Our next stop was a small town in the southern-most part of thailand called Krabi (gra-bee). It sits just outside the common tourist path and is well in to the part of thailand where Islam is more common than Buddhism. You can definitely notice the difference, most namely in the availability of alcohol (or lack thereof), but also in the fact that Mosques now outnumber the Wats.
Krabi was a wonderful surprise to us, we spent the very first night at a beach just outside of Krabi and to waste no time beating around the bush, it sucked. it was 100% a tourist economy and not the yummy interesting kind, the yucky kind instead. So, needless to say, we hopped a shared taxi back to Krabi the next morning and found different accomodations to spend the next couple of days. Krabi had so much to offer, both expected and unexpected. We ate most of our meals at a bustling night-market (the very best way to eat in Thailand) where you can walk from stall to stall and give everything a shot. One night we ended up drinking a couple of towers (not to be confused with a couple teen) at an expat bar that was running a few english movies and spent most of the night talking with the bar owner and a few of his friends.
The next day, we recovered from our minor hangovers and went to a buddhist temple here that is about 8 km out of town. the temple exists half at the base of a mountain and half up a flight of 1,283 steps. The view and serenity that we earned at the top was worth every bead of sweat on the way up. Plus we made some amazing new friends. One of our most unexpectedly amazing nights here in thailand, we joined up with a pair of Scottish expats, took a taxi to the wrong town, feasted on tons of indian food and countless carafes of wine and drank the rest of the night away at an irish pub. Ian and Stella we hope to cross paths with you again someday - look us up in Costa Rica.
We've since headed even further south, we're now a stone's throw away from the malaysian border. There's a national park down here that consists of about 91 islands and we're going to go camp on one of them for a few nights. should be beautiful, we'll let you all know.
Hugs to everyone,
TeamWander
PS. We sent half of our stuff home (quite literally) with Mama Wander and are now living out of one (the smaller of our two suitcases). It's proving to be an amazing lesson in how little stuff you actually need, and hopefully we can carry it over to packing for Costa Rica.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Sorry we're slow...
All our company in the past week and a half has distracted us from blog writing, so you can blame them. ;) Just kidding, it was fantastic to see some familiar faces and we had a great time. Miah's mom arrived first, followed a couple days later by Michelle and Jaime. We decided to celebrate Thanksgiving once they all arrived since we'd be back on our own for the official celebration. (Actually, that's today, so HAPPY THANKSGIVING everyone!) We made a pretty impressive spread if we do say so ourselves, so each of you should tell us yours so we can compare. We managed to make chicken and sweet potato coconut curry, glass noodle salad, spring rolls, pork with holy basil, pad thai, coconut rice, and a "birthday cake" to celebrate the ones we'd missed. Our cooking class apparently paid off.
Once leaving the resort, we all headed down to Phuket Town and took a boat trip out to Phi Phi Island which was destroyed by the tsunami a few years ago. Thanks (kindof) to big tourist dollars, the island bounced back almost immediately. At least this time around there's a little more thought about sustainability. There was a coral reef along the island which was great for snorkeling, and otherwise we just enjoyed the sunshine and blue seas. Our last night in Phuket, we had one of our best meals of the trip, at this out of the way seafood place right on the water. Everyone was a bit taken aback when the food arrived (lots of animal eyes staring back up at us), but it was delicious! Even better, Michelle was almost scared to death by a lobster the size of your torso (she'll have to post the picture).
After Phuket, we headed north to Phang Nga, to a sleepy town surrounded by cliffs and mountains. What seemed like a relaxing night turned quite interesting when we returned to the guesthouse to find muddy footprints on Jaime's bed and up the wall. The guesthouse owners (who didn't speak English) came to the same conclusion we did that someone had broken in to the room, but they did not seem concerned at all. It seemed as if the guy next door had crawled into the ceiling, over the wall, and down through their drop ceiling to get into the room, but was scared off before he could take anything. Finally (after much hand waving and arguing), we were able to convince them we did not want to stay there and moved to another hotel down the street.
