Is back where it all started.

Well we are back in Seoul. The flight was sad, but Kelly slept through most of it! Our first flight was cancelled and we were bumped back to a much later flight. The airport dude was great and gave us first pick of seating, upon his asking I eagerly shouted out FIRST CLASS. Well we didn't get first class, but our seats sure felt like first class of the economy section. We had leg room to die for! We left in the darkness and flew towards the sun. I think we might be severely jet lagged when we get home. We left at 1 in the morning on Saturday, flew for 4 1/2 hours and arrived at 9:30 am here, we leave at 6:30pm and fly for 10 hours and arrive at 12:30pm still on Saturday. Crazy time tubes these planes are.
So were sad, but eager to finally remove this band aid that has been upon us for the last three weeks. This trip was amazing, we're sure you all know that by now. And its weird cause it felt like its gone very fast, but our nights in Pai or seeing Koh Phi Phi seem like forever ago. Can't escape it and we did move, so going home still holds a large amount of excitement, probably two weeks worth! Well with the new baby maybe a month!

We never got to write about Cambodia. So I'll let Kelly do it!

Cambodia was good but not our favorite place we'd been. In saying that it was probably the most eye opening place we'd been. We started in Siem Riep where we went to Angkor Wat. It was pretty amazing! Of course, true to ourselves we went at the hottest time of day which was a mistake!!! Once we got there we decided to pay a little extra and get a tour guide for the temple of Angkor Wat itselft..which proved to be worth it. He brought us through the temple and explained everything in great detail. It was here that we also got to see a bridal party having their wedding pictures done. Pretty cool place for pictures. The brides in Cambodia do not wear white dresses but instead very beautiful colored dresses. This bride wore a beautiful yellow...it was neat to see! The history of the temple was pretty interesting and we took tones of pictures. From there we toured a few others temples and went on a hot air balloon ride. The balloon actually stayed attached to the ground but it went up pretty high and we got an awesome aireal view of the whole area! Some people spend up to a week looking at all the temples but after that day we knew we were done. We asked our tuk tuk driver to bring us to one last temple where you can watch the sunset. Despite the hundreds of people that were there it was a pretty neat way to finish off!!! We did alot of shopping in Siem Riep and in the middle of one of the markets was a fish massage place. You sit around this massive tank and dip you feet in. There are millions of fish inside that come up and nibble all the dead skin off you feet. Dean went for it and after a few minutes of pure laughter because of the tickling he sat back and enjoyed for 30 min! In the end his feet were baby smooth! We didn't have a camera with us but we wished we had gotten a picture of it.

From Siem Reip we decided to go to Shianouk ville......in other words...the beach! We spent 5 days there! Relaxing at our super low key bungalow guesthouse. We had the best bungalow at the place. It over looked to the ocean perfectly and we slept with the door open so we could let the waves put us to sleep! The place was owned by a german lady and she had 9 staff. By the time we left we felt like we were part of the family! It rained every afternoon here and we passed the time playing scrabble of all things...by the end we were getting pretty good...so good we were surprising ourselves!! The only bad part of this place was the huge and I mean huge amount of begging and selling of local goods! You couldn't even enjoy a dinner or a walk on the beach without being bombarded with people wanting money! The saddest part was that the majority of people were kids....little kids 7-12 years old. It was so hard to say no and we ended up buying alot of friendship bracelets. We felt bad because it got to the point where you were almost 'shooing' away the people...like they were annoying animals. It was not an experience that we enjoyed but it was definetly an eye opener!!

From there we went to Phenom Phen. This was the main place that I wanted to go to in Cambodia. Although now it is a very busy city....so busy you risk you life just to cross the street. Only 30 years ago it was being cleared out completly and was preparing for a genocide!!! It was here that we visited the Killing Fields and the Genocide Museum S21! I could go into great detail on the horrible things we saw here but I won't. After a day seeing what we saw there is not much room left for feeling good about much. It was so crazy to know and see first hand all horrible and inhuman things that happened only a short time ago... It was eye opening and as weird as it sounds will probably be one of the things that leaves the biggest impact on us!! In saying that, it was here that we sauntered into a pub across from our guesthouse and met a guy from Ireland who had been living there for 6 months and a local girl our age. The pub had a pool table that was free and Dean was in his glory. Together with our 2 new friends, the 3 of them were unstoppable for not one but 3 nights in a row!!! They ruled the table!! The girl we met, Davy, also brought us bowling (which I did join in on) and to a local restaurant where we had some of the best beef that we'd had on this trip!!

When we left Cambodia we were so glad that we had gone but were ready to move on. Of course though, who wouldn't be when you next destination is Bali!!!!!!!!! Dean already wrote about that and to say the least it was awesome! I wish we had more time there especially since our last day was spent in our overly priced hotel room! I'm still sick and ended up spending the night in the hospital in Bangkok but I think I might be starting to get better! Extremly dizzy and don't know why! I never thought I'd say this but I'm looking forward to going to the doctor when get home!!'

