Hello ( I don't know how to spell Hello in Thai or really how to say it)
This morning we woke up and caught up with good ol BBC and realized that President Bush was in Bangkok this morning giving a speech. We thought about protesting and making a big deal about how terrible he is, but then we decided going to Jail on our last day wouldn't be much fun for a last day. So we just went for breakfast instead.
After breakfast we waited for Tyson's suit to come. It came, and it looks like they fixed the issues he was having with it, button holes being sown(sp?) properly. Hey Chandra you could probably fix it if anything else goes wrong eh? From there we decided to go to the mall again to finish our shopping. We thought we would check out the Siam center mall.
What a mistake that was! That mall was the cleanest, brightest, biggest bling bling I have ever seen and the most expensive. Pretty much all the brand name REAL stuff, like Dolce and Gabanna, Versace, Gucci, Marc Jacobs, Armoni, the list goes on and on .. like fashion model stuff. They had a whole floor dedicated to diamonds pretty much. I don't know why Tyson just didn't get me that huge ring i saw.. really? (It was from Cartier and probably wieghed more than me.. it would cost an extra seat on the plane) We decided that Tyson should make more money so Sara could shop in the fashion world.. but we realized quickly we needed to get out of there.
From there we walked the wrong way to find the MBK (a.k.a cheap knock off mall) Once realized we went the wrong way we just took the sky train back. At MBK Tyson wasn't feeling all that well. So we had a rest for a bit and then he got his energy back and we hit the mall hard. We found the big hanging picture of the buddha face that he wanted and he wasn't as picky today because he was tired. He is whinning now, blah blah blah... But it looks good i think. None of them would have been perfect anyways.
We found everything we wanted. The searching for the jeans was still difficult.. but we found one.. maybe not the best but whatever i was losing hope. Good thing there is always the Gap.
By the time we finished it was about 3:00pm but we didnt start get there till 12:00pm. We had lunch at a place that resembles BP's pretty much and then headed back because Tyson had to lug the huge pieces of wood for the picture. By the time we gotten back it was too late to go to the other temples. So we had a nap (I only had like 20 minutes, Tyson was a sleepy head and slept on and off for about 1.5 hours).
We then paid our bill here at the hotel and made sure taxi's would be around at 5:20 am.
Had dinner and then our last massage :(. We are sure going to miss those. Maybe our insurance plans have something where you get some free a year or something. But man that Thai guy had me melt.... as well as cracked my back in 50 different places.. apparently it misses my bed alot.
Well we need to figure out how we are going to get everything on the plane and then go to bed 5:00 am comes early. We will see some of you tomorrow afternoon-ish.
Looking forward to seeing everyone.
Laters,
Sara and Tyson
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
How do you say, "Do you want to come back to Canada with us in Thai?"
Hello,
This morning we slept in a little (8:30am), Tyson still slept while I used the internet in the morning for a little bit. We had breakfast and I finally got a crepe. We were both a little upset that our hotel had changed the way they do breakfast no more buffet style, which means no more 3 plates of fruit, and Tysons fried rice and noodles and such, but the adding of now being able to get a pancake is nice.
After breaky we went on the sky train down to the boats, to take a boat to see the Royal Palace. Man that place is HUGE! With a lot of tourists ... sigh. We were in no mood to get ripped off or scammed anymore so when a lady was like yelling at me to come there.. we quickly ignored her and kept walking. There was scam artists left right and center "Come on boat trip", "The palace is closed right now, we take you somewhere else", etc. When we got to the gate to get in, I was not allowed in, my capri pants .. literally were 1-2mm from the cut off point. We thought for sure they just had to cover the knees, which they did, but no dice. So we had to go back to the front to rent a long skirt which was fine and free. From there we did the palace in about an hour. Part of it was closed do to a "lying in state ceremony" whatever that is?
From there we did the unimaginable... went to Koh San Road... For anyone whos been to Bangkok you probably know this road all too well, we try to stay clear of it. But we thought we should check it out to say we did. That we did... a little overwhelming, at times i didn't even feel like i was in Thailand but in downtown calgary on kennsington street. English music, mcdonalds, burger king you know the usual. We looked around for a bit and then decided to get some lunch at this great italian place. Pricey but good.
After lunch we went to go pick up Tysons suit. He tried it on, it looks good I think.. but he inspected it thoroughly because he knew he had been scammed so he was going to give them a run for thier money. He found a few easy flaws to fix but he was going to make sure they fixed them. So they are going to fix them and have the suite delivered to our hotel room tomorrow morning. Other than that, i think he looks sharp in it. It is well fitted for once.. being a skinny man and all he tends to buy all his things WAY to big. Tyson says he disagrees.. but i guess he has to wear them.. but maybe he is just self conscious about his skinnyness. But its ok we love him for it :). He is really tired right now and kind of out of it so i can poke at him and make fun of him right now so i am taking full advantage.
After the suit we went to the giant shopping mall MBK. Man that mall sucks the time right out of you.. before you know it its 7:30pm. I was looking for another pair of jeans.. but its still not any eaiser ha-ha... Tyson took forever trying to find this wall buddha made out of wood that will never be perfect for him... he finds some flaw everytime we find one. It might be a long day tomorow. On the jean hunt we did find a sale for Puma shoes.. REAL puma shoes.. as they were still pricey but not as pricey as at home and they are pretty sweet looking. I am also on the hunt to find a shirt that I saw on Koh San Road and thought for sure i would find at the MBK.. but we looked and i don't think they have it..
We came back to our hotel and ate some dinner and then got massages.. hence where the title of the blog comes from. Man i really want to take a massusse (sp?) home. Like seriously 3 dollars for an hour massage its like 65 dollars in canada.. and were suppose to take care of ourselves and healthy living they need to make massages cheaper. I had a foot/leg massage which was amazing, and Tyson had the Thai massage which he says is really no different than a Lao one but still good. He says his stuffy nose got in his way to relax... Now we are writing you.
Tomorrow is our last day before flying the gruelling 16 hours home. Hopefully good movies and quiet planes. Tomorrow the agenda is back to more malls (this is the most shopping i have done since christmas time shopping.) And maybe one or two more temples well see how the day goes, we also have to get our bags all packed, make sure we have a taxi for 5:30am the next morning, and get some plane food because I hate the plane food on the plane, Tyson will eat anything put in front of him.. but i think its all nasty. Except for the little snack bags of like those pretzels japan air has a good combo of that.