Strange things continued the next morning when we decided to visit a nearby cave. When the tuk-tuk dropped us off though, it looked like we had stepped into the Thai version of South of the Border. The place was deserted but there were odd animal statues all over. We wandered farther back and were greeted by dozens and dozens of monkeys climbing over these animal statues and up the rock cliff behind them. We were dumbfounded watching them all and then a monk showed up with food and they quickly surrounded him and were trying to tear the bag from his hands. The larger ones would run in screaming trying to scare the others off and it was complete mayhem. If this monkey colony wasn't strange enough, we then entered this giant dragon's mouth and started following a dark, creepy passage through his body to reach the cave we were trying to find. Reaching the other side, there is a garden of statues that are portraying hell, tortured in any variety of ways. The cave itself was beautiful though - huge with a wandering stream down the middle. The monks had constructed bridges back and forth across the stream until you reached a shrine in the back. The whole experience was just bizarre, no description can do it justice. We'll try to get some photos up next time we get to an internet cafe with our camera.
No sooner did we finish this, that we started on another - though slightly less awesome at the outset - adventure. We took a boat tour of the bays around Phang Nga. This included going around the mangrove forests as well as out in to the bay and to see the illustrious James Bond island (from "The Man With The Golden Gun" for those of you watching along at home). Turns out the "boat" was barely big enough for the six of us and putzed around at just under snail pace and James Bond island paled in comparison to the limestone monsters that filled the rest of the bay, but all things considered, once the rain stopped we had a blast. The last part of the trip was really the most notable. We spent the night in a Muslim fishing village at the mouth of the bay. Established (officially) about 15 years ago the village is basically a random collection of huts that all sit up on stilts at the base of a big limestone rock that pops up out of the sea. The centerpoint of our time in this village was dinner. It was amazing. Plate after plate of yummy thai seafood dishes came out from the kitchen and the 12 people at the table (all of us were part of the same tour) ate every scrap of the food on the table.
We've just come across a small mosquito emergency here in the computer lab, so we're going to disappear for now. Hope everything is wonderful and don't forget, we want to hear your thanksgiving stories!
Eat up!
TeamWander
Once leaving the resort, we all headed down to Phuket Town and took a boat trip out to Phi Phi Island which was destroyed by the tsunami a few years ago. Thanks (kindof) to big tourist dollars, the island bounced back almost immediately. At least this time around there's a little more thought about sustainability. There was a coral reef along the island which was great for snorkeling, and otherwise we just enjoyed the sunshine and blue seas. Our last night in Phuket, we had one of our best meals of the trip, at this out of the way seafood place right on the water. Everyone was a bit taken aback when the food arrived (lots of animal eyes staring back up at us), but it was delicious! Even better, Michelle was almost scared to death by a lobster the size of your torso (she'll have to post the picture).
After Phuket, we headed north to Phang Nga, to a sleepy town surrounded by cliffs and mountains. What seemed like a relaxing night turned quite interesting when we returned to the guesthouse to find muddy footprints on Jaime's bed and up the wall. The guesthouse owners (who didn't speak English) came to the same conclusion we did that someone had broken in to the room, but they did not seem concerned at all. It seemed as if the guy next door had crawled into the ceiling, over the wall, and down through their drop ceiling to get into the room, but was scared off before he could take anything. Finally (after much hand waving and arguing), we were able to convince them we did not want to stay there and moved to another hotel down the street.
Strange things continued the next morning when we decided to visit a nearby cave. When the tuk-tuk dropped us off though, it looked like we had stepped into the Thai version of South of the Border. The place was deserted but there were odd animal statues all over. We wandered farther back and were greeted by dozens and dozens of monkeys climbing over these animal statues and up the rock cliff behind them. We were dumbfounded watching them all and then a monk showed up with food and they quickly surrounded him and were trying to tear the bag from his hands. The larger ones would run in screaming trying to scare the others off and it was complete mayhem. If this monkey colony wasn't strange enough, we then entered this giant dragon's mouth and started following a dark, creepy passage through his body to reach the cave we were trying to find. Reaching the other side, there is a garden of statues that are portraying hell, tortured in any variety of ways. The cave itself was beautiful though - huge with a wandering stream down the middle. The monks had constructed bridges back and forth across the stream until you reached a shrine in the back. The whole experience was just bizarre, no description can do it justice. We'll try to get some photos up next time we get to an internet cafe with our camera.
