)
Anyways it was kind of death defying and scary but fun at the same time. We wer both exhuasted once we got back to town after death defying climbing fdown the krast. It started to rain when we got down and then it poured and hasn't stopped.. we stopped at the bakery for a bite to eat thinking the rain would stop like it usually does but it didn't so we tried to make it back to the bungalow but the rain actually was cold to us... so we headed for the closest massage parlour and got massages with cream (more like tiger balm).
Death defying incident number 2:
The massage was going good, a little different than the first one we had in vientiane, the cream felt good but we were still cold so it wasn't as comfortable as it could have been but still really nice. A Lao massage is when they massage your muscles and Tyson thinks they push on pressure points but i disagree anyways they push and rub and chop on you.. and stretch you... then the scary part came which wasn't in the first massage.. all of a sudden my neck was being snapped like as if you were at the chiropractor.... and then she snapped my back.. and i thougth for sure i was going to be paralyzed no i didn't . i actually like the chiropractor but Tyson won't let me go anymore becuase he always tells me these stories about how they can paralyze you with one mistake especially with your neck. But it was already done and the guy did it to Tyson too. It was a little scary... But we're ok... with some lose necks.
After the massage it was still raining but not as hard. We went back to the bungalow to shower and change. We tried to pay for our bungalow but there exchange rate from KIP to US was outrageous it was 10,000 kip to 1 US dollar when in reality it is 8,500 to 1 US dollar. Tyson was mad.. and said he wasn't paying that because the room was in US dollars, so we said we would pay later once we found a good exchange rate in town. But we were hungry and needed food.
So dinner was had and then we found an exchange rate for 8,700 kip to 1 US dollar much better and Tyson is happy.
Sorry for lack of pictures it takes forever to download. I guess you will all just have to have dinner with us and see them then. Especially our wicked rock climbing photos.
Tomorrow we are off on a 6 hour bus ride (wish us luck) to Louang Prabang which is our last city in Laos before back to Bangkok. There we hope to explore the city and ride an elephant, and maybe kayak the mekong and maybe explore some mountain villages.
See you there.
Sara and Tyson
Monday, July 28, 2008
Tour de Laos
Hello!!!
Today can you guess what we did? Hahah we biked around the country side.
Stage 1:
We got hooked up with our bikes that were Giant brand moutain bikes because we figured since it rained last night (that is an understatement... it poured) we needed some bikes with thick wheels and thick tread to get us through the mud with more than one gear.
The terrain was flat with huge rocks sticking out everywhere and muddy it took us over a bridge to which you have to pay to cross and then through the village on the other side of the river. Our first stop was a cave to which we locked our bikes and walked about 600meters through rice paddies and mud.. thick mud... thich mud all over!! We had to pay to get into the cave and two little kids followed us and then turned around half way and said 10,000 kip each for guide.. we looked at eachother and said no.. no no... 5,000 for the both of you and we have our own torch (headlamp) they declined us and went the other way. So on our own we went. It was a steep climb up to what we thought was the cave but it actually was a cave just not the cave we were going to see, but we explored it anyways. It was dark and Tyson saw a bat he claims. But it was very slippery inside. Once out of the cave we found the real cave which was a very steep climb up the side of a vertical krat. We were sweating our faces off and it was slippery as hell. But the cave was skinny and long. Once inside we walked over a bamboo bridge and there was some crawl spaces to the sides but we didnt crawl into them for fear of bats.
Stage 2:
Uphill for a bit past some rice paddies with a beautiulf backdrop of huge limestone krats we peddled through the rocks of the road getting passed by tractor/tuk tuks in a farming sort of way. We past some options to other caves and to actually trek a limestone krat but by this stage of the race it was almost time for lunch and we were getting tired. We peddled to a lagoon which also had a cave nearby and it was written up in the guidebook as a good half day excursion. We locked our bikes and decided to start the climb up the vertical (not kidding it was pretty vertical slippery rocks/mud and bamboo railing to hold on to. We made it half way when I (sara) just couldn't go no more, legs were shaky i needed food. So we stopped on a rock and had our lunch (Cinnamon bun and a coconut bun and some water ... lunch of tour de france winners eh?) Or Tyson says POW. After the sugar kicked in we made our way to the top .. it was tiring.. but we did it and inside the MASSIVE .. massive is an understatemenet.. GIGANTIC cave we went. It was sooooo big with huge staclites (sp?) and it had a buddha shrine inside part of it. I was still tired so i just chilled inside soaking it all in .. then Tyson went more inside and climbing and he said it was even bigger further in but he got too scared to go all the way to the end by himself and tried to convince me to come with him but i was just too exhausted. Tyson says the cave he climbed into was the size of a football field.
Stage 3:
After our decent down the mountain... it was a little scary... we sat by the lagoon washing our muddy feet and legs. We then proceeded back to the road where the rain began to fall. On the way back we stopped by a little monestary to which we sat with some monks who just laughed and smoked... it was a little awkward at best... and the monestary was small. From there on we came accross a little hut where a women was weaving a silk peice of cloth. Tyson wanted to buy one so we did.. the lady was not much of a bargainer but it was still cheap. The peice he bought wasn't even finished yet and we had to wait 5 minutes for her to finish off the ends.
Stage 4:
The race against the rain began.. making things more muddy and slippery but fun none the less. We had a steady flat finish over the bridge again to cross the river and back into town. The rain was coming.. but not monsoon hard.. but enough to get wet. Good thing it is warm rain. We then took our bikes back and got a snack of champions some chips. Went back to the bungalow to shower up and read. Tyson finished his book, i as usual tried to read.. about 20 pages and fell asleep.
We then ate dinner, and booked a half day rock climbing adventure. Even though we are both physically exhausted... but i think the limstone krats will have some good holds. It should be fun. Might have to bust out the cliff energy bar.
PS: Ummm we go on a kayaking adventure and no one emails us? What gives?
Sara and Tyson
Today can you guess what we did? Hahah we biked around the country side.
Stage 1:
We got hooked up with our bikes that were Giant brand moutain bikes because we figured since it rained last night (that is an understatement... it poured) we needed some bikes with thick wheels and thick tread to get us through the mud with more than one gear.
The terrain was flat with huge rocks sticking out everywhere and muddy it took us over a bridge to which you have to pay to cross and then through the village on the other side of the river. Our first stop was a cave to which we locked our bikes and walked about 600meters through rice paddies and mud.. thick mud... thich mud all over!! We had to pay to get into the cave and two little kids followed us and then turned around half way and said 10,000 kip each for guide.. we looked at eachother and said no.. no no... 5,000 for the both of you and we have our own torch (headlamp) they declined us and went the other way. So on our own we went. It was a steep climb up to what we thought was the cave but it actually was a cave just not the cave we were going to see, but we explored it anyways. It was dark and Tyson saw a bat he claims. But it was very slippery inside. Once out of the cave we found the real cave which was a very steep climb up the side of a vertical krat. We were sweating our faces off and it was slippery as hell. But the cave was skinny and long. Once inside we walked over a bamboo bridge and there was some crawl spaces to the sides but we didnt crawl into them for fear of bats.