Alright, off to bed.
Sara and Tyson
This morning we slept in a little (8:30am), Tyson still slept while I used the internet in the morning for a little bit. We had breakfast and I finally got a crepe. We were both a little upset that our hotel had changed the way they do breakfast no more buffet style, which means no more 3 plates of fruit, and Tysons fried rice and noodles and such, but the adding of now being able to get a pancake is nice.
After breaky we went on the sky train down to the boats, to take a boat to see the Royal Palace. Man that place is HUGE! With a lot of tourists ... sigh. We were in no mood to get ripped off or scammed anymore so when a lady was like yelling at me to come there.. we quickly ignored her and kept walking. There was scam artists left right and center "Come on boat trip", "The palace is closed right now, we take you somewhere else", etc. When we got to the gate to get in, I was not allowed in, my capri pants .. literally were 1-2mm from the cut off point. We thought for sure they just had to cover the knees, which they did, but no dice. So we had to go back to the front to rent a long skirt which was fine and free. From there we did the palace in about an hour. Part of it was closed do to a "lying in state ceremony" whatever that is?
From there we did the unimaginable... went to Koh San Road... For anyone whos been to Bangkok you probably know this road all too well, we try to stay clear of it. But we thought we should check it out to say we did. That we did... a little overwhelming, at times i didn't even feel like i was in Thailand but in downtown calgary on kennsington street. English music, mcdonalds, burger king you know the usual. We looked around for a bit and then decided to get some lunch at this great italian place. Pricey but good.
After lunch we went to go pick up Tysons suit. He tried it on, it looks good I think.. but he inspected it thoroughly because he knew he had been scammed so he was going to give them a run for thier money. He found a few easy flaws to fix but he was going to make sure they fixed them. So they are going to fix them and have the suite delivered to our hotel room tomorrow morning. Other than that, i think he looks sharp in it. It is well fitted for once.. being a skinny man and all he tends to buy all his things WAY to big. Tyson says he disagrees.. but i guess he has to wear them.. but maybe he is just self conscious about his skinnyness. But its ok we love him for it :). He is really tired right now and kind of out of it so i can poke at him and make fun of him right now so i am taking full advantage.
After the suit we went to the giant shopping mall MBK. Man that mall sucks the time right out of you.. before you know it its 7:30pm. I was looking for another pair of jeans.. but its still not any eaiser ha-ha... Tyson took forever trying to find this wall buddha made out of wood that will never be perfect for him... he finds some flaw everytime we find one. It might be a long day tomorow. On the jean hunt we did find a sale for Puma shoes.. REAL puma shoes.. as they were still pricey but not as pricey as at home and they are pretty sweet looking. I am also on the hunt to find a shirt that I saw on Koh San Road and thought for sure i would find at the MBK.. but we looked and i don't think they have it..
We came back to our hotel and ate some dinner and then got massages.. hence where the title of the blog comes from. Man i really want to take a massusse (sp?) home. Like seriously 3 dollars for an hour massage its like 65 dollars in canada.. and were suppose to take care of ourselves and healthy living they need to make massages cheaper. I had a foot/leg massage which was amazing, and Tyson had the Thai massage which he says is really no different than a Lao one but still good. He says his stuffy nose got in his way to relax... Now we are writing you.
Tomorrow is our last day before flying the gruelling 16 hours home. Hopefully good movies and quiet planes. Tomorrow the agenda is back to more malls (this is the most shopping i have done since christmas time shopping.) And maybe one or two more temples well see how the day goes, we also have to get our bags all packed, make sure we have a taxi for 5:30am the next morning, and get some plane food because I hate the plane food on the plane, Tyson will eat anything put in front of him.. but i think its all nasty. Except for the little snack bags of like those pretzels japan air has a good combo of that.
Alright, off to bed.
Sara and Tyson
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Back in the Big B
This morning i actually woke up.. at 5:30am to go watch the Alms giving. It was good, except the stupid tourists who are not respectful of space of people and the monks. That kind of ruined the atmsophere. Tyson said the morning he went it was quieter.. hmm interesting. We think it was because it was raining that morning and today it wasn't. The people were basically 2 feet away from the monks face, and like the people of Laos faces with flashes going off from thier camera. There is signs all over town saying DO NOT DO THAT. Clearly they don't get it. If i was a monk i would have punched them... then Tyson kindly said "thats not really the way monks act". Still man that is so rude, and they weren't even kneeling or sitting which your supposed to be because you are lower than a monk. As annoying as the tourists were, what did you think of the actual alms giving Sara? I thought it was good i thought i already explained that part. See other post if you don't know what the early morning alms giving is.
From there we went back to the hotel to sleep since it was 6:30am. Tyson actually watched HBO and saw the last tail end of Blades of Glory while i Cat napped.. and then we both watched the beginnings of Memoirs of a Geisha, that is a good movie i forgot it was that good. Then we packed up all our stuff and went for our usual breakfast at the Scandinavian Bakery.
From the bakery we went to check out the last Wat (temple) that we wante to see before departing Laos. The temple was nice, they were restoring it as we were there putting new sequences on (shiny glass on the outside). From there we had one stop to shop to get a couple more things and then some food for the plane.
We left the hotel at around 11:30 to be at the airport super early (2 hours)... good thing Bangkok airways had a special guest lounge and we were not to scruffy to get asked to go in. At first I thought it was a scam like they were going to plot something on us.. or get us to buy something like that first class lounge in China we went to in our last adventure. I thought this because NO ONE ELSE was there.. I guess we were really early but there was free internet and some snacks. But within half an hour a flock load of other white people came in. We boarded at 2:00pm and got to Bangkok at 4:00 got through customs fast and then we had an hour or so long taxi ride to the hotel. We didn't get scammed this time because Tyson said we want the meter price and the guy said ok but its going to be 450bhat either way.... it was really only 285 bhat with the airport fee. So no more scams for us!
We realized at the airport in Luang Prabang, while reading the bangkok guide book that Tyson pretty much got scammed on his tailor made suite. Like word from word what they explained in the book happened to us. Dang! Good thing i didn't get scammed.. haha.. just kidding Tyson I didn't want anything anyways. Still cheaper than Canada but we will have to thoroughly inspect the makings of it tomorrow when we go pick it up.