No sooner did we finish this, that we started on another - though slightly less awesome at the outset - adventure. We took a boat tour of the bays around Phang Nga. This included going around the mangrove forests as well as out in to the bay and to see the illustrious James Bond island (from "The Man With The Golden Gun" for those of you watching along at home). Turns out the "boat" was barely big enough for the six of us and putzed around at just under snail pace and James Bond island paled in comparison to the limestone monsters that filled the rest of the bay, but all things considered, once the rain stopped we had a blast. The last part of the trip was really the most notable. We spent the night in a Muslim fishing village at the mouth of the bay. Established (officially) about 15 years ago the village is basically a random collection of huts that all sit up on stilts at the base of a big limestone rock that pops up out of the sea. The centerpoint of our time in this village was dinner. It was amazing. Plate after plate of yummy thai seafood dishes came out from the kitchen and the 12 people at the table (all of us were part of the same tour) ate every scrap of the food on the table.
We've just come across a small mosquito emergency here in the computer lab, so we're going to disappear for now. Hope everything is wonderful and don't forget, we want to hear your thanksgiving stories!
Eat up!
TeamWander
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Chiang Mai (An Addendum)
I can't believe we forgot this in the other post. It must have been long enough already, but this is news that's simply worth posting, so it deserves it's own special note. While we were in Chiang Mai, we also decided that we would make a voyage to the nearest town to the north (about 15km) in the back of a pickup truck to go pet baby tigers... yes, that's what I said: pet baby tigers. What an incredible experience. There's a rehab/breeding center/tourist attraction in this town that affords visitors the ability to be a part of the recreation of young tigers. We spent 15 or so minutes in a big cage with 5 4-6 month old tigers. We'll have some more pictures up on flickr soon if you want to see them. What an experience!!
Hugs and go Wolfpack,
TeamWander
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Heading South
From Chiang Mai we took a night train to Bangkok and then flew down to Phuket. We'll leave out our day spent in Bangkok since it was probably our least favorite place we've been to so far. Once in Phuket we had another week at a resort that was given to us as well. We had no idea how amazing it would be though. We pulled into a driveway lined with huge torches of fire and were greeted with leis and mojitos to check-in. They took us to our villa which had 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, kitchen, living room, deck...everything set in the jungle. The pools are huge with turtles and elephants shooting water, slides, etc. and it is all set on these gorgeous white sandy beaches with crystal blue water. We never stayed anywhere so nice in our lives, but could definitely get used to the high life here. :) Our backpacker nature came out quickly though, and we had to rent a motorcycle to get to town 40km away so we could buy and cook our own food. Let's just say that two people and 40 pounds of food is no easy task to drive back on a bike. We wake up in the morning to yoga and pilates classes and then enjoy a day in the sun. Sorry for all of you in winter weather at the moment! Company comes later this week as Miah's mom, Michelle, and Jaime come to join us here.
Love and sunshine to all,
TeamWander
Love and sunshine to all,
TeamWander
Chiang Mai (part sorng)
Wow! What a couple of days! Chiang Mai is reputed to be one of those places that backpackers/travelers will find themselves staying in for longer than they expected. We were no exception at all to this rule. Chiang Mai is fantastic. Slightly bigger than we expected, but we would say Raleigh-ish in it's healthy cross between availability of everything you could ask for and lack of big-city feel.
We spent a few more days here and got ourselves in to some great adventures along the way.