Stage 2:
Uphill for a bit past some rice paddies with a beautiulf backdrop of huge limestone krats we peddled through the rocks of the road getting passed by tractor/tuk tuks in a farming sort of way. We past some options to other caves and to actually trek a limestone krat but by this stage of the race it was almost time for lunch and we were getting tired. We peddled to a lagoon which also had a cave nearby and it was written up in the guidebook as a good half day excursion. We locked our bikes and decided to start the climb up the vertical (not kidding it was pretty vertical slippery rocks/mud and bamboo railing to hold on to. We made it half way when I (sara) just couldn't go no more, legs were shaky i needed food. So we stopped on a rock and had our lunch (Cinnamon bun and a coconut bun and some water ... lunch of tour de france winners eh?) Or Tyson says POW. After the sugar kicked in we made our way to the top .. it was tiring.. but we did it and inside the MASSIVE .. massive is an understatemenet.. GIGANTIC cave we went. It was sooooo big with huge staclites (sp?) and it had a buddha shrine inside part of it. I was still tired so i just chilled inside soaking it all in .. then Tyson went more inside and climbing and he said it was even bigger further in but he got too scared to go all the way to the end by himself and tried to convince me to come with him but i was just too exhausted. Tyson says the cave he climbed into was the size of a football field.
Stage 3:
After our decent down the mountain... it was a little scary... we sat by the lagoon washing our muddy feet and legs. We then proceeded back to the road where the rain began to fall. On the way back we stopped by a little monestary to which we sat with some monks who just laughed and smoked... it was a little awkward at best... and the monestary was small. From there on we came accross a little hut where a women was weaving a silk peice of cloth. Tyson wanted to buy one so we did.. the lady was not much of a bargainer but it was still cheap. The peice he bought wasn't even finished yet and we had to wait 5 minutes for her to finish off the ends.
Stage 4:
The race against the rain began.. making things more muddy and slippery but fun none the less. We had a steady flat finish over the bridge again to cross the river and back into town. The rain was coming.. but not monsoon hard.. but enough to get wet. Good thing it is warm rain. We then took our bikes back and got a snack of champions some chips. Went back to the bungalow to shower up and read. Tyson finished his book, i as usual tried to read.. about 20 pages and fell asleep.
We then ate dinner, and booked a half day rock climbing adventure. Even though we are both physically exhausted... but i think the limstone krats will have some good holds. It should be fun. Might have to bust out the cliff energy bar.
PS: Ummm we go on a kayaking adventure and no one emails us? What gives?
Sara and Tyson
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Following the ancient road
Hello,
Last night after we left you we went and booked a kayaking and caving trip for today and then retired to under our misquito net (brought from home) in our bungalow. At around 2am the most wicked storm rolled in with super loud thunder and tropical monsoon rains, go figure eh?
I (Tyson) woke up a bit after 6 am to see the limestone karts across the river half shrouded in mist. I decided to get up and take a couple of pics from the veranda by the water. After that I decided I'd get some better pics from the other side of the river and set off on a little walk that ended up being 1.5 hours long. I would have been longer but I didn't have a watch and we had a trip booked for the day, and Sara was only half awake when I left and I didn't want her to worry. My walk was nice with a light rain falling, that took me through the village on the other side of the river, up a lane and through some rice paddies. I enjoyed the stroll and I'm looking forward to renting bikes tomorrow to further explore the valley.
After showering and eating breakfast (the pineapple here is to die for) we made our way to the pickup stop, and jumped into the back of a half truck half tuk tuk with 8 others, 4 USA, 2 Germany, 1 Tiawain, and 1 Ireland. We drove approx. 30 minutes north and ended up at a gravel pit beside the river.
The kayaks were two seaters, with open tops. We were given a dry bag for our stuff, life jackets, and a brief introduction to the rules of the river and how to paddle. Sara and myself ended up in a kayak together, go figure. The river was milk chocolate brown in color, very comfortably warm and swift moving. Tyson was in the back, Sara in the front. WE DIDN'T EVEN FIGHT!??? We were a good team, not even falling out, unlike one boat that seemed to tip every hour, sometimes in dangerous locations, but they ended up okay. The river was high, but last week had been 5-10 feet higher yet (telling via the bushes lack of leaves along the shore. However even today many bushes were underwater and there were very few eddies along the shore. The river was moving fast enough to make it difficult to paddle against the current and make any headway. There were some rapids along the way, in which Sara got soaked, but it was really really fun (her words not mine). We just lined her up down the middle and paddled hard. Most were just breaking rollers, but there was 2 actual drops. Inbetween the rapids the river was moving quick enough that we didn't have to paddle, so we usually laid back enjoying the lush green scenery with the massive limestone krats.
We stopped for 2 caves, the first was the elephant cave because a limestone stalictite (bottom) had been made to look like a elephant, go figure. The cave was large and not deep. The second cave was after lunch (grilled beef and veggies with rice and a baguette served on a banana leaf) and Sara can explain it.
The second cave was pretty cool. We got out of our kayaks and headed into the jungle for a quick jot to the cave. A misquito bit me on the way and it didn't make it alive to tell the tale. Anyways we had to keep our life jackets on because we had to swim into the cave because there was a spring in the cave. It was dark and cold (well colder than the river water) but it was really cool. We couldn't go all the way through (the cave goes 2km) because of how high the water was. It was said that this is the cave were they Lao refugees came to hide during the second indochina war. It was a little creepy not seeing much and hoping for no leeches to snag on to you (not sure if they were even in there). The staclites (sp?) were huge we wish we would have brought our head lamp.. dang. Next time.
After the second cave, wait sorry.. before the second cave we were peacefully floating down the river when we started to hear really bad techno music... and thus the peace ended. We came to a rope swing bar... basically a party central spot (with about 8 other party central spots along the way.. we only stopped at this one) where we got out of our kayaks and could rope swing into the water. Tyson and I really didn't enjoy the atmosphere of a lot of drunk people and loud music (we are old now) and really that isn't our travelling style.. but some of the others wanted to rope swing so we stopped. The reason why all these stops are along the river is because you can get a tube and ride down the river to stops and they will pull you in. One of the guys who had been here 5 times already and owns some shares in tourist stuff here said that these all sprang up within 2 years and he perdicts in another 5 years the whole river will be like this :(... It really ruins the scenary and peace.. we think. Also someone died like 2 weeks ago tubing down the river when it was really high... water and alcohol really shouldn't mix. Anyways we were safe and our guide was good. No need to worry mom.
After the second cave we just floated down the river swiftly and relaxed. Then we came to the end. We were both tired and it was 4:00pm so it was hot and we are a tad burnt even though we put sunscreen on 2 times and it is spf 30 that indicated how how hot the sun is. We retired back to our bungalow and Tyson had a beer and read his book and I attempted to read and fell asleep for a nap. Then we went for dinner.
Tomorrow we will either rent bikes or walk around the country side.
Sara and Tyson
Last night after we left you we went and booked a kayaking and caving trip for today and then retired to under our misquito net (brought from home) in our bungalow. At around 2am the most wicked storm rolled in with super loud thunder and tropical monsoon rains, go figure eh?