Its a little wierd being back in the big B... its so massive. And the 7-11's every block through me off. We kind of miss the rice paddies already and the nice greenary. Oh well Fall will be soon in Edmonton and that is always pretty.
I pretty much have a cold.. and Tyson is dead tired. I guess that means we are done like dinner. So we are going to go have dinner and chill out, maybe watch a movie... free movies here at the hotel.
Tommorrow maybe see more sights get Tysons suit and well see from there how we're feeling.
Laters
Sara and Tyson
From there we went back to the hotel to sleep since it was 6:30am. Tyson actually watched HBO and saw the last tail end of Blades of Glory while i Cat napped.. and then we both watched the beginnings of Memoirs of a Geisha, that is a good movie i forgot it was that good. Then we packed up all our stuff and went for our usual breakfast at the Scandinavian Bakery.
From the bakery we went to check out the last Wat (temple) that we wante to see before departing Laos. The temple was nice, they were restoring it as we were there putting new sequences on (shiny glass on the outside). From there we had one stop to shop to get a couple more things and then some food for the plane.
We left the hotel at around 11:30 to be at the airport super early (2 hours)... good thing Bangkok airways had a special guest lounge and we were not to scruffy to get asked to go in. At first I thought it was a scam like they were going to plot something on us.. or get us to buy something like that first class lounge in China we went to in our last adventure. I thought this because NO ONE ELSE was there.. I guess we were really early but there was free internet and some snacks. But within half an hour a flock load of other white people came in. We boarded at 2:00pm and got to Bangkok at 4:00 got through customs fast and then we had an hour or so long taxi ride to the hotel. We didn't get scammed this time because Tyson said we want the meter price and the guy said ok but its going to be 450bhat either way.... it was really only 285 bhat with the airport fee. So no more scams for us!
We realized at the airport in Luang Prabang, while reading the bangkok guide book that Tyson pretty much got scammed on his tailor made suite. Like word from word what they explained in the book happened to us. Dang! Good thing i didn't get scammed.. haha.. just kidding Tyson I didn't want anything anyways. Still cheaper than Canada but we will have to thoroughly inspect the makings of it tomorrow when we go pick it up.
Its a little wierd being back in the big B... its so massive. And the 7-11's every block through me off. We kind of miss the rice paddies already and the nice greenary. Oh well Fall will be soon in Edmonton and that is always pretty.
I pretty much have a cold.. and Tyson is dead tired. I guess that means we are done like dinner. So we are going to go have dinner and chill out, maybe watch a movie... free movies here at the hotel.
Tommorrow maybe see more sights get Tysons suit and well see from there how we're feeling.
Laters
Sara and Tyson
Monday, August 4, 2008
So the story goes...
So the story goes that Tyson ripped off an old Lao man at his silver shop. You will have to keep reading if you want to know more.
The day began with the alarm going off at 5:30am.. to which i rolled over and Tyson asked.. are you getting up to see the alms this morning? To which i some what grunted a no. But i really could have since before the alarm went off this really really wierd noise was heard from outside our room, or in our room or something.. it sounded like some exotic animal.. and I thought here was my chance to capture a helper monkey.. but no dice.. i also thought maybe it was a snake coming up into my bed.. (last night at the market we saw a snake, the first one i have ever seen in the wild.. it was freaky and all the Lao people were freaking out.. but the Aussie girl next to me was like.. "what is everyone freaking out about?" To which I replied "oh there is a snake right there." To which she said, "oooo big deal a snake and everyone freaks out." They have a lot of snakes in aussie land. Anyways I wasn't getting up my throat was still sore and sleep was good. The alarm kept going on and off on and off on and off until Tyson let it ring the whole way through at 7:00am... (at 5:30 I reset the clock to 7am, not keep ringing) Oh anyways i thought maybe he had given up on going on the 8am boat tour to the caves and that we were going to sleep in. No dice.. he politely woke me up saying we have 20 minutes if we want breakfast. So up i got and we rushed to get breakfast and buy our boat tickets.
The boat ride was nice about 2 hours on a slow boat to the cave. We stopped at a floating gas station.. which had no gas.. so we had to go back to the city to get gas... typical haha. So we got to the caves last.
The caves was a tourist destination. I hadn't seen that many tourist the whole trip in one place and not at downtown and it kind of ruined it for me. Kids haggling you to buy a bird in a cage and let it go at the top of the cave only to get captured again... so we think. The caves are a place to store (the book said 400,000 old war torn buddha statues) There was more like a couple hundred maybe a couple thousand. It was nice, but not like WOW! The boat journey was the best part of it. Since it was only 6 people per boat and it was slow and the wind was nice and the mekong and the jungle were nice to look at as well. I even had a cat nap.
On the way back we stopped at a tourist village (how disappointing) that was a Whiskey village... (basically they made whiskey) along with selling scarfs and such. It took me like 30 seconds to walk the joint and then decided to go back to the boat hoping others would follow suite. The couple from the UK did, but these two other ladies took forever! Oh well. (Tyson says like 20 minutes.. but that was all the time we got was 20 minutes). I actually think the boat driver went and got them. We got back to the city at 1:30pm and decided for lunch.
I won't say what i had for lunch because it wasn't healthy. Tyson had wood. Literally.. bamboo shoots. It was nasty.. it tasted like earth. But he ate it all. Now to the best part...
After lunch we took a tuk tuk to the sliversmith because it was like 2074302740297 degrees outside... maybe we were on mars? Anyways it was hot too hot to walk 1km.. maybe a little more than that. Anyways we went to the sliversmith to pick up another item. The shop was closed but the silversmiths were working outside. So we asked if we could get in, they got the old man who i presume ran the buisness with his wife who we dealt with ealier in the week must be the person who does all the books for him while he does the silversmithing. Anyways the little old man was cute and old... and really didn't know how to work the calculator all that well. He actually didn't even know the price but we did because we had gotten something similar for the same price. Well this is how it went, Tyson told him the real price in dollars and since we didnt have US cash we convereted it to KIP. He struggled to do it himself.. poor guy.. and gave Tyson a better exchange rate (8500 to the dollar, when it is actually 8650.. or 8700) anyways the man had no idea and just said ok.. i felt bad because we knew the price and the exchange rate and Tyson just basically took this man's lunch money.. poor poor old man. (Poor old man that chargers the highest rates in town (for the best stuff, but still) and has 5 full time employees silversmithing for him all day long, who's customers are some of the wealthiest people in southeast asia). Poor poor cute old man. (I just did the math, and I underpaid what I paid last time by 6000 kip, or 75 cents) Like I said the poor poor cute old man's lunch money. Anyways.. thats the story.