So that is it!! Time to go board our flight!!! We will post pictures on facebook when we get home and try and put a few more on here as well!! 3 months is done just like that! We never could have prepared ourselves for this trip! It went beyond our expectations. We met some great people and made new friends. We learned alot about ourselves, eachother (lol), our hopes and desires and dreams and of course 4 other countries!!!!! 4 countries that although were soooo different.....in the end had so many of the same qualities of home! We are looking forward to home....well we don't really have a home anymore!! But true to the saying....'Home is where the heart is" and this we now know to be true!!

Thanks to everyone who followed along with us! This is our last blog....of course....until the next trip..........

end of transmission

Bali must equal beautiful or cheap shirt.. one of the two, cause that is all I see and hear. For anyone who has been here, we are in Kuta Beach. Its very busy here and the roads are the size of sidewalks filled with people, scooters, vans and shop keeps. The beach is very large and boast a very nice pipeline for all levels of surfers. Like in Koh Tao with divers, everyone here is learning to surf. We arrived in the heat of mid afternoon and had no clue where we were heading. The taxi dropped us off from the airport and we began our searching for low budget accommodation. I do believe Bali has accommodation for all levels, from 10 to 1500 US a night. The first place we came across was a little out of the price range for a full week of staying, so we moved on. The next one was much cheaper plus it came with a wide range of mold for your likings all over the walls, and so , one after the next, they all had mold. Now this is nothing new for us pretty much everywhere we've gone we've had mold, but mostly in the bathrooms, here it was everywhere. The fifth place we found was only a couple years old, it was beautiful outside and had a large pool. Of course it had some black mold, but we were to tired to continue searching. We dropped our bags and had a new home. From there we wondered the streets and found Pizza Hut...mmmmmm!!! That was 6 Days ago, and now were leaving tomorrow, hopefully. So time to get you caught up. Since our arrival we have climbed a live volcano in the middle of the night via flashlights to watch the sun rise. WOW, it was amazing. We were told we're lucky cause there were no clouds blocking the view, we even had monkeys show up to watch and hope we feed them some of our breakfast. It was a highlight of the trip, of course. From there we walked around on the volcano. Its last blast was only ten years ago, when spued dirt and ash for a year. Our guides we great up until they tried to scam the five of us, telling us we need to pay more to go a different way back which was the way we were supposed to go, we all said no, we're not paying, we'll go back down the way we came and then in a split decision between the two guides, they said..okay we'll go this way, just don't tell our bosses we're not supposed to, our secret. We were all chocked and they lost our respect and tips. The mountain was beautiful and we still really enjoyed ourselves. From there our tour took us to this amazing outdoor hot spring, it was just what the body needed. And from there, we went for lunch at a buffet over looking the Volcano. Then from there to a spice/coffee garden where we saw the " great shit" coffee. Huhhh?? is what your saying, but if you have seen the Bucket List, then your memory is starting to come clearer. In Indonesia they have a type of coffee that they wait for an animal to digest the beans and then they take out the beans and roast and brew. It wasn't on the menu, but two of the animals were caged there! Great Shit Coffee, as they call it. ( I'm sorry I'm rushing this, you'll find out as you read further down) Then a monkey forest, and a beautiful rice Field view. Bali is a beautiful place from what we've seen so far, we are wishing we could keep traveling so we could see more of Indonesia. But at the same time, we are getting sick and tired of being sick and tired. Since arriving here, I thought I was jet lagged, body aches and really, really low energy levels, plus my stomach has been a bit off. Climbing the volcano was one of the toughest things I have ever done with not allowing myself to give up. I fell back after almost every step. I almost didn't make it, but then the guide said only ten more minutes and nobody but Kelly knew I was struggling. When we got back to the room Kelly slept and I got feverish. Kelly awoke and said she has had enough and took me to a docter. The docter ruled out the swine but was thinking maybe den gay fever. She did some tests and thinks it might just a be a flu or dehydration. I had my own theories, it was only since staying in the moldy room that had no air cirrculation and was only ten feet from the pool, I figured it was the room. We moved hotels and are now at the expensive one I first told you about :) I feel fine now, appetite is back and energy levels are great. This is me and now onto Kelly. Yesterday we para glided off a cliff and over a beach. It was amazing! So care free and at ease. Unfortunately your brain doesn't register it at the time, but its really like being on a roller coaster, you gain altitude and loose it just as fast. I went first and Kelly second. I felt like throwing up but thought it was just my illness. Kelly went next and she said that she had to repress it as well... after that we had a nice enjoyable dinner at Bubba Gump Restaruant like out of Forest Gump. It was a really cool place and the staff was super fun. After dinner unfortunately Kelly started to feel dizzy, we didn't think much of it, but when we got back to our room she started to feel spinney, which is totally different from dizzy.. Spinney is when you have had way to much to drink and your laying on your bed trying to go to sleep and your entire body is going round and round and round every which direction. Vertigo!! She is in the hotel right now laying in bed dealing with it. A full night and full day of it now, i feel so sorry for her. I went to the docter and got some meds for her, they help, but she is only allowed three a day. And after three hours they wear off, and we fly to Bangkok tomorrow morning! We have lots to say and more to tell you guys..but I want to get back to the room and be with her, she needs help just to get out of bed and go to the washroom.