I (Tyson) woke up a bit after 6 am to see the limestone karts across the river half shrouded in mist. I decided to get up and take a couple of pics from the veranda by the water. After that I decided I'd get some better pics from the other side of the river and set off on a little walk that ended up being 1.5 hours long. I would have been longer but I didn't have a watch and we had a trip booked for the day, and Sara was only half awake when I left and I didn't want her to worry. My walk was nice with a light rain falling, that took me through the village on the other side of the river, up a lane and through some rice paddies. I enjoyed the stroll and I'm looking forward to renting bikes tomorrow to further explore the valley.
After showering and eating breakfast (the pineapple here is to die for) we made our way to the pickup stop, and jumped into the back of a half truck half tuk tuk with 8 others, 4 USA, 2 Germany, 1 Tiawain, and 1 Ireland. We drove approx. 30 minutes north and ended up at a gravel pit beside the river.
The kayaks were two seaters, with open tops. We were given a dry bag for our stuff, life jackets, and a brief introduction to the rules of the river and how to paddle. Sara and myself ended up in a kayak together, go figure. The river was milk chocolate brown in color, very comfortably warm and swift moving. Tyson was in the back, Sara in the front. WE DIDN'T EVEN FIGHT!??? We were a good team, not even falling out, unlike one boat that seemed to tip every hour, sometimes in dangerous locations, but they ended up okay. The river was high, but last week had been 5-10 feet higher yet (telling via the bushes lack of leaves along the shore. However even today many bushes were underwater and there were very few eddies along the shore. The river was moving fast enough to make it difficult to paddle against the current and make any headway. There were some rapids along the way, in which Sara got soaked, but it was really really fun (her words not mine). We just lined her up down the middle and paddled hard. Most were just breaking rollers, but there was 2 actual drops. Inbetween the rapids the river was moving quick enough that we didn't have to paddle, so we usually laid back enjoying the lush green scenery with the massive limestone krats.
We stopped for 2 caves, the first was the elephant cave because a limestone stalictite (bottom) had been made to look like a elephant, go figure. The cave was large and not deep. The second cave was after lunch (grilled beef and veggies with rice and a baguette served on a banana leaf) and Sara can explain it.
The second cave was pretty cool. We got out of our kayaks and headed into the jungle for a quick jot to the cave. A misquito bit me on the way and it didn't make it alive to tell the tale. Anyways we had to keep our life jackets on because we had to swim into the cave because there was a spring in the cave. It was dark and cold (well colder than the river water) but it was really cool. We couldn't go all the way through (the cave goes 2km) because of how high the water was. It was said that this is the cave were they Lao refugees came to hide during the second indochina war. It was a little creepy not seeing much and hoping for no leeches to snag on to you (not sure if they were even in there). The staclites (sp?) were huge we wish we would have brought our head lamp.. dang. Next time.
After the second cave, wait sorry.. before the second cave we were peacefully floating down the river when we started to hear really bad techno music... and thus the peace ended. We came to a rope swing bar... basically a party central spot (with about 8 other party central spots along the way.. we only stopped at this one) where we got out of our kayaks and could rope swing into the water. Tyson and I really didn't enjoy the atmosphere of a lot of drunk people and loud music (we are old now) and really that isn't our travelling style.. but some of the others wanted to rope swing so we stopped. The reason why all these stops are along the river is because you can get a tube and ride down the river to stops and they will pull you in. One of the guys who had been here 5 times already and owns some shares in tourist stuff here said that these all sprang up within 2 years and he perdicts in another 5 years the whole river will be like this :(... It really ruins the scenary and peace.. we think. Also someone died like 2 weeks ago tubing down the river when it was really high... water and alcohol really shouldn't mix. Anyways we were safe and our guide was good. No need to worry mom.
After the second cave we just floated down the river swiftly and relaxed. Then we came to the end. We were both tired and it was 4:00pm so it was hot and we are a tad burnt even though we put sunscreen on 2 times and it is spf 30 that indicated how how hot the sun is. We retired back to our bungalow and Tyson had a beer and read his book and I attempted to read and fell asleep for a nap. Then we went for dinner.
Tomorrow we will either rent bikes or walk around the country side.
Sara and Tyson
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Sabadee
Hello from Vieng Vang (sp?)
This morning we got up and headed to the best bakery ever (the scandinavian one) for some bagels/croissounts and fruit bowls. After that we headed to the Green Discovery place that booked us our bus to Vieng Vang (sp?) We waited there for an hour, they said to be there by 9:30 am and by the time they actually got us (it wasn't even the bus it was a tuk tuk to take us to the bus, which we already walked by to get to breakfast...) anyways it was 10:15 by the time the tuk tuk got us and then the bus left at around 10:30 to go get gas and then we proceeded our journey, only to stop about an hours way in for a washroom break and some food for people if they wanted. The trip was about 3.5 hours long through flat terrain and then up through the hills where we saw lots of rice paddies and jungle. I was really praying for no puke this time and we did succeed (barely!!! the guy acrross from me had the bag ready to go.. but thank goodness we were about 10 minutes from town).
We got to town at around 2:30 which is right about the hottest time of day around here and within seconds we both looked like we had a shower.. but not.. eww. We were having trouble finding our place. (Tyson: not really trouble, just it was really hot and not knowing exactly to the spot where the place was verse knowing which direction to walk on which road didn't cut it) This is the part where he gets upset about talking about the tuk tuk we decided to take which 5,000 (big bills here... really screws us up... 8527 kip to 1 Canadian dollar) well the tuk tuk literally drove us 100meters or 5 seconds to our bungalow... Tyson was furious.. he tried to get him down to 2000 but the guy wasn't budging and just laughed and Tyson paid him and said I will never ride with you again. Anyways the place we are staying at is pretty relaxing its a thatched hut (literally thatched on stilts with a miquito net for sleeping and a bathroom with a shower curtain... ) I will admit its relaxing but i would like to patch up the little cracks and holes i see to keep the misquitoes out... (Tyson: It is beautiful with teak wood floors, and a deck that is shaded looking out over the river with rice paddies on the other side leading the eye up to massive limestone krasts covered with jungle. There is A/C and a comfortable bed. The place is nice.) Whatever the fact is that i don't like bugs or misquitoes or anything that touches me. Tyson assures me that we won't get malaria because we have a misquito net.. but i was eyeing those buggers and they like to sit on that net and poke there beady little suckers in the hole and wait for you to get close enough to the net and then BAM! they attack. (Tyson: it isn't like the things have five foot or even 5 inch long suckers, the misquoto here is the the same size or smaller than at home, so unless you are right against the net you are more than safe.) Maybe i like to snuggle with the net? (Tyson: I can't win, even if I am right, so whatever, get back to the day, please) Ok...
Once checked in we went for some lunch of fried rice and french fries.. and then took a stroll around town. I bought some shower sandles/thongs... and then we decided we probably shoudl go back and put sunscreen on but we ended up going back and just chilling on our balcony reading andthen a huge bug landed on my foot and i screamed a little and then Tyson said "Don't move i want a picture of it"... to which i replied shut up i am moving... (Tyson: it's not that I'm unsensitive but the bug had already left her foot and was on the railing.) Anyways after that episode we went for dinner and some laobeer.
Tonight we are going to try to book a kayaking and caving tour if we still can, they guy wasn't there when we last checked. So yeah, thats all we got.