We then retreated back to our guesthouse but we stopped for something that starts with an I and ends with Cream... which is STUPIDLY hard to find here... Two things i would do if i was to run a buisness in Laos. 1) Build a guesthouse with a pool, and 2) Have more ice cream stalls that are safe icecream.
Anyways Tyson finished life of pi it amazes me how he can read for soooo long with out falling asleep. I as usual had my read and siesta.
We then finished our shopping since we leave tomorrow to go back to Bangkok. Then had dinner and now we found an internet place (we used this one last night too) that is the hub of where monks come to use the internet.. there is currently 6 monks in here right now.. and they use hotmail.. how society evolves blows my mind away.
Tomorrow we fly to bangkok in the afternoon, maybe i will make it up to see the alms giving. (i don't see why you couldn't make it, the monks are here with us now, and they have to get up that early) If i wanted to get up early then I would become a monk wouldn't I? (No because you are a girl, a nun if so choose, they get up early too, but not a monk.) Whatever, am I a nun? Noooooo... am I on vacation... Yesssss. Then we will be home in a couple of days.
Till tomorrow.
Sara and Tyson
The day began with the alarm going off at 5:30am.. to which i rolled over and Tyson asked.. are you getting up to see the alms this morning? To which i some what grunted a no. But i really could have since before the alarm went off this really really wierd noise was heard from outside our room, or in our room or something.. it sounded like some exotic animal.. and I thought here was my chance to capture a helper monkey.. but no dice.. i also thought maybe it was a snake coming up into my bed.. (last night at the market we saw a snake, the first one i have ever seen in the wild.. it was freaky and all the Lao people were freaking out.. but the Aussie girl next to me was like.. "what is everyone freaking out about?" To which I replied "oh there is a snake right there." To which she said, "oooo big deal a snake and everyone freaks out." They have a lot of snakes in aussie land. Anyways I wasn't getting up my throat was still sore and sleep was good. The alarm kept going on and off on and off on and off until Tyson let it ring the whole way through at 7:00am... (at 5:30 I reset the clock to 7am, not keep ringing) Oh anyways i thought maybe he had given up on going on the 8am boat tour to the caves and that we were going to sleep in. No dice.. he politely woke me up saying we have 20 minutes if we want breakfast. So up i got and we rushed to get breakfast and buy our boat tickets.
The boat ride was nice about 2 hours on a slow boat to the cave. We stopped at a floating gas station.. which had no gas.. so we had to go back to the city to get gas... typical haha. So we got to the caves last.
The caves was a tourist destination. I hadn't seen that many tourist the whole trip in one place and not at downtown and it kind of ruined it for me. Kids haggling you to buy a bird in a cage and let it go at the top of the cave only to get captured again... so we think. The caves are a place to store (the book said 400,000 old war torn buddha statues) There was more like a couple hundred maybe a couple thousand. It was nice, but not like WOW! The boat journey was the best part of it. Since it was only 6 people per boat and it was slow and the wind was nice and the mekong and the jungle were nice to look at as well. I even had a cat nap.
On the way back we stopped at a tourist village (how disappointing) that was a Whiskey village... (basically they made whiskey) along with selling scarfs and such. It took me like 30 seconds to walk the joint and then decided to go back to the boat hoping others would follow suite. The couple from the UK did, but these two other ladies took forever! Oh well. (Tyson says like 20 minutes.. but that was all the time we got was 20 minutes). I actually think the boat driver went and got them. We got back to the city at 1:30pm and decided for lunch.
I won't say what i had for lunch because it wasn't healthy. Tyson had wood. Literally.. bamboo shoots. It was nasty.. it tasted like earth. But he ate it all. Now to the best part...
After lunch we took a tuk tuk to the sliversmith because it was like 2074302740297 degrees outside... maybe we were on mars? Anyways it was hot too hot to walk 1km.. maybe a little more than that. Anyways we went to the sliversmith to pick up another item. The shop was closed but the silversmiths were working outside. So we asked if we could get in, they got the old man who i presume ran the buisness with his wife who we dealt with ealier in the week must be the person who does all the books for him while he does the silversmithing. Anyways the little old man was cute and old... and really didn't know how to work the calculator all that well. He actually didn't even know the price but we did because we had gotten something similar for the same price. Well this is how it went, Tyson told him the real price in dollars and since we didnt have US cash we convereted it to KIP. He struggled to do it himself.. poor guy.. and gave Tyson a better exchange rate (8500 to the dollar, when it is actually 8650.. or 8700) anyways the man had no idea and just said ok.. i felt bad because we knew the price and the exchange rate and Tyson just basically took this man's lunch money.. poor poor old man. (Poor old man that chargers the highest rates in town (for the best stuff, but still) and has 5 full time employees silversmithing for him all day long, who's customers are some of the wealthiest people in southeast asia). Poor poor cute old man. (I just did the math, and I underpaid what I paid last time by 6000 kip, or 75 cents) Like I said the poor poor cute old man's lunch money. Anyways.. thats the story.
We then retreated back to our guesthouse but we stopped for something that starts with an I and ends with Cream... which is STUPIDLY hard to find here... Two things i would do if i was to run a buisness in Laos. 1) Build a guesthouse with a pool, and 2) Have more ice cream stalls that are safe icecream.
Anyways Tyson finished life of pi it amazes me how he can read for soooo long with out falling asleep. I as usual had my read and siesta.
We then finished our shopping since we leave tomorrow to go back to Bangkok. Then had dinner and now we found an internet place (we used this one last night too) that is the hub of where monks come to use the internet.. there is currently 6 monks in here right now.. and they use hotmail.. how society evolves blows my mind away.
Tomorrow we fly to bangkok in the afternoon, maybe i will make it up to see the alms giving. (i don't see why you couldn't make it, the monks are here with us now, and they have to get up that early) If i wanted to get up early then I would become a monk wouldn't I? (No because you are a girl, a nun if so choose, they get up early too, but not a monk.) Whatever, am I a nun? Noooooo... am I on vacation... Yesssss. Then we will be home in a couple of days.