So we have two full days in Bangkok and then off to the airport on friday. I can't believe how fast time has gone.
We are really capable of doing extraordinary things everday and we are living proof. Climbing a volcano in the middle of the night to para gliding the next day. What is something around you that is interesting you, that you only keep in the back of your mind. Right it down, research it, and most of all.. book it! Cause as we have found out, that is the only "hard" part!! Life is truely apreciated when your living it! Cheers for now, much love Dean.

Tick Tock Tick Tock

The days are numbered and the plans have been made. We are taking this time now to tell everyone that we are not coming home. We have booked a flight to Australia and are going to spend some time making some money so we can keep traveling. After Australia we are going to India for several months and then we might think about returning to Canada. Oh hum, wishful thinking I might say. I know we can do whatever we want, but traveling has installed somethings into us that we feel like we need in Canada, like a home to call our own. A place for all our possessions and our own piece of mind. Plus we moved, so it'll feel like we are still traveling. Can't wait to hit the distant travelling road again, its just this road stops three weeks from now. Now I know that your thinking three weeks is still a long time, but let me tell you, it feels like we could wake up tomorrow and be heading home. Time disappears when your traveling, days and numbers just vanish away into the hot sunny days and cool air conditioned nights. Well anyways, time to get you up to date on our travels.

Laos, we spent about two and a half weeks in Laos. Absolutely loved it. We last posted from the stupid highly avoidable party town of Vang Veing. From there we back tracked and headed back north to Phonsovon, a town that was bombed to pieces during U.S secret war. It was there we had our first experience with begging. I went out for some snacks and had 4 kids follow me, pulling my shirt and trying to ask me to buy them food. We had travelled for two months and that was the first time. (Just a tid bit of a mental note for all you travel avoiding junkies, its really been easy and very safe) Anyways, we walked the town and found nothing of interest. I did however get a haircut in some wooden shack, it cost me one whole dollar or about 10 000 kip. We believe that I was the first white persons hair he had ever cut. He was very excited and did a great job. When my hair hit the floor it blended in with all the other black hair on the floor like I was just another regular customer. So we took a day trip the next day and went to see three sights of the Plain of Jars, no one knows how old they are or what they may have been used for. They were pretty cool and the area around them had seen some intense battles when the Americans dropped of 3 million pounds of bombs in the one provence and something in the trillions through out the entire eastern boarder between Laos and Vietnam. One third of all bombs did not detonate upon impact leaving the country highly unmanageable and village kids digging the live bombs up for money from the scrap metal on the black market. At the first sight of the plain of jars there were large bomb craters and many trench holes dug out for the battles. The grass has grown in and over, but you can still see the sights and if you put your ear to the wind you can still hear the sounds of the bombs going off, or maybe that was my stomach has it had been a long day so far :) So three sights in all and one "Russian Tiger Tank", (well the frame off it) and that was our day. Oh ya, "whiskey village" we stopped in a village home and were witness to Lao Lao being made. Our strongest yet.

We left Phonsovon the next day and then were off to capital city Vientiane. The bus ride was long (13hrs) and very uncomfortable with no fans or a/c, just Kelly drugged out on gravol and others being sick in plastic bags. The bus was so full, people were sitting on plastic chairs in the isle. We got off the bus and flukly ran into our new/old friend, Kelly and my adopted son/single traveller friend Greg, whom we had met on the slow boat ages ago. Any who, he was staying at some dive and the capital was expensive, so we spent a day and visited some sites and then booked a night bus to a place called 4000 islands, southern Laos.

