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.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
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!
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!
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