Till tomorrow.
Sara and Tyson
Sunday, August 3, 2008
There are a lot more things to look out for when pooing in the jungle instead of the woods
So the day started out really really early. The alarm went off at 5:30 am and after hitting it off twice, Tyson was out of bed and getting dressed. Sara rolled over and went back to sleep. At 5:45 Tyson was trying to figure out how to get out of the guesthouse because the gate was locked and the people at the front were asleep. At the same time Sara started a nice dream. At 5:50 the guards had woken up, let Tyson out, and I was walking towards downtown, at the same time I don't know what she was doing, but it had nothing to do with walking in the rain. At a bit before 6am Tyson was trying to be sold rice and bananas by two very agressively selling women, Sara was still in bed. At 6am the alms giving began down the main street in town, Sara was still tucked nicely under the covers.
The alms giving is when all the monks and novices in town walk single file down the main street in town receiving alms (in the form of food, mostly sticky rice) from people who line the street to give the food away in return for a prayer or something. There wasn't a lot of locals, maybe 5-10 on the street where I watched, but there were hundreds, of monks all in their orange, walking down the street, each with a jar for the food to be placed in. The people would give a little sticky rice to each monk. It was an impressive sight, well worth the early alarm clock. Sara is somewhat interested in going tomorrow. (Raised eyebrow by Sara in response.)
After the monks finished around 6:30am, I wondered the empty streets for a bit, then returned to Sara still sound asleep in bed. I read the wildly entertaining Life of PI until she woke up. We were slow getting going today and didn't make it to the Scandnavian bakery until 10am. We enjoyed the typical fruit, cheese crossiants, and somehow now a cookie too???
Then we went to the pier to inquire about going up to the buddha caves. We were too late to get on with everyone else headed that direction, so would have to rent a boat for ourselves. The price was too steep to do this, so we decided to get to the pier at 8am tomorrow to pay for seats, not the whole boat. We decided, well I decided and Sara agreed to just get a boat to cross the Mekong, and walk through a town and to some temples on the other side.
The other side of the Mekong, was a very different place indeed. We could tell they were well off compared to most villages, but it was just that a village. We walked up and down the main street in the village once, and then made our way towards the temples. It was so hot. The locals were sweating and taking cover. We were soaked in sweat from head to toe.
The first temple was on top of a hill and abondoned. It had a very nice view of Luang Prabang from it. This is were I needed to go to the washroom. I had to wait till a number of other tourists left before I made for the jungle. The difference between the jungle and the woods is how many directions you have to look. Not only down, but all around up and behind, this is due to the abundance of creepy crawly, bitting things that live in the jungle.
The next temple wasn't much to look at, although inhabited. The nice thing was there was about 25 butterflies resting in the sun at the enterance. Very calm, beautiful experience to stand in the middle of that number of butterflies of large size and amazing (by Canadian standards) colors flying around you.
The last temple was actually a cave, and a set of tourists we saw at the first temple (wat) said there was bats inside, so Sara decided to wait for me at the second temple instead of going in. While waiting she got cased by a giant stingy thing. She required the help of a couple of locals to bring the thing under control. The cave was not that impressive, but I did see at least two bats. Freaked the stink outta me when they suddenly flew through the light generated by my headlap. The cave I understood used to have lots of buddha images in it, but not anymore. I continued walking further past this temple for a bit, through some banana and papaya farms but the trail got small, I was getting very muddy, it was still super hot and thus sweaty, and Sara was waiting so I turned around.
We got back to town, and a bit of a snack of a late lunch and then had massages again. I went for the Lao massage while Sara went for the shower and aromatherapy one. She said it was great, full body, but felt sorta weird with only a towel on.
After that we retreated to our guesthouse for two hours, I read again, and Sara had a read/nap. Then it was dinner time, totally western this time, and then a bit more shopping. Sara has a bit of a sore throat and is looking very tired.
The end for today.
Tyson and Sara
The alms giving is when all the monks and novices in town walk single file down the main street in town receiving alms (in the form of food, mostly sticky rice) from people who line the street to give the food away in return for a prayer or something. There wasn't a lot of locals, maybe 5-10 on the street where I watched, but there were hundreds, of monks all in their orange, walking down the street, each with a jar for the food to be placed in. The people would give a little sticky rice to each monk. It was an impressive sight, well worth the early alarm clock. Sara is somewhat interested in going tomorrow. (Raised eyebrow by Sara in response.)
After the monks finished around 6:30am, I wondered the empty streets for a bit, then returned to Sara still sound asleep in bed. I read the wildly entertaining Life of PI until she woke up. We were slow getting going today and didn't make it to the Scandnavian bakery until 10am. We enjoyed the typical fruit, cheese crossiants, and somehow now a cookie too???
Then we went to the pier to inquire about going up to the buddha caves. We were too late to get on with everyone else headed that direction, so would have to rent a boat for ourselves. The price was too steep to do this, so we decided to get to the pier at 8am tomorrow to pay for seats, not the whole boat. We decided, well I decided and Sara agreed to just get a boat to cross the Mekong, and walk through a town and to some temples on the other side.
The other side of the Mekong, was a very different place indeed. We could tell they were well off compared to most villages, but it was just that a village. We walked up and down the main street in the village once, and then made our way towards the temples. It was so hot. The locals were sweating and taking cover. We were soaked in sweat from head to toe.
The first temple was on top of a hill and abondoned. It had a very nice view of Luang Prabang from it. This is were I needed to go to the washroom. I had to wait till a number of other tourists left before I made for the jungle. The difference between the jungle and the woods is how many directions you have to look. Not only down, but all around up and behind, this is due to the abundance of creepy crawly, bitting things that live in the jungle.
The next temple wasn't much to look at, although inhabited. The nice thing was there was about 25 butterflies resting in the sun at the enterance. Very calm, beautiful experience to stand in the middle of that number of butterflies of large size and amazing (by Canadian standards) colors flying around you.