It was love at first sight. About fours years ago the islands only had 9000 visitors a year and now just a little over 200 000 a year. Laying in a hammock and bicycling around the island was how we spent our days, mainly the hammocks. We decided one day to cycle out to where you can catch a boat to see some near extinct river dolphins. What a great time it was, maybe if we had left at 9 in the morning and not three in the afternoon it would have been a different day. The signs said only three kilometers, but somehow I think the measuring tape was a little off, maybe a whole heck of a lot off. We rented a boat when we got there and with only two hours of sun light left we spent one of them out on the boat waiting to see dolphins. We were rewarded by seeing them several times, we considered that lucky cause quite often nobody sees them. When we got back to shore it was a Lance Armstrong dash back across two islands to get back home. We got about a half hour down the path before the sun went down, we would have gotten a lot further but Greg's bike was a large P.O.S and he was struggling and very close to giving up. With Kelly's motherly encouraging and my fatherly anger we manged to push forward into the darkness until it was too dark, or until Kelly rod her bike right into a water buffalo that was crossing the path thus causing a chain reaction of me hitting the breaks and Greg falling into the ditch, tre funny. Either way, it was time to walk. With lightening lighting up the path we somehow thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. And when the rain came and hard it was, we found shelter in some empty farmers hut that I was able to spot only due to the lightning. We stayed for about twenty mins and then said screw it and got drenched for our next hour and a half walk back home. I forgot to mention that our island only had power from 6-9pm in some areas, only powered by a generators. Its very dark at night when the moon was behind clouds. We stayed about four days and then disembarked to Cambodia. We wish that we could have stayed longer, as it has been in the top three so far on this trip. Laos has been our favorite place, the people were very friendly and always smiling. We regret not having more time to spend there.


Cambodia has slowly grown on us, it started off bad, smelling of burning garbage everywhere and had a feel of maybe India. Cambodia's past has made this place a very interesting history lesson. With the genocide only thirty years ago and a entire generation lost things are different here. Yesterday we taxied it out to Angkor Wat, it cost 20 U.S dollars a person/per day to go into the park. We met a tour guide at the front door of Angkor Wat and the next three hours were spent in awe of the magical temple. Angkor Wat is about 2 sq. kms with a large moat built around the entire place. It was built back in the 11 hundreds as a place of worship and a tomb for the King. It was stunning and the area around has several other sites that can be visited and climbed on :) We spent the whole day and watched the sunset upon a hill top temple. It was awesome. We even took a tethered hot air balloon high into the air to get birds eye view of it all. Well I'm getting eaten alive and my patients for typing on a keyboard with no lettering and sticky keys has run out. Time to relax some more :) such a tough life!

On a side note, Kelly wants to inform that Cambodia's bathrooms, sorry toilets have been very clean and she is very happy about that.
We would love to post pictures, but have already lost three hundred pictures due to getting viruses when we upload. Can't risk it anymore. We'll do it all when we get home.

To Laos and beyond...

Sabadee....

Well we finally did it and made the move to leave Thailand. We left Pai at 8pm on a mini bus that was cramped and headed back on the 762 turn road. We counted ourselves lucky because only 2 people on the bus got sick! We arrived in some town (we still actually have no idea where it was or what it was called) at 3:30am. Our ticket included a room for that night which was good....but bad cause the beds sucked! Fortunetly we were to tired to care and we were woken up at 7:30am to make our way to the border. We were told that our visa to enter Laos would cost $35US. When we got to the border we had to convert our baht into US (we got ripped off on the conversion....losing about 250 baht) and then we had to pay $42 to get the visa. It cost Canadians the most out of any country in the world to get into Laos....the next expensive was Afghanistan!?!?!? If that wasn't enough, getting the visa and going through immigration was even worse! There was no order...just mass confusion....100's of people pushing and shoving! Once we got through that we were piled onto Tuk Tuks and then dropped off at a shop where everyone was forced to give over there passport. (Once you start travelling your passport becomes your most valuable possession next to your camera and memory cards) After about 30 minutes it was explained that they wanted to go through everyone's passport just to make sure we had all the right stamps and to save us from having to pay when we leave Laos because we missed something. There method of returning our passports was throwing them on a table as a free for all to dig through to find your own. Lucky for me Dean is a big guy who can push through a crowd.....only one guy seemed to have lost his which was good considering there were so many of us!

After all that we boarded a boat to float down the Mekong River! It was very uncomfortable. There were small wooden seats (we bought pillows to sit on at the border...yet another scam to get more money out of falang...foreigners) and we were squished! This was to be our home for the next two days! The night in between the two days was interesting! We docked at this very very small village and got a room for 150 baht (about 4 dollars ) It had a fan and hot water...which turned out to actually be scolding and you couldn't stand under it...but still it was a room with hot water! We ate at an awesome Indian restaurant and had one of the best meals that we've had this whole trip! At 10pm the power goes out in the village! Thankfully, we had bought a flashlight for our trek! Unfortunately, I dropped it about 3 minutes after the power went out and it broke. Luckily, a guy who was rooming beside us came to our rescue and we went and bought some candles and a lighter and then proceeded to have a beer at the pub down the street! We boarded the boat the next morning at 9 am to finish our trip with the remaining 10 hours of our trip! The boat ended up being different and the seats were worse (most people moved there seats and ended up on the floor within an hour) Despite the crowding and super sore butts the trip was one of the best we had yet! The river was absolutely gorgeous! We floated by many villages with little kids swimming and men fishing! This is where we experienced the beginning of Laos being such a welcoming country! The kids and adults couldn't wait to smile and wave. In fact the little kids would race down from the village just to wave and smile at us! It was awesome!!!! Being stuck on a boat with the same people was a great way to get to know others! In fact, we are still travelling with a lot of those same people!