First, we decided to splurge on a cooking class (liza, you would have loved it!!). It was an all day affair, and began with us being hustled in to the back of a pickup truck with 8 other sleepy looking westerners. Once everyone was gathered up from their various guesthouses we headed off to the market. Our guide gave us a full lesson on all the various ingredients we'd be using for the day (there are 4 types of basil used in cooking, did you know that?) and then set us free to explore the market on our own for a few minutes while he did the day's shopping. A bag of dried kiwi, rolls of huge sausage and one dead rat later, it was time to go.
Back at the kitchen, we started cooking like crazy and didn't stop (except to get tipsy) until late afternoon. It was incredible to learn to cook all the dishes that we've been eating on our trip. We cooked and ate (I know we'll forget something): red curry, green curry, pad thai, coconut soup, HOT and sour soup (the guide was out to get miah on this one), tiger's tear chicken salad, holy basil stir fry, spicy glass noodle salad, spring rolls, sticky rice and baby coconut dessert and coconut milk with bananas. yummmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
To be honest, it's pretty hard not to make friends with the folks working around you in something like this - you're working side by side all day together, laughing at each others mistakes, and lending a hand here and there. So we got to know a few of the people in our cooking class, and decided to try to meet at the big loi kratong festival that was happening in chiang mai. [enter sinister theme music]. Little did we know the grave danger we put everyone in with that innocent gesture.
Loi Kratong is sort of like a war zone. with out the 'sort of'. Think of the fourth of july with about 25 times more adolescence fueling everyone's actions and no real control as to the 'variety' of fireworks sold and combusted. The advertisements for the festival show smiling people sending their Kratong (a little boat with flowers and your hopes for the year) down river, but the reality of the situation was more like Michelle and Leslie running to the riverside, trying not to lose a shoe in the mud to drop their boat as quickly as they could. All this to avoid the four year old that was throwing lit fire-works at their feet (much to his glee). It seemed as if the entire city had congregated on the riverside and everyone was trying to send off as many fireworks as possible in any direction they could find space. Part of their amusement must be watching the Westerners covering their heads and practically running for their lives. There were thousands of meter in diameter hot-air balloons that everyone was launching in to the sky that were so beautiful and filled the evening with what looked like a new set of stars... those that weren't shot down by bottle rockets. Michelle put it best, Loi Kratong is a PTSD nightmare. To anyone in our cooking class out there that tried to find us at the bridge and lost a limb in doing so, we're deeply sorry.
Don't get us wrong, though, death-defying excitement aside, Chiang Mai was a wonderful place, and we had a blast while we were there.
Hope everyone's well,
TeamWander
We spent a few more days here and got ourselves in to some great adventures along the way.
First, we decided to splurge on a cooking class (liza, you would have loved it!!). It was an all day affair, and began with us being hustled in to the back of a pickup truck with 8 other sleepy looking westerners. Once everyone was gathered up from their various guesthouses we headed off to the market. Our guide gave us a full lesson on all the various ingredients we'd be using for the day (there are 4 types of basil used in cooking, did you know that?) and then set us free to explore the market on our own for a few minutes while he did the day's shopping. A bag of dried kiwi, rolls of huge sausage and one dead rat later, it was time to go.
Back at the kitchen, we started cooking like crazy and didn't stop (except to get tipsy) until late afternoon. It was incredible to learn to cook all the dishes that we've been eating on our trip. We cooked and ate (I know we'll forget something): red curry, green curry, pad thai, coconut soup, HOT and sour soup (the guide was out to get miah on this one), tiger's tear chicken salad, holy basil stir fry, spicy glass noodle salad, spring rolls, sticky rice and baby coconut dessert and coconut milk with bananas. yummmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
To be honest, it's pretty hard not to make friends with the folks working around you in something like this - you're working side by side all day together, laughing at each others mistakes, and lending a hand here and there. So we got to know a few of the people in our cooking class, and decided to try to meet at the big loi kratong festival that was happening in chiang mai. [enter sinister theme music]. Little did we know the grave danger we put everyone in with that innocent gesture.