See ya tomrrow
Sara and Tyson
Friday, July 25, 2008
A morning market that doesn't open till 9am, what kinda country is this???
So this morning we were awoken around 6:15 am in our room with no windows to someone (sara swears) was puking next door. The one thing Sara hates most to see or hear, we can't seem to avoid. It was a great way to wake up in a place that I (Tyson) was desperately trying to sell Sara on to begin with.
After slowly waking up and dozing off over the next hour, (it's hard to get up in the pitch black) we were up and ready to go by 7:30 am. We decided to get to the market before the tons of tourists who we know to also love markets. So off we go, past a giant stupa (turned into the middle of a traffic circle) past the US embassy, complete with cement posts that could pop out of the road to stop traffic, armed guards, barbed wire, security cameras, and 20 plus foot high walls, to the market. We got there a bit after 8am to realize that we were basically the first people of any nationality there. So we walked around a more than half closed up market for a while. We did end up buying a very nice silver bracklet for Sara with elephants on it. We decided to leave around 9am for breakfast, and the place still wasn't functioning, some morning market.
We had breakfast at the Scandianvian bakery which included some amazingly delicous crossiants. After we completed our breakfast we went to the National Museum which is housed in an old French Colonial building. By what they say about the French inside you think they would have taken a note from the past of this country and burned every one of those buildings down. There was one room for dinasour bones, one room for the 50 plus ethnic tribes of Laos, 3 rooms for some dutch explorer, and then the remaining 7 rooms were one the struggle to defeat the Imperialist Americans and their colonial pig followers. Lots of Communist propoganda and pictures of war, and the struggle. After that we went back to the hotel to move rooms. We waited over an hour to move from a place with no windows to a place with windows, unfortunety the place with windows also had a door, which I was informed misquitoes could get in, by Sara.
**
Then we went back to the market in the afternoon and found it humming along, but couldn't find anything worth buying. We were going to go for a walk through the suburbs hoping to find the rice paddies, but the heat was way too much to handle, so we went to Joma's bakery, a Canadian run place with Canadian prices, for a drink and cookies. After we waited out a short rain storm we went back to the hotel and read our books until dinner. At dinner we listened to expats complain and talk about life here, which was interesting but not noteworthly.
Tomorrow we are off in the morning for a 3 hour bus ride to Vien Viang, see you there. Don't have the camera here, so you'll have to wait again, sorry.
After slowly waking up and dozing off over the next hour, (it's hard to get up in the pitch black) we were up and ready to go by 7:30 am. We decided to get to the market before the tons of tourists who we know to also love markets. So off we go, past a giant stupa (turned into the middle of a traffic circle) past the US embassy, complete with cement posts that could pop out of the road to stop traffic, armed guards, barbed wire, security cameras, and 20 plus foot high walls, to the market. We got there a bit after 8am to realize that we were basically the first people of any nationality there. So we walked around a more than half closed up market for a while. We did end up buying a very nice silver bracklet for Sara with elephants on it. We decided to leave around 9am for breakfast, and the place still wasn't functioning, some morning market.
We had breakfast at the Scandianvian bakery which included some amazingly delicous crossiants. After we completed our breakfast we went to the National Museum which is housed in an old French Colonial building. By what they say about the French inside you think they would have taken a note from the past of this country and burned every one of those buildings down. There was one room for dinasour bones, one room for the 50 plus ethnic tribes of Laos, 3 rooms for some dutch explorer, and then the remaining 7 rooms were one the struggle to defeat the Imperialist Americans and their colonial pig followers. Lots of Communist propoganda and pictures of war, and the struggle. After that we went back to the hotel to move rooms. We waited over an hour to move from a place with no windows to a place with windows, unfortunety the place with windows also had a door, which I was informed misquitoes could get in, by Sara.
**
Then we went back to the market in the afternoon and found it humming along, but couldn't find anything worth buying. We were going to go for a walk through the suburbs hoping to find the rice paddies, but the heat was way too much to handle, so we went to Joma's bakery, a Canadian run place with Canadian prices, for a drink and cookies. After we waited out a short rain storm we went back to the hotel and read our books until dinner. At dinner we listened to expats complain and talk about life here, which was interesting but not noteworthly.
Tomorrow we are off in the morning for a 3 hour bus ride to Vien Viang, see you there. Don't have the camera here, so you'll have to wait again, sorry.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Richard Simons is that you??
Hello and greetings from the Captial of Laos, again.
Last night after finishing writting the blog we went back to our hotel room, and lay down on the bed for a minute or two before getting ready for bed. However those couple of minutes turned into hours. At 2 am I (tyson) finally got up and turned off the light before once again collapsing into the bed. I don't know if it was the jet lag catching up to us, or us just trying to get use to travelling again or what, but we got knocked out for the count last night hard. This morning when we got up, somewhat more refreshed we enjoyed our breakfast in the hotel, checked our email for emails that were not there, hint hint (except for Phyllis). Then we proceeded to look for a more affordable place to stay. Sara says she wants to write now....
Ahem yes now I will tell the truth! The place we were staying at was beautifully nice and clean with a shower curtain wierd i know! Anyways I only agreed to look for another place because i knew i really did not have an option. So we checked out several about 5 before we agreed and i should have just not agreed but again i knew we weren't going back to the nice hotel. Anyways the place we have is small with no window and no shower curtain and the room that the guy was going to give us had mould on the ceiling... lovely. Not impressed at this point. Tyson likes to call the room 'functional' "it has a bed and a toliet and A/C what more do you want?" to which i replied "you're cheap!" But whatever I lost the battle and were stuck in that place now. I am not saying its the worse place I am just saying the other place was nicer and maybe a little more pricey but it had free breakfast and free internet as opposed to no breakfast and no internet. (we can buy a lot of breakfast and internet for $30 a day) Let us just remind ourselves again that this is a 3 week vacation not a 4 month tight budget travel... i think it is fair to say we both make money and we are both paying for this sooooo...... (well how about more massages then?) Yes we will get to the massage part!
Anyways after we quarreled for about 10 minutes not even really that bad we decided to check out another Wat, but before twe checked into our hotel we went to the only Wat (temple) that survived the Siam army. (More random point: it is pouring out monsoon style but it wasn't all day.. this morning earlier it must have but we were sleeping.) The Wat was cool with a million and one buddhas that were there in full and then many that were some what destroyed but still in the temple.
After that we walked around and found some shops that are a little more pricey than lets say a market, but we looked anyways just to get a feel for the prices. I found a beautiful scarf that if i can't find in the morning market I will just go and buy it. After browsing we went to some more Wats.
We went for lunch at this place that had a menu of like 30 million cultures I wanted Garlic Naan bread and veggie spring rolls but the Indian portion wasn't open till dinner time. So i just got some veggie pad thai and veggie spring rolls and Tyson had some bbq chicken skewers and sticky rice that was super sticky.
After lunch we went to the Scandanavian bakery for dessert of doughnut and some chocolate cakey thingy. We then headed to see another Wat or 2.