We finally arrived in Luang Prabang, Laos!! It has been one of my favorite places so far! It is a very beautiful city that still has many visible signs of the french era. One of which includes fresh bread...fresh baguettes....and nice pastry shops!!! It is a communist country...but there are not really any visible signs! You cannot rent a scooter here because there has been to many accidents with foreigners but you can rent peddle bikes. We were going to do this but I'm not sure what happened.....we ended up walking everywhere and sweating more that any one should!

We woke up at 5am one morning to see the locals give alms to the monks. The local people give rice and sometime meat to the monks in the morning (this will be the monks only food for the day) and in return it is suppose to be a sort of good luck for them! Foreigners do not partake in the event but are allowed to watch from a distance. It was a very neat thing to experience! Since we were awake at that god awful time we decided to go to the local morning market! It is not recommended for people with weak stomachs. We saw iguana's tied up and ready for slaughter, live frogs being skeward, dead skinned baby chickens...and the worst was a baby owl just waiting to meet it's doom. We were going to buy it just to release it but then we didn't...I'm not sure why?! As disturbed as we were to see all this we reminded ourselves that this is their way of life and it is not our place to say it is wrong!!

There is also a curfew in Luang Prabang at 12pm. Everything shuts down and you are suppose to be in your room. Somehow though they have found a way around this. They have opened a bowling alley where all the tourists go to continue drinking. Dean ended up going with some people and had a great time! The other most prominent thing here is the illegal sale of marijuana and opium. Pretty much every tuk tuk driver will try and sell it to you and if they don't the next person on the street you see will.

We also spent a day at a huge waterfall....and yes it had water! It had beautiful teal water and many different pools to swim in. You could jump off one fall and there was a rope swing as well. We were with a guy who had much practice on the rope swing and could do flips and crazy things! Dean tried following him and his backflip turned into a back flop. He had a bruise on his back by the time he swam to shore! It was not pretty but he got a nice applause from everyone on the bank! Unfortunetly, we think he may have hurt his sturnum.....we are hoping it is nothing to serious!

We left Luang Prabang after 4 days and headed south on a mini bus to Vang Viegn. It is kinda like the Kohsan Road of Thailand or the Las Vegas of the states! The town is located on a river and along the river is a lot of bars. People pretty much come here to go tubing. You rent a tube and bar hope along the river!! Dean and I came here but we opted out of the tubing down the river and instead booked a tour. The tour took us tubing through a cave. It was fun but scary!! It was pitch black except for the headlamps that were attached...strangely enough to a battery..that we shared amongst every two people! From there we kayaked down the river and ended up in the bar area. We actually got to go over some rapids which was so fun! At the bar that we stopped at Dean went on a massive rope swing (this time all was good).....I mean massive...(we will post a picture) I was to scared to go but I got some good pictures of him! If you chose to do none of this stuff..you can get a "mushroom shake" to hold you over till you leave the town.......we're passing on the shake and just leaving! (considering drugs are sooo illegal you can really get them very easily!)

So that takes us to tomorrow. We are doing some back tracking and heading back up north to see the 'plain of jars" They are 100's of massive clay jars that no one really knows where they came from! Also, we will probably get to see some old war "stuff" The hills are covered in holes from the US bombing! Little did we know that the US dropped more bombs here than in Vietnam!! It should be interesting!

We will then head south again and eventually get to Cambodia! We are not going to Vietnam anymore. (yes I am sad about this) Instead we have opted to spend our last week in BALI on the beach!! It was fairly cheap to fly there and we figured....why not?!?!? Unfortunately, we are actually running out of days! Our trip is going to be done before we know it and we are kicking ourselves for not booking a longer trip! In saying that...we are enjoying the time that we have left....and can't wait to see what else is in store for us!

I guess that is is for now! The internet shop is closing! Hope all is well on the home front!! We will write again soon!

DEAN is telling you that he has lost ten pounds!

Pai in sky!

Greetings and Salutations!

Well we never made it Mae Hong Son, but that's fine cause we found its little offspring and have chosen to stay and take our time here in Pai.