The last temple was actually a cave, and a set of tourists we saw at the first temple (wat) said there was bats inside, so Sara decided to wait for me at the second temple instead of going in. While waiting she got cased by a giant stingy thing. She required the help of a couple of locals to bring the thing under control. The cave was not that impressive, but I did see at least two bats. Freaked the stink outta me when they suddenly flew through the light generated by my headlap. The cave I understood used to have lots of buddha images in it, but not anymore. I continued walking further past this temple for a bit, through some banana and papaya farms but the trail got small, I was getting very muddy, it was still super hot and thus sweaty, and Sara was waiting so I turned around.
We got back to town, and a bit of a snack of a late lunch and then had massages again. I went for the Lao massage while Sara went for the shower and aromatherapy one. She said it was great, full body, but felt sorta weird with only a towel on.
After that we retreated to our guesthouse for two hours, I read again, and Sara had a read/nap. Then it was dinner time, totally western this time, and then a bit more shopping. Sara has a bit of a sore throat and is looking very tired.
The end for today.
Tyson and Sara
Saturday, August 2, 2008
AC set at 27'C and not hot???
So even though it sounds like we are getting aclimitized, we definetly have a long way still to go. We leave our comfortable 27'C in our room and are instantly sweating at whatever the temperature is outside, (much in excess of 27'C). I think the malaria pills are giving us strange very vivide dreams. Crazy, good thing we are almost done taking them, but that also means we are nearing the end of our trip. Ho hum..
Well today we slept in. We really did. We got up at around 9am, I didn't even hear the alarm go off today. Did it go off? Sara says yes. So we slept in, then had to pack our bags as we had to move rooms again, this time upstairs. After that we headed off to breakfast. Cheese crossiants, and fruit. We keep getting this green sorta cantalope tasting thing that isn't very good, but we eat the banana, watermelon, and the very delicious but painful to the sore on the inside of my lip pineapple. After that we did the great money trick. The money trick is where we take kip out of the bank machine then walk 2 blocks up the street to the fairest money exchanger where we change to kip to US dollars. The dollars we use to pay for the hotel which charges in dollars and gives a terrible rate for kip. It really doesn't take all that long, but it is a little annoying. Basically anything here over $20 is told in dollars as to not scare away the purchaser. As $20 dollars sounds much smaller than 173000 kip. After that we headed south to the silver smith recommended in the travel book. Normally I wouldn't go out of my way for such a place however they said the princess of Thailand made sure on her trip to here to visit the shop. So we went in, the place looked like any shop, except for the business cards showing the past patrons, the embassador of Mexico, the US secretary embassador, and a bunch of big corporation CEOs and regional head managers. We looked around, saw some things we liked, but decided to check out another shop we saw in the lane before, before we bought. The other shop, was the same looking, and we ended up getting a very nice elephant ring for Sara, after waiting a long time for service. We're just standing in the living room of someone's house, with the kids watching tv, looking at silver, with no assistance for a long time. Then we went back to the first store to get a really nice bracelet, the old woman in the shop did not budge a penny on her price. I guess when you are buying one bracelet and are use to dealing with some big wigs, prices don't move. The thing was nice, and the price affordable, so we walked away with it.
We then went through a temple to another market, looking for artwork. There was no artwork to be found, and the place was set up for Thai or Chinese tour groups as well as locals (hardware stores etc.) We did end up finding birdies to replace the birdies Sara had earlier lost. After that we walked back towards the really touristy part of town, stopping in a number of boutiques on the way. They call them boutiques, not that they are really any different from the boutique next door, but the quality is higher than in the markets, but the price is also ten fold higher.
We walked back and since we had a late start decided to check out the old royal palace, now museum before going for lunch. The palace was like any other palace, with meeting rooms, throne rooms, bedrooms, etc. It wasn't overly large or over-the-top like one has seen in St. Petersburg to say. The place was rebuilt in the 1930's about and then renovated in the 1960's before the monarch was finally ousted at the end of the second Indo-China war.
After that we had an only sorta okay lunch, and watched part of a terrible HBO movie with the owner. (In english with Lao subtitles.) We thought about heading off to see the remaining Wats on the list, but Sara was tired, and I wasn't full of energy so happily agreed to have a relaxing afternoon, (from 3pm-6pm). On the way back to the hotel we located the kids who were missing their original birdie and replaced it with three new ones (good ones with real feathers), which they were very happy to recieve. I relaxed by starting the "Life of PI" and Sara read too before falling asleep.
At a bit after 6pm we headed for the market. The kids where in the street trying to retrieve one of the birdies from a tree. Good thing we got them 3 replacements. We hit the market hard, but fizzled out after spending a bunch of money, making it only halfway through, but crossing a number of items off our list. We were bargining over a coconut wood serving dish with this woman, who child was having a temper-tantrum. Sara was not impressed, and I think that is when she decided she had had enough for the day. I was trying to get the best price, (Sara: the kid was screaming his cute little head off for like 30 minutes and the mom was trying to bargin and calm him down... i just said pay whatever so she can tend to her child!). It is what she said. We do have to return to the market at least one more time, but we're almost done, I think....but just when you think your done you see something else... Anyways, we gave up before crossing everything off our list, and went for dinner. Sara had Pasta, Tyson fried beef in ginger and rice.
Tomorrow we are going to go up to the buddha caves, and maybe to a waterfall.(Sara: the water is not exactly pretty right now since it is rainy season and flowing fast and is high it is not sparkling blue but dark chocolate mud colour... makes swimming seem unappealing unfortunantly).
Tyson and Sara
Well today we slept in. We really did. We got up at around 9am, I didn't even hear the alarm go off today. Did it go off? Sara says yes. So we slept in, then had to pack our bags as we had to move rooms again, this time upstairs. After that we headed off to breakfast. Cheese crossiants, and fruit. We keep getting this green sorta cantalope tasting thing that isn't very good, but we eat the banana, watermelon, and the very delicious but painful to the sore on the inside of my lip pineapple. After that we did the great money trick. The money trick is where we take kip out of the bank machine then walk 2 blocks up the street to the fairest money exchanger where we change to kip to US dollars. The dollars we use to pay for the hotel which charges in dollars and gives a terrible rate for kip. It really doesn't take all that long, but it is a little annoying. Basically anything here over $20 is told in dollars as to not scare away the purchaser. As $20 dollars sounds much smaller than 173000 kip. After that we headed south to the silver smith recommended in the travel book. Normally I wouldn't go out of my way for such a place however they said the princess of Thailand made sure on her trip to here to visit the shop. So we went in, the place looked like any shop, except for the business cards showing the past patrons, the embassador of Mexico, the US secretary embassador, and a bunch of big corporation CEOs and regional head managers. We looked around, saw some things we liked, but decided to check out another shop we saw in the lane before, before we bought. The other shop, was the same looking, and we ended up getting a very nice elephant ring for Sara, after waiting a long time for service. We're just standing in the living room of someone's house, with the kids watching tv, looking at silver, with no assistance for a long time. Then we went back to the first store to get a really nice bracelet, the old woman in the shop did not budge a penny on her price. I guess when you are buying one bracelet and are use to dealing with some big wigs, prices don't move. The thing was nice, and the price affordable, so we walked away with it.