The last Wat we saw had no tourists because it was maybe 5 minutes away from the tourist centers and it had a monk in there who was blessing people. I decided that I wanted to get blessed so i gave some donation money and got water sprayed on me and a blessed bracelet on my wrist. It was surreal I really enjoyed it and should think about converting to Buddhism. If the religion was not so complicated. After watching me get blessed Tyson decided that he should as well and did the same.
From there we made our way back to the guesthouse to cool off (soooo hot and sticky that i have drank about 4 liters of water and my pee is still the colour of dark beer!!!). I decided after cooling off to go get massages. We found this nice little place after walking by 4 others and decided to try the Traditional Lao massage which is what i like to call a mixture of physiotherapy and massaging. It was great! This little Lao girl (Tyson had a guy) was moving me around and pushing on things i didn't even know were tight and ticklish. But it was good and relaxing and an hour long for 5 dollars.
From there on walking back to find some shower sandles (never did find any yet that I liked) we ran into an outdoor richard simmons aerobic dance class by the river. It was filled with what we think were a little bit on the overweight side (if possible) for Lao people. We thought maybe it was mandatory that if your BMI was a certain measure you were forced into exercising.. communist you know or they just care about there body image, either way it totally was Richard Simmons investing in Laos.
On the way to dinner we ran into two little girls who i wanted to take home, as well as the two massage people ... anyways these little girls were really cute.. they were kind of scared of us and the bigger one took the little one by the arm and was sort of protecting her.. so to break the ice I gave them two canadian coins (a penny and a dime) at first they just studied the coins.. looking at eachothers and then theirs. (There are no coins in Lao money) but then when we walked away they gave us a wave bye and ran to what we think was thier dad and showed him the coins they were so excited jumping up and down, it was really cute.
We ate at the Blue Banana Restaurant which is owned by a British guy who moved here 18 months ago to make Laos his home. He loves it here. I had pizza again .... (but in my defense i had asian food for lunch) and tyson had more rice this time fried rice.
Tomorow we will see the last there is here to see, maybe do some shopping at the morning market and Tyson says "get out of town" I am not too sure what that means yet. (get outta town means to either explore the countryside around the area by bike or foot, or go to the plain of jars) Get out of town means for Sara taking a taxi or tuk tuk and not sweating my face off on a bike or by foot. Lets try to keep the pee a clear colour thanks. We'll see tomorrow how that turns out....maybe pictures tomorrow. To keep you coming back.
Sara and Tyson
Last night after finishing writting the blog we went back to our hotel room, and lay down on the bed for a minute or two before getting ready for bed. However those couple of minutes turned into hours. At 2 am I (tyson) finally got up and turned off the light before once again collapsing into the bed. I don't know if it was the jet lag catching up to us, or us just trying to get use to travelling again or what, but we got knocked out for the count last night hard. This morning when we got up, somewhat more refreshed we enjoyed our breakfast in the hotel, checked our email for emails that were not there, hint hint (except for Phyllis). Then we proceeded to look for a more affordable place to stay. Sara says she wants to write now....
Ahem yes now I will tell the truth! The place we were staying at was beautifully nice and clean with a shower curtain wierd i know! Anyways I only agreed to look for another place because i knew i really did not have an option. So we checked out several about 5 before we agreed and i should have just not agreed but again i knew we weren't going back to the nice hotel. Anyways the place we have is small with no window and no shower curtain and the room that the guy was going to give us had mould on the ceiling... lovely. Not impressed at this point. Tyson likes to call the room 'functional' "it has a bed and a toliet and A/C what more do you want?" to which i replied "you're cheap!" But whatever I lost the battle and were stuck in that place now. I am not saying its the worse place I am just saying the other place was nicer and maybe a little more pricey but it had free breakfast and free internet as opposed to no breakfast and no internet. (we can buy a lot of breakfast and internet for $30 a day) Let us just remind ourselves again that this is a 3 week vacation not a 4 month tight budget travel... i think it is fair to say we both make money and we are both paying for this sooooo...... (well how about more massages then?) Yes we will get to the massage part!
Anyways after we quarreled for about 10 minutes not even really that bad we decided to check out another Wat, but before twe checked into our hotel we went to the only Wat (temple) that survived the Siam army. (More random point: it is pouring out monsoon style but it wasn't all day.. this morning earlier it must have but we were sleeping.) The Wat was cool with a million and one buddhas that were there in full and then many that were some what destroyed but still in the temple.
After that we walked around and found some shops that are a little more pricey than lets say a market, but we looked anyways just to get a feel for the prices. I found a beautiful scarf that if i can't find in the morning market I will just go and buy it. After browsing we went to some more Wats.
We went for lunch at this place that had a menu of like 30 million cultures I wanted Garlic Naan bread and veggie spring rolls but the Indian portion wasn't open till dinner time. So i just got some veggie pad thai and veggie spring rolls and Tyson had some bbq chicken skewers and sticky rice that was super sticky.
After lunch we went to the Scandanavian bakery for dessert of doughnut and some chocolate cakey thingy. We then headed to see another Wat or 2.
The last Wat we saw had no tourists because it was maybe 5 minutes away from the tourist centers and it had a monk in there who was blessing people. I decided that I wanted to get blessed so i gave some donation money and got water sprayed on me and a blessed bracelet on my wrist. It was surreal I really enjoyed it and should think about converting to Buddhism. If the religion was not so complicated. After watching me get blessed Tyson decided that he should as well and did the same.
From there we made our way back to the guesthouse to cool off (soooo hot and sticky that i have drank about 4 liters of water and my pee is still the colour of dark beer!!!). I decided after cooling off to go get massages. We found this nice little place after walking by 4 others and decided to try the Traditional Lao massage which is what i like to call a mixture of physiotherapy and massaging. It was great! This little Lao girl (Tyson had a guy) was moving me around and pushing on things i didn't even know were tight and ticklish. But it was good and relaxing and an hour long for 5 dollars.
From there on walking back to find some shower sandles (never did find any yet that I liked) we ran into an outdoor richard simmons aerobic dance class by the river. It was filled with what we think were a little bit on the overweight side (if possible) for Lao people. We thought maybe it was mandatory that if your BMI was a certain measure you were forced into exercising.. communist you know or they just care about there body image, either way it totally was Richard Simmons investing in Laos.
On the way to dinner we ran into two little girls who i wanted to take home, as well as the two massage people ... anyways these little girls were really cute.. they were kind of scared of us and the bigger one took the little one by the arm and was sort of protecting her.. so to break the ice I gave them two canadian coins (a penny and a dime) at first they just studied the coins.. looking at eachothers and then theirs. (There are no coins in Lao money) but then when we walked away they gave us a wave bye and ran to what we think was thier dad and showed him the coins they were so excited jumping up and down, it was really cute.
We ate at the Blue Banana Restaurant which is owned by a British guy who moved here 18 months ago to make Laos his home. He loves it here. I had pizza again .... (but in my defense i had asian food for lunch) and tyson had more rice this time fried rice.
Tomorow we will see the last there is here to see, maybe do some shopping at the morning market and Tyson says "get out of town" I am not too sure what that means yet. (get outta town means to either explore the countryside around the area by bike or foot, or go to the plain of jars) Get out of town means for Sara taking a taxi or tuk tuk and not sweating my face off on a bike or by foot. Lets try to keep the pee a clear colour thanks. We'll see tomorrow how that turns out....maybe pictures tomorrow. To keep you coming back.