Loi Kratong is sort of like a war zone. with out the 'sort of'. Think of the fourth of july with about 25 times more adolescence fueling everyone's actions and no real control as to the 'variety' of fireworks sold and combusted. The advertisements for the festival show smiling people sending their Kratong (a little boat with flowers and your hopes for the year) down river, but the reality of the situation was more like Michelle and Leslie running to the riverside, trying not to lose a shoe in the mud to drop their boat as quickly as they could. All this to avoid the four year old that was throwing lit fire-works at their feet (much to his glee). It seemed as if the entire city had congregated on the riverside and everyone was trying to send off as many fireworks as possible in any direction they could find space. Part of their amusement must be watching the Westerners covering their heads and practically running for their lives. There were thousands of meter in diameter hot-air balloons that everyone was launching in to the sky that were so beautiful and filled the evening with what looked like a new set of stars... those that weren't shot down by bottle rockets. Michelle put it best, Loi Kratong is a PTSD nightmare. To anyone in our cooking class out there that tried to find us at the bridge and lost a limb in doing so, we're deeply sorry.
Don't get us wrong, though, death-defying excitement aside, Chiang Mai was a wonderful place, and we had a blast while we were there.
Hope everyone's well,
TeamWander
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Leaving the Lonely Planet Behind
Travelling through Asia we have found that people tend to regard the Lonely Planet book as the end all and be all of travel guides. We're not sure if the dependence is stronger due to the extreme communication difficulties, but it was time for us to break away and see what happened.
Before we begin this story though, a little moment of thanks to Michelle Marlowe, our island of NC here in thailand. We met up with her in Chiang Mai (she's living there, working two jobs as a social worker - very interesting, but you'll have to convince her to start a blog for all the details). She was nice enough to be our tour guide for a couple of days and let us leave our big bags at her place (the detail that made the following adventure at all possible). Thanks michelle!
So, we left 90% of our "stuff" at madame marlowe's and hopped on a bus headed north out of chiang mai to a tiny town called chiang dao. The claim to fame of this town is that it's settled at the base of the tallest limestone mountain in Thailand (2700 or so meters) and home to an extensive network of caves that have been somewhat of a Buddhist gathering/worshipping ground for the past 300-500 years.
We were headed north on the bus, pretty much unable to tell where we were at all, and thankfully the driver took pity on us and stopped the bus to kick us off in Chiang Dao. Thus we started our search for a place to stay for the night. easier said than done. 6 km of walking out of town and back in later, we finally found a place; a cute bungalow with a couple of friendly dogs to greet us. And finally, Miah convinced Leslie that renting some powered transportation might be in order (enter the 125 cc mega-scooter!). We spent the next couple of days tooling around the Chiang Dao area (heading to the caves, bathing in a sulfuric hot spring, and feeding bananas to elephants) in pure style. It was the best 12 dollars ever spent (in miah's opinion, at least).
Hope everything's going well back home, Ryan, don't work too hard in St. Jo,
TeamWander
Before we begin this story though, a little moment of thanks to Michelle Marlowe, our island of NC here in thailand. We met up with her in Chiang Mai (she's living there, working two jobs as a social worker - very interesting, but you'll have to convince her to start a blog for all the details). She was nice enough to be our tour guide for a couple of days and let us leave our big bags at her place (the detail that made the following adventure at all possible). Thanks michelle!
So, we left 90% of our "stuff" at madame marlowe's and hopped on a bus headed north out of chiang mai to a tiny town called chiang dao. The claim to fame of this town is that it's settled at the base of the tallest limestone mountain in Thailand (2700 or so meters) and home to an extensive network of caves that have been somewhat of a Buddhist gathering/worshipping ground for the past 300-500 years.
We were headed north on the bus, pretty much unable to tell where we were at all, and thankfully the driver took pity on us and stopped the bus to kick us off in Chiang Dao. Thus we started our search for a place to stay for the night. easier said than done. 6 km of walking out of town and back in later, we finally found a place; a cute bungalow with a couple of friendly dogs to greet us. And finally, Miah convinced Leslie that renting some powered transportation might be in order (enter the 125 cc mega-scooter!). We spent the next couple of days tooling around the Chiang Dao area (heading to the caves, bathing in a sulfuric hot spring, and feeding bananas to elephants) in pure style. It was the best 12 dollars ever spent (in miah's opinion, at least).