Its hot, so we can't do much during the day, but that's fine cause there isn't much to do. It is a small place with a big heart. Many "hippies" come here relax and kick back with a wheat grass shot and shoot the sh@t. Our first night here was one for the books. We found a great place where bungalows covered the landscape. It was cheap (100 baht, which is under 4 dollars a night) and we thought, great we might be able to get our budget back on track. Inside the bungalow was a "mattress", mosquito net and a fan. The toilet and showers were shared with the other twenty or so bungalows. After relaxing for a bit we wondered through the town and found a quiet, little place for some dinner. I had spaghetti and Kelly a burger. We wandered some more then returned to our bungalow for some gin (cards that is!) I won of course! Kelly has yet to win in about 12 games :( its the cards people!! Any who, lights out and its bed time. Then it hit me, my stomach hurt something fierce, I layed there on our "boxspring for a mattress " for about two hours, Kelly would wake up and hear me moaning. Then that was it, out the front door I went and out my mouth it went! I believe I had food poisoning. For the next couple of days Kelly and I were not doing so well, it was hot out and we both were sick. It was about 38 in the shade (Christy, I'm not sure what that is for you, google it :)) We tried laying in the river to cool ourselves down, but again in a hour or so our core temperature was just to hot to feel good about anything. So we said enough is enough and rented a scooter to find a place with a/c. There isn't to many places here with A/C, lots of places though with a fan. We found a place that we loved, but unfortunately it was full. Back to our bunglaghetto for the night. The next day we tried again and success!! Conveniently with a PPPPPOOOL! Any who, now that we are staying at the Ritz we have new roommates. An all day alarm clock roosters, and because of this we have slept or walked in about 8 out of there 12 bungalows. Last night I found a crazy worm, cockroach and scorpion!!! in our bathroom. I offered my zest bar, but they refused to wash up. The beds and pillows are comfy and the staff is amazing! (I might have a couple love interests here, if things between Kelly and I deteriorate.. j/j, but I have noticed them talking and gawking at me. It is obvious, so I know that I am not making it up in my crazy little mind! )

Any who, back to Pai. It is a small town about 200 kms N.W of Chiang Mai. The drive here is 3 hours long, and like a ride at Disneyworld. In total I have been told, there is 762 curves. It didn't matter what your view was on your side, cause in three seconds it was on the other side. Luckily our driver wasn't part of the Red Neck Circuit (Nascar) out of the states and he drove rather slowly and cautiously. We have fallen in love with slow pace and relaxed atmosphere of Pai (pro. Pie) and like many others are finding it hard to leave this laid back scooter loving town.

About three days ago we booked our trek off into the jungle. (we came here to do a trek, much purer then the ones in Chiang Mai) We shopped around and found a great company that contributed a percentage to the tribe( Karon) that we visited rather then putting them up like a circus. Our trek began by boarding a local bus and heading out of town. The bus was JAMMED packed, only standing room and roof riding was left when we left Pai. We headed in the direction of Mae Hong Son and along the way picked up more and more people. On the bus I was able to get to know Christina the other person accompanying us on the trek, Kelly was shuffled to the front to stand the whole trip. The roads continued to be a roller coaster and luckily the journey was no longer then an hour. We got off in a little village just off the highway and to my surprise the guide and our new friend were road sick and needed to relieve themselves, leaving Kelly and I to gloat about how we were able to make it and not them. After a brief layover in the village we were off, accompanied by our new local Karon tribe guide. The five of us right away we were heading up, straight up a sun scorched, fire ridden hill side. It was hot and not a pleasant way to start. We thought we were entering hell. Luckily because one of our guides was sick (with a hangover) we were able to stop alot and enjoy the breeze and views. We were atop a mountain walking the ridge line for about three hours, it was awesome ( this mountain range is part of the Himalayans and stretches all the way to join with Mount EVEREST! ). Dom our Karen guide(who only attempted to speak broken english after a few shots of moonshine) led us a way no other groups had gone before us. It proved to be very difficult descending so they made us walking sticks!! There were lots of slips but no crashes. We descended to a creek and along the way Dom was gathering supplies for our lunch. Jungle noodle soup. He made everything we needed out of bamboo!! It was awesome, we had bamboo cups, bowls and even bamboo chop sticks! The soup was delicious and was fallowed by.. you guessed it, bamboo tea!! We had a couple hours to relax along the creek. Where we found a "boxing insect" as Dom called it in his best of english. A praying mantis, it was cooool. Last time I saw one was when I was in Thailand twenty years ago! After a relaxing couple hours we were off. We followed along the river bed until we reached the tribes village. We were welcomed right away in our home for the night with tea and snacks. We met our hosts and their son and began more relaxing. Kelly and I went for a walk to see the village of about 70 people and found it to be very clean and organized. Each dog had a collar and tag saying it had received a Rabies Vac. Although we did turn down a wrong side path and was greeted by a un-happy pooch. Kelly and I just kept our heads down and returned "home". The families cat had just had kittens and one still remained out of the litter of two. It was super playful and quite a source of entertainment. Some locals came over to join in dinner and some of the home made moonshine. They then took over for the entertainment, man they drink! Dinner was great Kelly, Christina and I cooked it!! With a little help from Toil, our guide whom we met in Pai. Dinner was a very fresh chicken, I mean fresh.. wink wink!! We had the option to try the kill ourselves, but opted for the veteran to make the kill. We had Spicy Chicken Jungle soup, Curried potatoes with Chicken and some sort of Vegetable and of course rice. It was delicious and plentiful.