Sara and Tyson
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Greetings from Laos
Hello,
We are now in Vientiane the captial of Laos. Very very different place when compared to Bangkok. Much smaller, with old french colonial buildings, and a backwards sorta atmosphere. Much more my kinda town, when compared to the gong show that is Bangkok. (Sara: i don't think it is really a gong show compared to a place like Beijing, its got a little more flare to it.)
Today we got up and wandered the streets around our hotel for an hour or so, and then went to the airport. From there we flew to Udon Thanni in the north of Thailand. From the airport we rode in a van up to the Laos border. As we crossed the Mekong river everything changed, for starters we started driving on the right hand side of the road again. (sara says she didn't even notice the change) Also it seemed a lot poorer, with smaller houses more dirt roads, but on the flip side much more lush (rice paddies, banana and coconut trees.) Sara: I enjoyed seeing the little boy monks who looked not much older than 12 in thier bright orange robes walking along the streets.
When we arrived in Ventaine the hotel we had wanted to stay at was full, (we hadn't booked ahead). So we walked to the second choice spot. They only had one room with two beds left, and the price was as high as the super fancy place we checked out inbetween. Since we hadn't eaten since breakfast, Sara was not too interested in walking (Sara: Tyson seems like I was not interested, but the truth is he was just as edgy as me and admitted that when we finally did pick a hotel, he said he was hungry!!! Also in my defence I thought i was being very supportive and offering suggestions Tyson is just still upset by the fact that he thinks he is being ripped off everywhere we go, he somehow needs to get over that) Anyways, back to the truth. Sara wasn't interested in walking back across town again to keep looking at places, so we are in the expensive place. Sara: I love how he says "expensive" 45 US is maybe a little pricey but its by far not expensive to as 200 US dollars over at the bouquite hotel! Tyson: well it is when compared to the $23 dollars a night next door.
After we dropped off our bags we went for dinner, ate some food (pizza and garlic bread) and strolled around for a little bit. There are ATMs here, contrary to what the guide book says. But we didn't stay out too late because being by the equator things tend to get dark here quickly, and Sara seems to be deathly (not that bad) afraid of being outside at night. Malaria fears. Sara says that I am making her look bad, which si somewhat true, however it is the truth.
Tomorrow we'll probably change hotels and take in the famous wats and get a good feel for the town. See you then.
Tyson and Sara
We are now in Vientiane the captial of Laos. Very very different place when compared to Bangkok. Much smaller, with old french colonial buildings, and a backwards sorta atmosphere. Much more my kinda town, when compared to the gong show that is Bangkok. (Sara: i don't think it is really a gong show compared to a place like Beijing, its got a little more flare to it.)
Today we got up and wandered the streets around our hotel for an hour or so, and then went to the airport. From there we flew to Udon Thanni in the north of Thailand. From the airport we rode in a van up to the Laos border. As we crossed the Mekong river everything changed, for starters we started driving on the right hand side of the road again. (sara says she didn't even notice the change) Also it seemed a lot poorer, with smaller houses more dirt roads, but on the flip side much more lush (rice paddies, banana and coconut trees.) Sara: I enjoyed seeing the little boy monks who looked not much older than 12 in thier bright orange robes walking along the streets.
When we arrived in Ventaine the hotel we had wanted to stay at was full, (we hadn't booked ahead). So we walked to the second choice spot. They only had one room with two beds left, and the price was as high as the super fancy place we checked out inbetween. Since we hadn't eaten since breakfast, Sara was not too interested in walking (Sara: Tyson seems like I was not interested, but the truth is he was just as edgy as me and admitted that when we finally did pick a hotel, he said he was hungry!!! Also in my defence I thought i was being very supportive and offering suggestions Tyson is just still upset by the fact that he thinks he is being ripped off everywhere we go, he somehow needs to get over that) Anyways, back to the truth. Sara wasn't interested in walking back across town again to keep looking at places, so we are in the expensive place. Sara: I love how he says "expensive" 45 US is maybe a little pricey but its by far not expensive to as 200 US dollars over at the bouquite hotel! Tyson: well it is when compared to the $23 dollars a night next door.
After we dropped off our bags we went for dinner, ate some food (pizza and garlic bread) and strolled around for a little bit. There are ATMs here, contrary to what the guide book says. But we didn't stay out too late because being by the equator things tend to get dark here quickly, and Sara seems to be deathly (not that bad) afraid of being outside at night. Malaria fears. Sara says that I am making her look bad, which si somewhat true, however it is the truth.
Tomorrow we'll probably change hotels and take in the famous wats and get a good feel for the town. See you then.
Tyson and Sara
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Holy Shit an Elephant Just walked By...
Good Evening!
If this makes any sense at all we will both be suprized. It is 9:00pm and we were up at 6:30 and haven't stopped since then.
Ok I was just reminded to tell about the great adventure we had on the way to the Airport in Edmonton. It went something like this. Hey my parents are here LETS GO!!!! So out we went , Dad "do we have time for a starbucks", us "sure" ... doo doo doo alright off we get at the airport say our good byes and then as we were about to check our bags when I realized that i did not have my purse... oh shit! So out i bolt to catch my parents because i obviously need something that is in my purse sitting at home on my couch! So I leave Tyson there with our bags and head back to the house, it wasn't time to freak out too badly because it was only 9:00am and our flight left at 11:00. Needless to say we made it back at 10:05 with plenty of time to catch the flight... but it was a little scary! Now i constantly check to make sure i have everything and I am sure i will be reminded several times to check if i have everything!
Since Sara slept through most fo teh flights I (Tyson) thought I would write this section. Flight to Vancouver, easy typical. Started watching Aladdin but obviously didn't finish it. Now some of you know that I was slightly concerned by the length of time we had in Vancouver before our transfer to JAL for a flight to Japan. However, there was no need to worry as a nice lady from JAL was waiting at the gate with a sign for us and a cart. We had to wait for some big wig flying from Calgary, but no matter we needed not to worry as we were in the control of JAL. The flight across the Pacific was good. A hot meal and a sandwich for means, plus snacks and drinks regularly. Now the smart thing would have been to try and sleep as soon as I got on the plane like Sara did, but I didn't I watched movies.. We arrived in Toyko Japan some 9 hours later and Sara was very very impressed by the singing toliets. We strolled through the gift shops for a bit and then boarded what seemed like a really long flight for what in our heads seems like not all that far (Toyko to Bangkok). On the map our flight deviated from a straigh or curved line by avoiding Tawain airspace. Not sure if that is true, but that is what it looked like. We finally arrived in Bangkok some 24 hours after we started travelling. Sara having slept on and off for the whole trip, Tyson not so much. The taxi from the airport had some difficultly finding the place and charged an arm and a leg. It is so hard when you are tired and just arrived to get the bargining mindset.
We are staying at the Reflections Room which is not in the tourist area which is nice and quiet! Our rooms (we are staying in different ones for different nights) are nice and relaxing. I enjoy! Tyson really likes the breakfast because it serves his type of breakfast food, rice, noodles, bacon, fresh fruit which i might add the pineapple is something to die for! There is a spa :) It gives full body massages, foot massages, etc. It smells like massage oils in the hotel lobby which is nice i think, Tyson thinks it is too overpowering! Anyways we will get a massage one day. For one hour full body it is 10 dollars canadian! Unbelievable!