Hope everything's going well back home, Ryan, don't work too hard in St. Jo,
TeamWander
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Yet another cross country adventure
Our last stop in Laos was Luang Prabang, a beautiful city along the Mekong River. More than anything, we used this city as a epicurian adventure. We started out upscale to celebrate our one month anniversary, including a great wine bar with big beanbag chairs and comfy couches. Every other day, we decided to eat as cheaply as possible and find foods that we'd never tried before. This included a great vegetarian buffett where for 50cents we filled a plate with pickled cabbage noodle dishes, green papaya salad, mixed veggies, fruits, and the standard fried rice. We also tried this chewy dough that was grilled on a stick that somehow managed to taste like seafood. More importantly, we ate these yummy deserts: tiny pancakes that tasted like a breaded tapioca pudding, gooey green balls that were covered in coconut (suprisingly delicious), fried bananas, carmelized sweet rice with pineapple/banana, etc. Almost everything we tried was really good, but our luck ran out when we tried escaping from an afternoon rainshower into this tiny restaurant that was attached to a motorcycle repair shop (maybe this should have been clue number one). No one spoke English so we pantomimed until the waiter understood that we would like to eat. He came out with two steaming bowls of noodle soup that on first glance looked to be delicous. Turns out, it was random meat bits including intenstine and some unidentifiable, blueish organ and fish balls in a bland broth. We ate what we could and considered ourselves lucky for all the other great dishes we have stumbled upon.
Our plan was to fly out of Luang Prabang at 4pm Friday to meet a friend in Chiang Mai, Thailand and had bought tickets a week before. However, when we arrived at the airport at 1:30pm, a very distressed employee told us the flight had taken off 30 minutes ago. Apparently we bought tickets to a flight that didn't exist, even though it was on the airline's website and the travel agent had booked it. Ooops! We were disappointed to mess up our fun weekend plans with Michelle, but headed back to town to spend another night. The next day we got to the airport at 11am so we'd be there plenty early. However, our 1pm departure time came and went with no word from the airline. Eventually they came around with a little lunchbox and told us the flight would leave at 3pm. Once again 3pm came and went. The next estimate was 5:30pm, but since the maintenance crews were still straddling the top of the plane, this didn't look hopeful either. We were going crazy in this little two-room airport, so we headed back outside and found a tiny dirt road to follow. We were first met by a group of bison, and then found a little village behind the airport. Apparently this was not a place that "falang" (foreigners) ever made it to because the first little girl we saw started pointing and screaming. We walked through and found a restaurant to drink a beer at before returning to the airport. Our plane finally left at 7:30pm and we made it to Michelle's house, only 30 hours later than expected. Still quicker than our alternative transportation, which was a 2 day boat trip up the river, but needless to say we're extremely happy to be back in Thailand.
Hope everyone had a great weekend!
Team Wander
Our plan was to fly out of Luang Prabang at 4pm Friday to meet a friend in Chiang Mai, Thailand and had bought tickets a week before. However, when we arrived at the airport at 1:30pm, a very distressed employee told us the flight had taken off 30 minutes ago. Apparently we bought tickets to a flight that didn't exist, even though it was on the airline's website and the travel agent had booked it. Ooops! We were disappointed to mess up our fun weekend plans with Michelle, but headed back to town to spend another night. The next day we got to the airport at 11am so we'd be there plenty early. However, our 1pm departure time came and went with no word from the airline. Eventually they came around with a little lunchbox and told us the flight would leave at 3pm. Once again 3pm came and went. The next estimate was 5:30pm, but since the maintenance crews were still straddling the top of the plane, this didn't look hopeful either. We were going crazy in this little two-room airport, so we headed back outside and found a tiny dirt road to follow. We were first met by a group of bison, and then found a little village behind the airport. Apparently this was not a place that "falang" (foreigners) ever made it to because the first little girl we saw started pointing and screaming. We walked through and found a restaurant to drink a beer at before returning to the airport. Our plane finally left at 7:30pm and we made it to Michelle's house, only 30 hours later than expected. Still quicker than our alternative transportation, which was a 2 day boat trip up the river, but needless to say we're extremely happy to be back in Thailand.
