Moving To Laos, Becoming Professional Tubers

Once getting our act together after arriving in Vang Vieng, we booked a day trip to go kayaking and also some local caves (caves are a big thing here). we quickly realized tours here involve a lotof waiting. our guide was the only fat laos man we have seen and he was at least entertaining by eating bright blue bugs off the trees. we saw three caves in total. pretty generic, but fun because we needed flashlights to see and they were really big. The third cavewas by far the highlght of the day as we got to get on tubes and float through it. at the end there was a pool that we swam in "for youth and luck". we still had to keep our lights on when swimmng though because it was so dark.

After the caves we visited a village outside ofvangvieng and our guide described the type of living ofthe particular tribe members of the village. it was a nice change from "you have fifteen minutes to shop" type villages of most tours.

we also went kayaking along the Nam song river where there are bars lining the sides and where the cities main attraction, tubing, takes place. we quickly learned that our kayaking skills need some work so needless to say, there won't be full days of kayaking in our future but it was still a goodtime. we got a preview for our tubing day by stoppping at one bar. i (steph) did my first swing, in preparation for future river times.

The next day, with the news that Arie and Alex would be coming to Vang Vieng sooner than we anticipated, we decided to wait until the day after to go tubing. So with a free day, the brit boys who have joined us again decided they wanted to explore some caves nearby. The Lonely Planet said it was a 7km walk and I was feeling a little in need of some exercising so I (Natalie) went along. 7km didnt sound bad at the time. Steph, being the smart girl she is, opted to spend the day with Jacco and the many resteraunts around town playing non-stop Friends episodes. So off we went in the stifiling hot Laos day. The first cave was close by and only up a few bajilion stairs (first sign of a tough day ahead) but the view was worth it.

The first cave was really big and long but had stairs and railings and lights all along it so it didnt really feel authentic at all. We then had a swim in a little lagoon before heading off for our 7km walk to the next cave. Someone really should have told me how long that amount of walking takes. By the time we reached the lagoon and cave our feet were aching and we were covered in dust and dirt. And by the time we got outof the lagoon (NEEDED to cool down), we barely had any time left to explore the cave (which was a 200m rock climb, pretty rough after allthat walking). But the cave was beautiful and extremly big. I've never seen anything quite like it. Hard to see in pictures but i could have stayed there for quite awhile just enjoying it. Thankfully, we got a tractor ride home and made it back just before the sun went down.

The next day, our group was ready, overly excited, in celebration mode (alexs birthday) and most importantly, finally all together! Arie her boyfriend Alex, Arie's friend from childhood Kathy, Jacco, Steph, me and Anthony and Fred (the british boys we left in Koh Tao but who missed us too much to stay away for too long, obviously) had a nice big breakfast and then headed to rent our tubes and dry bags for the day. The wavers we signed stipulated that the tubes needed to be returned by 6pm and no one thought twice about this, afterall who tubes until it gets dark? Well turns out we do. but more bout that later. We got on our tubes and floated down the river for approxiomately one minute before stopping at the first riverside bar. Actually it was mostly a bamboo raised platform with a woman selling Beer Lao.

clockwise from left Kathy, Arie, Steph, Fred, Jacco, Alex, Anthony

After our first beer of the day and free shot of Lao Lao (we were celebrating a birthday so we had to do it but it still tasted like the worst thing that has ever been created) and getting aquainted with the zip lign, we were off again. Although once again we made it about a minute in the water then got out again to sample the beer at the next bar as well as their rope swing.

As you can imagine, the day pretty much progressed like this. Tube a bit, get stuck in the rapids (dry season water sports not so efficient), paddle with flip flops, stop at bars and drink and swing and eat. Before we knew it, it was suddenly very late. And we had a 30min ride to our final destination. We knew we were in trouble when we noticed the moon was already out. Somehow though we made it and just as it was getting way too dark outside we boarded a tuk tuk and ended our amazing, fabulous, wonderful day of tubing fun.

Now the boys have left us again, Jacco starts heading towards Cambodia tomorrow, Kathy, Arie and Alex are departing too and Steph and I will be back on our own again with no set plans in mind. After being in a group for almost a month now, we're not sure we remember how to travel by ourselves anymore! But oh well, lots to see and do so we must be on our way.

Same Same, but Different

We have finally made it out of Thailand and it was a very difficult farewell. Afterall, it had been so good to us. And there was a few loose ends to cover up before we could leave. Luckily Chiang mai is the perfect place for that. After recovering from our trek with an oil massage (1 hour for 8 dollars) we enjoyed some thai boxing at the arena. We missed the canadian guy that got knocked out but apprently put up a good fight, and made it in time to witness a norweigian knock out the thai, very dramatic.

Before leaving we needed to learn more about the culture, especially our favourite part, eating!!! at a cooking class with a cute little thai women named wendy, we each got to chose three dishes and then we cooked them. Then we ate them!That night we celebrated our second-last night in thailand AND Birthday week (Natalie and arie's, eventhough it was a month late) in Chiang Mai at a "roof top" bar that had cockroaches in the bathroom (i only found out at the end of the night, i was just happy the bathroom toilet flushed).
Making new friends of every species, as always:

The next day we visited the "must see" temple onthe chang mai mountain which was really nice. We got blessed by monks for good luck and it was chinese new year so there were a lot of people there.