We then went through a temple to another market, looking for artwork. There was no artwork to be found, and the place was set up for Thai or Chinese tour groups as well as locals (hardware stores etc.) We did end up finding birdies to replace the birdies Sara had earlier lost. After that we walked back towards the really touristy part of town, stopping in a number of boutiques on the way. They call them boutiques, not that they are really any different from the boutique next door, but the quality is higher than in the markets, but the price is also ten fold higher.
We walked back and since we had a late start decided to check out the old royal palace, now museum before going for lunch. The palace was like any other palace, with meeting rooms, throne rooms, bedrooms, etc. It wasn't overly large or over-the-top like one has seen in St. Petersburg to say. The place was rebuilt in the 1930's about and then renovated in the 1960's before the monarch was finally ousted at the end of the second Indo-China war.
After that we had an only sorta okay lunch, and watched part of a terrible HBO movie with the owner. (In english with Lao subtitles.) We thought about heading off to see the remaining Wats on the list, but Sara was tired, and I wasn't full of energy so happily agreed to have a relaxing afternoon, (from 3pm-6pm). On the way back to the hotel we located the kids who were missing their original birdie and replaced it with three new ones (good ones with real feathers), which they were very happy to recieve. I relaxed by starting the "Life of PI" and Sara read too before falling asleep.
At a bit after 6pm we headed for the market. The kids where in the street trying to retrieve one of the birdies from a tree. Good thing we got them 3 replacements. We hit the market hard, but fizzled out after spending a bunch of money, making it only halfway through, but crossing a number of items off our list. We were bargining over a coconut wood serving dish with this woman, who child was having a temper-tantrum. Sara was not impressed, and I think that is when she decided she had had enough for the day. I was trying to get the best price, (Sara: the kid was screaming his cute little head off for like 30 minutes and the mom was trying to bargin and calm him down... i just said pay whatever so she can tend to her child!). It is what she said. We do have to return to the market at least one more time, but we're almost done, I think....but just when you think your done you see something else... Anyways, we gave up before crossing everything off our list, and went for dinner. Sara had Pasta, Tyson fried beef in ginger and rice.
Tomorrow we are going to go up to the buddha caves, and maybe to a waterfall.(Sara: the water is not exactly pretty right now since it is rainy season and flowing fast and is high it is not sparkling blue but dark chocolate mud colour... makes swimming seem unappealing unfortunantly).
Tyson and Sara
Friday, August 1, 2008
We would now like to add "Class E" to our drivers license please.
PAI PAI!!! (Go, Go).
Those are the famous words of a Mahout driver. Today we got up and suddenly it was my birthday.. wierd? I showered to the song of the beetles in my head "They say its your birthday.. daaadadd addda happy birthday". We went to the bakery and mixed it up a little got a cheese croissont and no fruit (the watermelon is going out of season and the last bowl we had wasn't that great... pineapple is still amazing though).
After that we went to the place where we were going to get picked up to be taken to elephant camp. WAAAAAAAAAAAAY cooler than band camp. It was a bumpy ride, and a full mini van full (literally the guides were sitting on wicker baskets and there was not any seats missing). It was about 30 minutes to the elephant base camp. When we got there we were taken to a bungalow to change into our mahout suites.. really classy... not! Anyways they were funny and we all looked ridiculous in them (there was us, a couple from the UK, and a couple from Holland) We had to wait about 15 minutes for the morning tour to finish riding the elephants and then we got our turn. I was really excited, and elephants are MASSIVE.. but i think there cute, and ours weren't that smelly. Although they do take VERY long pees and well you can think of what else big they do... they also fart loud. But still cute in a wierd way. Elephants are also very bristly and not soft, not that i thought they would be like i did a Panda. (tyson: just because you think everything should feel like a teddy bear, well now you know a panda, and an elephant aren't soft and cuddley)
From there on we went for an hour and a half jungle ride on the benchs while our driver drove us around. The jungle was hot, and there was really big spiders and they were gross. About 3/4 of the way into our walk the driver asked if we wanted to switch and of course i said yes. It was cool and i wasn't afraid at all. The elephant was pretty easy going but i didn't enjoy when the guide would attempt or did smack her with a branch when she misbehaved (misbehaved being she wanted to eat the branches off the trees.. i was ok with that) When Tyson got to drive the guide was going to smack the elephant again but i grabbed the stick from him and said no... he just lauged and put it down. But i really hope they are nice to them. Who really knows... I gave the elephant who's name was (Bouy yang) a head massage for the most part.
After our walk we fed our elephant some bananas and then we ourselves had lunch. After lunch we got our elephant training course. Basically a list of 10 commands to drive an elephant. Go, move right, move left, stop, no!, lay down, get up, turn around, take this, spray water. We practiced on eachother quizzing eachother but really when it was time to drive our elephants ourselves (with the guide in the back) we forgot everything but PAI!!! PAI!!! go, go. (tyson: you could also tell the elephant to go left or right by using your feet behind the ear opposite to the direction you wanted it to turn, that's how I turned my elephant) I also did that too but in a gentle way. Anyways we drove our elephants for about 20 minutes. Then came back and had much waiting time which was the only bad part. We basically walked through a village that took 4 minutes and then took a boat to the other side where the lodges were and sat there for about 1.5 hours at least. We eventually fell asleep and then it was time to finally bath our elephants.
I had a hard time getting on my elephant when it was lying down, but eventually made it. The bathing was a little bit disappointing we didn't get to scrub them, just splash water all over them and get them to splash other people for a bit, but then we went for another ride to the jungle to put the elephants to bed. I think i could use an elephant i think i would be a good Mahout! (tyson: i don't know if it was just because the river was really high that we didn't get off and scrub, or what. The walk through the jungle was really cool, as we walked along a stream with the water up to the elephant's neck. It was really pretty, but I didn't have my camera.)