Hope everyone had a great weekend!
Team Wander
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
A new business model
So we have a plan, we all need a find a river somewhere in the southeastern US (somewhere that it gets hot enough that tubing down the river is a good plan) and we all need to construct float-by river side bars with 40 ft tall swings, slides and zip lines in to the river water. If we add enough mud, loud music and falangs (thai/laotian for westerners) you'll have pretty much exactly what we got to experience in our latest town. Believe me, it was awesome. If we build it, they will come.
Vang Vieng is a sort of backpackers hedonist mecca that has sprung up in northern Loas (a country that brings in much more backpackers and upscale travelers than one would expect). It is something that can't really be adequately described, but is somehow simultaneously a wonderful and terrible place to be.
Imagine a small college town. Very small. With a big, easy college. Now leave all the students, and subtract all the classes, textbooks and professors leaving cheap beer in place to fill the void. Plop this town down in the middle of Laos and you have Vang Vieng. It was outrageous. We couldn't stay too long, for fear of never leaving, but the time we had there was incredible. We spent a day hiking, climbing and tubing through a handful of caves, walking through some amazing traditional villages an, of course, tubing down the river.
Though we didn't have as much time to invest in to the last activity as we would have liked (thanks to our icky tour guide) it definitely took the cake as the most memorable. We were hauled off of our tubes, and in to one of the river-side bars by a 18 year-old crossdressing laotian guy, where we met up with a throng of bathing-suit clad backpackers, all in various stages of drunkeness. Like we said above, this bar had all sorts of exciting swings and slides you could play on (between shots of lao-lao whisky, of course). It was incredible, we only wish this computer had a way to let us upload a few of the pictures (dad, thanks again for the loaner waterproof camera!).
Alas, all good things had to come to an end and our time in Vang Vieng was capped off with a 7 hour minibus (basically a full-size van) ride north to Luang Prabang. The ride was breathtaking, up and down a steep, switchback laced mountain with rural rice villages scattered the whole way through. we'll definitely have a picture to post for this one.
Hope everybody is doing great,
TeamWander
Yay Obama!
Vang Vieng is a sort of backpackers hedonist mecca that has sprung up in northern Loas (a country that brings in much more backpackers and upscale travelers than one would expect). It is something that can't really be adequately described, but is somehow simultaneously a wonderful and terrible place to be.
Imagine a small college town. Very small. With a big, easy college. Now leave all the students, and subtract all the classes, textbooks and professors leaving cheap beer in place to fill the void. Plop this town down in the middle of Laos and you have Vang Vieng. It was outrageous. We couldn't stay too long, for fear of never leaving, but the time we had there was incredible. We spent a day hiking, climbing and tubing through a handful of caves, walking through some amazing traditional villages an, of course, tubing down the river.
Though we didn't have as much time to invest in to the last activity as we would have liked (thanks to our icky tour guide) it definitely took the cake as the most memorable. We were hauled off of our tubes, and in to one of the river-side bars by a 18 year-old crossdressing laotian guy, where we met up with a throng of bathing-suit clad backpackers, all in various stages of drunkeness. Like we said above, this bar had all sorts of exciting swings and slides you could play on (between shots of lao-lao whisky, of course). It was incredible, we only wish this computer had a way to let us upload a few of the pictures (dad, thanks again for the loaner waterproof camera!).
Alas, all good things had to come to an end and our time in Vang Vieng was capped off with a 7 hour minibus (basically a full-size van) ride north to Luang Prabang. The ride was breathtaking, up and down a steep, switchback laced mountain with rural rice villages scattered the whole way through. we'll definitely have a picture to post for this one.