The next day we wondered the village for an hour and half way through had a pack of dogs who just loved to be with us. We then returned home to pack and take off. We headed for a waterfall and we were accompanied by one of the dogs we had met in the village. It was an easy valley floor hike. Through the bamboo forest and into the oak tree hill sides, it was beautiful. The areas that were clear cut were HOT, these areas are being turned into rice fields, the sad part is that they just burn everything, even the hundred year old trees! Fire is used by everyone out here, whether to cook, slash and burn or even to hunt! Dom had caught a iguana some days before and offered it to us for a snack. Kelly says, it was the best meat she had ever had. The iguanas are caught when they climb into a tree. The hunters lights the tree on fire and smoke them out. We arrived at the waterfall in about four hours and enjoyed a three hour rest. Dom and Toil made more soup from the foliage in the surrounding area and the rest of us swam. After lunch a hunter came by to check on one of his fishing traps. We couldn't believe our eyes at the sight of this old timer. You could spit threw him, he was so frail and lanky but was eager to finish off our lunch. We learnt he was from a near by Lisu tribe. Somehow he knew that we were trying to guess his age, cause then he made attempts to tell us. Turns out he was 70!!! He carried a home made gun that I was given the privilege to shoot!!

From there we headed back STRAIGHT UP!! This time it wasn't so easy as both our guides were making short work of it all. When all was said and done we made it to the top. It was a beautiful sight again. We walked for about two hours until we reached a Lisu tribe. This tribe was much different then the Karon tribe. It was a large tribe and they covered a lot of area. Unfortunately animals were not as taken care of as they were in Karon. We walked past three or four boys forcing chickens to attack each other, one boy had a knife roped into his fingers, we weren't sure what it was for. The livestock was everywhere and filthy, a pig was eating a large plastic bag that was with the rest of garbage everywhere! It made us very grateful for the experience we received at the other Karon village. Toil had a arranged a truck to take us all the way back to Pai! Kelly or as the Thai's pronounce, Kalli was very happy to jump in the back and not take another step. She has six blisters on one foot!

We are about to book a trip to Laos, so unfortunately this is it for now in Thailand! It has been a beautiful place with large diversity. From the warm clear oceans in the south filled with many islands, to the bustling cities and then all the way north to its large mountainous, jungle range. We're sad to leave, but know that Laos is very unique and going to be a great experience. Laos population is much ,much smaller and the original rain forests are still strong! So until next time, same bat channel, same bat time !!!

Love to all!!

Kelly and Dean of kellyanddean at blogspot!!

And it goes.....

Our trip is continuing onward and all is good. We had a great time in Phuket after our very very long ferry trip and multiple bus transfers. We were excited to take a night ferry because we were told that we got our own beds and we could sleep through the night to our next destination. Well...it was quite the experience. You climb onto the boat and it is 2 levels. Each level is about 5 feet high at the most. The bottom one is for staff and bags the top one is for passengers. (My shampoo, of all things, got stolen out of my bag sometime during the night) Once you get to the top you'll find your number and a mat...squished between complete strangers. Your mat is your bed. We've never slept so close to strangers. Dean said the girl beside him was snuggling up... somehow I think that's more of what he wanted than what really happened! :0) Unfortunately the night we sailed there was a storm....we thought we were sailing to our death!! We both took 2 gravols which was a great idea...I slept....Dean didn't really....maybe it was all the people puking out their windows that was keeping him awake!

Once we arrived in Phuket we left the city and headed for Kata beach. We trekked to our next home through the pouring rain. I slipped on the sidewalk and scratched up my knee...I'm hoping for a scar so that I will match Dean!! (Dean says there is no way I'll match him and he is probably right) We lucked out at our place of residence because we were in walking distance of 2 beaches. Kata beach which had deep water but was calm and had a sandy bottom. And Koron beach which had HUGE waves...but was equally as beautiful!! We spent time at each beach but Koron beach was our favorite. Dean body surfed and I drank a lot of sea water! It was fun!!!