Once we took the elephant to rest we got changed and waited about 15 minutes for the bus to take us back to town. Overall it was a good day. An experience I won't forget especially on your birthday, not many people can say they rode an elephant on thier birthday (and Franko this isn't a lie... I really did ride an elephant unlike you getting bitten by a shark).
When we got into town we were hungrier than hippos.. haha i am so funny, but really hungry. We went back to the guesthouse to change into our evening wear (basically misquitoe wear) and had to grab the malaria pills. We went for pizza again (I know I know im in Laos eating pizza but its my birthday and i like pizza so leave me alone! we had spring rolls too!!!) (Tyson: good thing everyday isn't her birthday, jk....) We then went searching for cake. We found dessert pastries instead in a quite bakery and it was good, we had a debate rather travelling was good or bad for a country.. wasn't really a debate but a discussion. Sometimes we feel bad for trying to experience a culture and record it in our memories and our film... maybe we feel this way because it is sooo touristy here, compared to our last wild adventure. At the same time it is still easy and relaxing and so its a toss up.
Anyways that was the day in a nut shell. Pretty fun all and all. Tomorrow not sure what the agenda is, maybe a slow boat up the mekong for the day, or just kick it around here and see some more wats. We only have 3 days left in Laos before heading back to Bangkok before flying home. It feels really strange not thinking this is for 4 months but only three weeks.
Talk to you later!
Sara and Tyson
Those are the famous words of a Mahout driver. Today we got up and suddenly it was my birthday.. wierd? I showered to the song of the beetles in my head "They say its your birthday.. daaadadd addda happy birthday". We went to the bakery and mixed it up a little got a cheese croissont and no fruit (the watermelon is going out of season and the last bowl we had wasn't that great... pineapple is still amazing though).
After that we went to the place where we were going to get picked up to be taken to elephant camp. WAAAAAAAAAAAAY cooler than band camp. It was a bumpy ride, and a full mini van full (literally the guides were sitting on wicker baskets and there was not any seats missing). It was about 30 minutes to the elephant base camp. When we got there we were taken to a bungalow to change into our mahout suites.. really classy... not! Anyways they were funny and we all looked ridiculous in them (there was us, a couple from the UK, and a couple from Holland) We had to wait about 15 minutes for the morning tour to finish riding the elephants and then we got our turn. I was really excited, and elephants are MASSIVE.. but i think there cute, and ours weren't that smelly. Although they do take VERY long pees and well you can think of what else big they do... they also fart loud. But still cute in a wierd way. Elephants are also very bristly and not soft, not that i thought they would be like i did a Panda. (tyson: just because you think everything should feel like a teddy bear, well now you know a panda, and an elephant aren't soft and cuddley)
From there on we went for an hour and a half jungle ride on the benchs while our driver drove us around. The jungle was hot, and there was really big spiders and they were gross. About 3/4 of the way into our walk the driver asked if we wanted to switch and of course i said yes. It was cool and i wasn't afraid at all. The elephant was pretty easy going but i didn't enjoy when the guide would attempt or did smack her with a branch when she misbehaved (misbehaved being she wanted to eat the branches off the trees.. i was ok with that) When Tyson got to drive the guide was going to smack the elephant again but i grabbed the stick from him and said no... he just lauged and put it down. But i really hope they are nice to them. Who really knows... I gave the elephant who's name was (Bouy yang) a head massage for the most part.
After our walk we fed our elephant some bananas and then we ourselves had lunch. After lunch we got our elephant training course. Basically a list of 10 commands to drive an elephant. Go, move right, move left, stop, no!, lay down, get up, turn around, take this, spray water. We practiced on eachother quizzing eachother but really when it was time to drive our elephants ourselves (with the guide in the back) we forgot everything but PAI!!! PAI!!! go, go. (tyson: you could also tell the elephant to go left or right by using your feet behind the ear opposite to the direction you wanted it to turn, that's how I turned my elephant) I also did that too but in a gentle way. Anyways we drove our elephants for about 20 minutes. Then came back and had much waiting time which was the only bad part. We basically walked through a village that took 4 minutes and then took a boat to the other side where the lodges were and sat there for about 1.5 hours at least. We eventually fell asleep and then it was time to finally bath our elephants.
I had a hard time getting on my elephant when it was lying down, but eventually made it. The bathing was a little bit disappointing we didn't get to scrub them, just splash water all over them and get them to splash other people for a bit, but then we went for another ride to the jungle to put the elephants to bed. I think i could use an elephant i think i would be a good Mahout! (tyson: i don't know if it was just because the river was really high that we didn't get off and scrub, or what. The walk through the jungle was really cool, as we walked along a stream with the water up to the elephant's neck. It was really pretty, but I didn't have my camera.)
Once we took the elephant to rest we got changed and waited about 15 minutes for the bus to take us back to town. Overall it was a good day. An experience I won't forget especially on your birthday, not many people can say they rode an elephant on thier birthday (and Franko this isn't a lie... I really did ride an elephant unlike you getting bitten by a shark).
When we got into town we were hungrier than hippos.. haha i am so funny, but really hungry. We went back to the guesthouse to change into our evening wear (basically misquitoe wear) and had to grab the malaria pills. We went for pizza again (I know I know im in Laos eating pizza but its my birthday and i like pizza so leave me alone! we had spring rolls too!!!) (Tyson: good thing everyday isn't her birthday, jk....) We then went searching for cake. We found dessert pastries instead in a quite bakery and it was good, we had a debate rather travelling was good or bad for a country.. wasn't really a debate but a discussion. Sometimes we feel bad for trying to experience a culture and record it in our memories and our film... maybe we feel this way because it is sooo touristy here, compared to our last wild adventure. At the same time it is still easy and relaxing and so its a toss up.
Anyways that was the day in a nut shell. Pretty fun all and all. Tomorrow not sure what the agenda is, maybe a slow boat up the mekong for the day, or just kick it around here and see some more wats. We only have 3 days left in Laos before heading back to Bangkok before flying home. It feels really strange not thinking this is for 4 months but only three weeks.
Talk to you later!
Sara and Tyson
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