Today we got up around 7:00am , showered, ate breakfast and then found the skytrain to take us to koah san road. The funny thing is, you can't go anywhere in this place without people stopping you every 5 blocks going "where are you going" then you tell them and then they ask you were you are from, and all this stuff and then they give you suggestions. I mean lovely people, really nice, but sometimes you just want to find it yourself! Short story is we never did make it to Koah San Road, we somehow made it to a tailor shop.
I accidently bumped into a lady who immedietly started to talk to us. She worked for the Government at the University and she spoke good english. She asked us what our plans were, and told us that it was WAY to early to be out it was 9:00am.. she said Koah San Road everyone would be sleeping and we said we needed to find a travel agent, well she pointed us to one. We eventually settled the deal with the travel agent for flights to Udon Thanni for tomorrow afternoon so then we can take a bus to Loas which is suppose to be 1-3 hours. After the travel agent we decided to take a slow boat to go see all the temples and the Grand Palace (we never made it there either). We did take the slow boat, but then got sidetracked when we walked out of the reclining buddah temple which was pretty amazing, the guy who stamps your ticket on the way out told us that every other temple was free today because it was a Buddhist Holiday, and then he circle a bunch on our map and got a tuk tuk driver to drive us around the city for 30 baht (1 dollar can) for all the temples. How could you refuse.
So we get to the first place, a temple devoited to luck. So we are tentive to walk in, not knowing the religion, one would have to affend anyone. At the same time a local is entering the temple. So we go in with him and get to talking. He says "this is a very small temple not many tourists know about it or come here, how do you know about it?" "Well some guy told us about a number of temples and places to go." Local guy "which other ones?" So we show him the map, which also has circled on it the Tailor shop. Local guy "how do you know about this shop? I was just there yesterday." The guy goes on to give a raving review of this shop. Now if this was a con it got us good. Because next stop was the tailor shop and usually I get into those places (any shop trying to sell that looks fancy, turn around and walk out) but not this time. I had a raving review from a complete stranger within the confines of a temple. Needless to say I decide to buy a tailored suit with shirt and tie. I won't quote the price just to cut down on the laugher if I was taken.
After that we tour a couple more temples and get the tuk tuk driver who is still with us (he asked and we accepted to also go and visit a jeweler making factory (he gets a coupon for free petrolum for taking us there)) and get him to drop us off at a restruant written up by the LP. We find the place, which turns out just to be a hole in the wall joint. Sara isn't too impressed, so we end up a couple of blocks up at a hostel restruant. The food isn't great and the veggy spring rolls we order are filled with pork. Sara is not pleased mainly at the misquitos and turned down the spring rolls, but all the same more for me. After that we kill a bit of time by visiting another temple, before turning down 5 tuk tuks who wouldn't drop there price to take us back to the tailors for my first fitting. (we didn't get a lower price, we came up). So back at the Tailors we try on the stuff, and while the price still stings and we are not sure if we were set up or not, the stuff looks good. After that we get stuck in rush hour traffic trying to get to the cloest skytrain stop to get us back to the hotel.
After wasting 15 minutes waiting in traffic we decide to walk the remaining blocks to the station. We ended up along the way in a massive mall around Siem. So we shopped, as things even in a mall like this are quite cheap. We bought some (what appear very much to be) Diesel jeans and Sara also got a Mr. Happy tee-shirt. The jeans were a difficult purchase, not because of price or trying to determine if they are real or not, but for Sara why are all the jeans in Asian shape.
When we came out it was pouring rain (which it hadn't done all day) and pitch black. It was 7 pm. We made our way back to the hotel, and went for dinner at the attached restruant. I had a large beer which was 10 Baht (30 cents) more than Sara's small beer and 300 milileters larger. As we tried not to fall asleep while eating dinner, Sara turns to me and says, "Holy shit there just went an elephant. I didn't believe her, till I turned around and saw a baby elephant being led down the street. Sara didn't think it was a baby, but because I have seen both before, I get the say in writting this, but it is disputed.
Other than that, the transition to traveling is ongoing. Trying to remember to bargin for everything. Look left right, up, down, and around again all the time (especially when stepping into the street), looking at where you are walking (for holes), the smells, having to do math whenever you are looking to buy, and going non stop for 9 plus hours a day in a climate that is abnormal to say the least.
Tomorrow we may walk around this area or go to Siem as we don't have enough time to go downtown before our 13:30 flight on Thai airways to Udan Thanni, from where we will take a bus to Vientianne in Loas.
Later,
Tyson and Sara
If this makes any sense at all we will both be suprized. It is 9:00pm and we were up at 6:30 and haven't stopped since then.
Ok I was just reminded to tell about the great adventure we had on the way to the Airport in Edmonton. It went something like this. Hey my parents are here LETS GO!!!! So out we went , Dad "do we have time for a starbucks", us "sure" ... doo doo doo alright off we get at the airport say our good byes and then as we were about to check our bags when I realized that i did not have my purse... oh shit! So out i bolt to catch my parents because i obviously need something that is in my purse sitting at home on my couch! So I leave Tyson there with our bags and head back to the house, it wasn't time to freak out too badly because it was only 9:00am and our flight left at 11:00. Needless to say we made it back at 10:05 with plenty of time to catch the flight... but it was a little scary! Now i constantly check to make sure i have everything and I am sure i will be reminded several times to check if i have everything!
Since Sara slept through most fo teh flights I (Tyson) thought I would write this section. Flight to Vancouver, easy typical. Started watching Aladdin but obviously didn't finish it. Now some of you know that I was slightly concerned by the length of time we had in Vancouver before our transfer to JAL for a flight to Japan. However, there was no need to worry as a nice lady from JAL was waiting at the gate with a sign for us and a cart. We had to wait for some big wig flying from Calgary, but no matter we needed not to worry as we were in the control of JAL. The flight across the Pacific was good. A hot meal and a sandwich for means, plus snacks and drinks regularly. Now the smart thing would have been to try and sleep as soon as I got on the plane like Sara did, but I didn't I watched movies.. We arrived in Toyko Japan some 9 hours later and Sara was very very impressed by the singing toliets. We strolled through the gift shops for a bit and then boarded what seemed like a really long flight for what in our heads seems like not all that far (Toyko to Bangkok). On the map our flight deviated from a straigh or curved line by avoiding Tawain airspace. Not sure if that is true, but that is what it looked like. We finally arrived in Bangkok some 24 hours after we started travelling. Sara having slept on and off for the whole trip, Tyson not so much. The taxi from the airport had some difficultly finding the place and charged an arm and a leg. It is so hard when you are tired and just arrived to get the bargining mindset.
We are staying at the Reflections Room which is not in the tourist area which is nice and quiet! Our rooms (we are staying in different ones for different nights) are nice and relaxing. I enjoy! Tyson really likes the breakfast because it serves his type of breakfast food, rice, noodles, bacon, fresh fruit which i might add the pineapple is something to die for! There is a spa :) It gives full body massages, foot massages, etc. It smells like massage oils in the hotel lobby which is nice i think, Tyson thinks it is too overpowering! Anyways we will get a massage one day. For one hour full body it is 10 dollars canadian! Unbelievable!