Hope everybody is doing great,
TeamWander
Yay Obama!
Woooooooohooooooooooooo!
First things first..... OBAMA WON!!!!!!!!! Yay! We spent our morning in a bar in Luang Prabong, Laos cheering with people from around the world as more and more states popped up as blue on the map. Super bonus points to all of you who voted. It's great to see North Carolina turning blue as well. The bar owner handed everyone free champagne as Obama was announced president. We have constantly been asked about the election over here...it's really interesting how involved the world is in our political system and is yet another wake up call for us to know more about the rest of the world.
Anyway, enough political stuff, time to catch up on what's been happening. So our last stop in Thailand was a border town called Nong Khai. We took a night train there from the jungle and arrived at six in the morning. We got a tuk-tuk to a hostel that we immediately fell in love with. If we weren't heading to Costa Rica, we would have taken them up on a job offer and stayed for a few months.
We rented bikes and toured around the town and surrounding countryside. There was an amazing sculpture garden nearby that had tremendous statues and depiction of the wheel of life that was really interesting (photos to follow since we can't upload them here). We also had our second taste at Thai massages (they are only $4 an hour here, but it feels like such a splurge based on how much we spend on a daily basis), which leave you feeling like jello for the next couple hours.
Our favorite part of Nong Khai however, was a place called the ISARA learning center. We spent one evening teaching English to people from elementary school age up to adults and it was an incredible experience. Much more difficult than expected, especially with the young kids who only repeat what you say. It is so hard to convey that you are asking a question and trying to get them to respond with a different statement. It ended with all of us singing head, shoulders, knees, and toes though, which was adorable. The organization ISARA was founded by a guy who used to work for Microsoft and moved to Thailand five years ago or so and started this group. They are funded by use of their website (www.isara.org) so all you have to do to help out is to make this your homepage. The page has a google search bar and links to gmail, hotmail, facebook, etc. right up top, so it is only one click to get to anything else you need. Such an easy (and free!) way to help and then these students get free English lessons, free computer lessons, health/safety information (i.e. helmets to wear when riding a motorcycle since that is the main form of transportation here), etc. We wish we could have helped out more at the learning center but we had to head on to Laos. You can also check out the group ISARA on Facebook to learn more information. New post for a new country.....
Yay for you if you voted,
TeamWander
Anyway, enough political stuff, time to catch up on what's been happening. So our last stop in Thailand was a border town called Nong Khai. We took a night train there from the jungle and arrived at six in the morning. We got a tuk-tuk to a hostel that we immediately fell in love with. If we weren't heading to Costa Rica, we would have taken them up on a job offer and stayed for a few months.
We rented bikes and toured around the town and surrounding countryside. There was an amazing sculpture garden nearby that had tremendous statues and depiction of the wheel of life that was really interesting (photos to follow since we can't upload them here). We also had our second taste at Thai massages (they are only $4 an hour here, but it feels like such a splurge based on how much we spend on a daily basis), which leave you feeling like jello for the next couple hours.
Our favorite part of Nong Khai however, was a place called the ISARA learning center. We spent one evening teaching English to people from elementary school age up to adults and it was an incredible experience. Much more difficult than expected, especially with the young kids who only repeat what you say. It is so hard to convey that you are asking a question and trying to get them to respond with a different statement. It ended with all of us singing head, shoulders, knees, and toes though, which was adorable. The organization ISARA was founded by a guy who used to work for Microsoft and moved to Thailand five years ago or so and started this group. They are funded by use of their website (www.isara.org) so all you have to do to help out is to make this your homepage. The page has a google search bar and links to gmail, hotmail, facebook, etc. right up top, so it is only one click to get to anything else you need. Such an easy (and free!) way to help and then these students get free English lessons, free computer lessons, health/safety information (i.e. helmets to wear when riding a motorcycle since that is the main form of transportation here), etc. We wish we could have helped out more at the learning center but we had to head on to Laos. You can also check out the group ISARA on Facebook to learn more information. New post for a new country.....
Yay for you if you voted,
TeamWander
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