We said goodbye to the beaches and left sunny southern Thailand 5 days ago. We decided to treat ourselves and booked a flight that should have only taken about 5 hours. We were actually very excited about flying after our many many long and boring bus and ferry trips. Unfortunately, the plane didn't turn out to be as good as expected. We got to the airport early (the guy who sold us our tickets told us it would take about 1 1/2 hours to get there it only took about 1/2 hour) after waiting almost 3 hours for the plane to leave we were informed it was delayed...which then turned into a cancellation. This sucked because we had a connecting flight in Bangkok. They eventually put us on another flight which got us into Bangkok after our next flight had boarded. Thankfully they held the plane. When we arrived in Chiang Mai our bags had not. They were on a later flight that night due to the fact that there wasn't enough time to transfer them when we transferred. Sure enough the airline delivered them to our guesthouse later that night.....THANKFULLY!

When we arrived in Chiang Mai it was the New Year celebration. (It had started the night before we left Phuket but it was so much better when we got here. The kids in the picture were from Phuket and it doesn't do justice to what it was like here) They celebrate by having a massive water fight. It is actually hard to describe. There were well over 200 thousand people here participating. Picture the Red Mile in Calgary but 10 times as long...and with lots of vehicles on it! The nice part about celebrating in Chiang Mai is, that where we are, there is a huge moat (sp?) that runs along the road...endless water. The sidewalks are full of people scooping water from the moat (which is kinda dirty but after you see so many people swimming in it you get over it) The street is filled with pick up trucks, filled with people and giant tubs of ice water. You basically hit everyone and everything that you can. (Trying to avoid the ice water...it is bitterly cold) Everyone participates, young and old, and everyone laughs and smiles. It was so nice to see EVERYONE having good clean fun. We bought a huge water gun for Dean. He had so much fun with it. (Somehow though it broke on the second day..too bad) I just walked along having buckets poured on top of me. Everyone wears clothes no bathing suits so your clothes just hang off of you dripping wet..... You even get your face painted with this white paint by people walking by. (Still not sure what the significance of the paint was) Unfortunately, my favorite waterproof camera died in Phuket (I guess they are not made for being tossled around in massive waves...thankfully the memory card survived so we didn't lose over 600 pictures) So we splurged and bought a disposable waterproof camera...we can't wait to see if the pictures turned out!

Yesterday we did a Thai cooking class. There was only 3 of us and it would have been much more fun if the lady teaching us would have smiled once in a while...or at least pretended to be happy to have us there. Needless to say, the 3 of us made it fun and we made over 18 dishes all together! It was a lot of food and most of it was pretty good. We even got a cook book at the end which was nice.

Today we did "Flight of the Gibbon" It was a giant zipline course through the forest and was soooooooooo fun!!!!!!!!!!!! Unlike the cooking course, our guides on this were fabulous and we had a great time!! There were 2 kms of zipline, 18 platforms and 2 descents down massive old growth trees!! Although it was expensive (we shopped around a lot and ended up getting a cheaper price than most) and we had to get up super early (5:45 am..we haven't seen that time of day since....well a long time ago) we would recommend it to everyone!!!

Tomorrow we leave for Mae Song Ton. (not to sure of the spelling) We are going to take a bus and spend a few days there doing some trekking to local hill tribes. You can do it here but we have heard it is worth spending the money for a cheap bus ticket and a day of travel to go there. Less tourists and more authentic areas to see!

Time is starting to go quicker now and we are starting to realize that our time travelling is going to be over sooner than we'd like. There is still so much we want to see..Cambodia (although we hear you can see the main stuff in a week or 2) Vietnam, Laos and if time and money permit Bali!!!

People have told us that trips like these are life changing. We didn't see it at first but now that we are half way through, we are noticing things. We are more appreciative of what we have and the opportunities that are available to us. Seeing the kids here, who are always sooooo happy with huge smiles, makes us slightly sad and guilty, that we have so much and are still always wanting more! We know that they have almost nothing and will not get a chance to travel the world and see things that so many of us take for granted each and every day! Things like underground sewers, democracy, homes with no bugs or rodents (hehe), safety and education. It has been sad to see so many young Thai girls with old white foreigners. Although this is a choice for a lot of Thai girls we know that for many of them, they feel that this is their only option...it is sad! We met one lady on a bus. She had travelled for almost 2 days to meet a man that she met on the internet which is where a lot of the meetings take place. It's too bad that often the girl and the guys idea of what is to come is so different! In saying that....it is comforting to know that joy really can be found in the smallest of things and the cheapest of costs! Family is huge here and it has made us miss ours and our closest of friends...who we also consider our family!! Anywho....to make a long thought short.....I guess we are starting to have a life changing experience!!!

Hope you like the pictures and our blog.......we will post again when we can!!!

Oh yeah......I would have to say Dean is missing the flames playoffs more than anything...knowing the score is starting to consume him.....lol!