Today we got up around 7:00am , showered, ate breakfast and then found the skytrain to take us to koah san road. The funny thing is, you can't go anywhere in this place without people stopping you every 5 blocks going "where are you going" then you tell them and then they ask you were you are from, and all this stuff and then they give you suggestions. I mean lovely people, really nice, but sometimes you just want to find it yourself! Short story is we never did make it to Koah San Road, we somehow made it to a tailor shop.
I accidently bumped into a lady who immedietly started to talk to us. She worked for the Government at the University and she spoke good english. She asked us what our plans were, and told us that it was WAY to early to be out it was 9:00am.. she said Koah San Road everyone would be sleeping and we said we needed to find a travel agent, well she pointed us to one. We eventually settled the deal with the travel agent for flights to Udon Thanni for tomorrow afternoon so then we can take a bus to Loas which is suppose to be 1-3 hours. After the travel agent we decided to take a slow boat to go see all the temples and the Grand Palace (we never made it there either). We did take the slow boat, but then got sidetracked when we walked out of the reclining buddah temple which was pretty amazing, the guy who stamps your ticket on the way out told us that every other temple was free today because it was a Buddhist Holiday, and then he circle a bunch on our map and got a tuk tuk driver to drive us around the city for 30 baht (1 dollar can) for all the temples. How could you refuse.
So we get to the first place, a temple devoited to luck. So we are tentive to walk in, not knowing the religion, one would have to affend anyone. At the same time a local is entering the temple. So we go in with him and get to talking. He says "this is a very small temple not many tourists know about it or come here, how do you know about it?" "Well some guy told us about a number of temples and places to go." Local guy "which other ones?" So we show him the map, which also has circled on it the Tailor shop. Local guy "how do you know about this shop? I was just there yesterday." The guy goes on to give a raving review of this shop. Now if this was a con it got us good. Because next stop was the tailor shop and usually I get into those places (any shop trying to sell that looks fancy, turn around and walk out) but not this time. I had a raving review from a complete stranger within the confines of a temple. Needless to say I decide to buy a tailored suit with shirt and tie. I won't quote the price just to cut down on the laugher if I was taken.
After that we tour a couple more temples and get the tuk tuk driver who is still with us (he asked and we accepted to also go and visit a jeweler making factory (he gets a coupon for free petrolum for taking us there)) and get him to drop us off at a restruant written up by the LP. We find the place, which turns out just to be a hole in the wall joint. Sara isn't too impressed, so we end up a couple of blocks up at a hostel restruant. The food isn't great and the veggy spring rolls we order are filled with pork. Sara is not pleased mainly at the misquitos and turned down the spring rolls, but all the same more for me. After that we kill a bit of time by visiting another temple, before turning down 5 tuk tuks who wouldn't drop there price to take us back to the tailors for my first fitting. (we didn't get a lower price, we came up). So back at the Tailors we try on the stuff, and while the price still stings and we are not sure if we were set up or not, the stuff looks good. After that we get stuck in rush hour traffic trying to get to the cloest skytrain stop to get us back to the hotel.
After wasting 15 minutes waiting in traffic we decide to walk the remaining blocks to the station. We ended up along the way in a massive mall around Siem. So we shopped, as things even in a mall like this are quite cheap. We bought some (what appear very much to be) Diesel jeans and Sara also got a Mr. Happy tee-shirt. The jeans were a difficult purchase, not because of price or trying to determine if they are real or not, but for Sara why are all the jeans in Asian shape.
When we came out it was pouring rain (which it hadn't done all day) and pitch black. It was 7 pm. We made our way back to the hotel, and went for dinner at the attached restruant. I had a large beer which was 10 Baht (30 cents) more than Sara's small beer and 300 milileters larger. As we tried not to fall asleep while eating dinner, Sara turns to me and says, "Holy shit there just went an elephant. I didn't believe her, till I turned around and saw a baby elephant being led down the street. Sara didn't think it was a baby, but because I have seen both before, I get the say in writting this, but it is disputed.
Other than that, the transition to traveling is ongoing. Trying to remember to bargin for everything. Look left right, up, down, and around again all the time (especially when stepping into the street), looking at where you are walking (for holes), the smells, having to do math whenever you are looking to buy, and going non stop for 9 plus hours a day in a climate that is abnormal to say the least.
Tomorrow we may walk around this area or go to Siem as we don't have enough time to go downtown before our 13:30 flight on Thai airways to Udan Thanni, from where we will take a bus to Vientianne in Loas.
Later,
Tyson and Sara
Saturday, July 19, 2008
T minus 23 hours
Hello everyone.
Just under one day before we fly outta here for a vacation. Sara is off getting ready with Chandra for Chandra's wedding this evening. I'm at home checking prices on internal Thialand flights, and finishing off the last minute stuff. As usual I will be relieved once we are on the plane and we can't remember or forget anything else. So I guess I should get back at it, but before I go, I'll post up our plan.
Fly out tomorrow.
Arrive in Bangkok July 21
Get to Vientiane on July 23
Go to Vang Vieng on July 28
Go to Luang Prabang on Aug 2
Return to Bangkok Aug 5
Home on Aug 8
See you all in Bangkok
Just under one day before we fly outta here for a vacation. Sara is off getting ready with Chandra for Chandra's wedding this evening. I'm at home checking prices on internal Thialand flights, and finishing off the last minute stuff. As usual I will be relieved once we are on the plane and we can't remember or forget anything else. So I guess I should get back at it, but before I go, I'll post up our plan.
Fly out tomorrow.
Arrive in Bangkok July 21
Get to Vientiane on July 23
Go to Vang Vieng on July 28
Go to Luang Prabang on Aug 2
Return to Bangkok Aug 5
Home on Aug 8
See you all in Bangkok
Sunday, July 13, 2008
1 week and were off to stroll the world some more!
Hello again!!!!!!!
Wow it feels like not to long ago I was entering an entertaining blog from somewheres in the world!!! Well ladies and gentlemen I know some of you have been missing these and I have heard how maybe one day I should write a book (well save that for retirement) but for now there are too many places to go visit and see.
Tyson and I will be yet again strolling the world in one weeks time. Our stroll this time takes us to Thialand (Just Bangkok and maybe a beach) and Laos for 3 weeks.
We will try to update as much as we can, but with only 3 weeks we have a lot to see.
Keep checking for updates and enjoy your summer. We depart Edmonton on July 20th.
See you in Bangkok!!
S & T
Wow it feels like not to long ago I was entering an entertaining blog from somewheres in the world!!! Well ladies and gentlemen I know some of you have been missing these and I have heard how maybe one day I should write a book (well save that for retirement) but for now there are too many places to go visit and see.
Tyson and I will be yet again strolling the world in one weeks time. Our stroll this time takes us to Thialand (Just Bangkok and maybe a beach) and Laos for 3 weeks.
We will try to update as much as we can, but with only 3 weeks we have a lot to see.
Keep checking for updates and enjoy your summer. We depart Edmonton on July 20th.
See you in Bangkok!!
S & T
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