After one more night of night-market shopping we left for the town Chang Khong, which really only makes money from tourists staying there before crossing the border to Laos. after getting to Laos and discovering what it feels like to be millionaires, we boarded our new home. The ENGINE room of a long boat. yes, there was too little space for the eight of us to sit on the spacious and very uncomfortable looking wooden benches lining the walls so we made the engine room our "university apartment" for the day. After settling into our fate we soon found it quite comfortable. everyone had space to lie down, walk around, play cards and drink "beerlao". We even managed to ignore the people coming to the back to take pictures of us like we were refugees and talking about reporting the boat to the tourist board. A very funny concept if you think about it. After a night of no engine noise but very rude company in the town of pak beng (cockroaches and no electricity after 10, oh, and a guy knocking on your door at 730 am asking for more money) we decided we liked our engine room better. I even got comfortable anough with the engine to sleep right next to it with only temporary hearing problems when we returned to it the next day.


Once in Luang Prabang we understood (finally) what the Lonely plant kept saying about Laos being relaxed and easy. Luang Prabang (our first stop) was like a monk town. we began to notice that everything revolved around them. The dress was more conservative, the mornings were earlier, and everything quieted by 10 pm, then stopped at midnight (the monks need their sleep). During the first day we simply wandered the town. Arie and Alex decided they would leave the next day so at night we went to Lao lao garden and met up with people from our engine room. The main discovery of this night was that lao lao (lao whisky) tastes like crap and subsequently all other lao alcohol tastes like lao lao. Beerlao is good though, at least they got one thing right.


The next day we went on a day tour to some villages with really nice jewelery and scarves, then to caves tat are now temples on the banks of the mekong. Finally we went to really nice waterfalls. they loooked almost like fake waterfalls in pools at resorts. Natalie worked up the courage to jump off one of the waterfalls while i discovered my lack of interest in jumping from high place into water...i was still proud of her though and played photographer.





After returning to town we taught english by dropping into what seemed like an after school program. the kids were really sweet. besides paying more attention to the toys most of the time, they were quite quick learners. I even had some time helping two 15 and 16 year olds to read.

The following day we took a private minivan through the very windy roads of the lao countryside down to Vang vieng. It was quite a good trip, especially passing through the villages and by people on the highway. One thing particularly interesting (put lightly) was the guys with guns, in civilian clothes, patrolling every so often on the side of the highway, to which our driver would toss a pack of cigarettes out the window. The only thing we could think of is that the men were protecting the stretch of highway and our driver was showing his appreciation. Apparently there are a lot of shootings there. I didnt ask any more questions, thought it best not to.

Now in Vang Vieng with our two amatuer (sp?) photographers jacco and jason, we are planning tubing and caving, maybe some kayaking and hoping to meet back up with Arie and Alex and possibly others in the coming days. We will keep you all posted with more stories!!!

xo

Oh My Buddha!

We have returned from the bush! Although we are definitly a lot less pretty than when ew first went in. The bug bites on us are disgusting - not just musquitos but gross blood sucksing flies that levae ur skin swollen and red, and ants that give u bumpy bites that hurt! Not to mention all the scratches and bruises all over us. But we did have us a lot of fun.

Our first morning the group of us (Steph and I, Arie and Alex, Jacko, and two new people Kym and Jason) got driven about an hour away. First off we got to ride elephants which we have been excited about since way before we left Canada!!! Elmer, our elephant, was much like us in that he couldnt do much without eating in between. It took us a very long time to go not a very far distance cuz he kept on eating and eating and eating. It was so much fun though.

We then hiked for awhile until we got to our first waterfall of the trek where we went swimming and cooled off. After a few hours of hiking in the jungle, we always ended up at a waterfall for cooling whcih was alllwaaayyss nice and very appriciated! We hiked for a bit longer after then played a game of football (soccer) on a dusty soccer pitch that was very slippery!!!

The first night we all slept on mattresses in a little bamboo longhouse-like room (very "THe Beach") after eating yummy green curry, playing a round of Kings and hanging out by the fire. The village was beautiful and a great place to stay although the showers were the coldest thing that exists in the world (and we have gotten used to cold showers!).

The next day was rough. Around 6 hours of hiking altogether with the last 30mins being absolutly brutal and almost killing us. WE finally got to our place for the night which was right on a waterfall which doubled as our shower. Unforntunatly we only had bamboo floor to sleep on that night and also this village seemed to be the coldest place in Thailand. None of us really slept at all, it was the coldest night of my life (and I have been camping in -40 degree weather!).

The final day our muscles were shot and going downhill was extremly painful! A faily of dogs followed us the whole way, they were so adorable and entertaining. Finally, we got to our rafting site where we piled onto bamboo rafts and went down the river where chaos ensued. There were many times when we thought for sure we were going to die. A lot of raft jumping and torturing each other in the freezing cold water. And we almost lost yet another pair of flip flops!!! But in the end we emerged alive, still with shoes, and very very very very very wet. *no pics cuz we didnt have our bags*

Last night we relished in being back to normality. Went out for a large dinner then Jacko, Steph and I finally had messages while Arie got herself a pedicure. It was fffaaabulous. And only 8$! Still hurting, we might have to go back tonight! After messages we headed to a Thai boxing match! Very cool, weird and kinda funny at times.

Now we are trying to figure out our next steph. Going to Laos either tomorrow or the next day. Its going to be very hard to say goodbye to Thailand =(

**picture uploading is not co-operating today so thats why the lack of pics**

From MTL to BKK

Well, well. After about a trillion emails, a handful of very expensive long distance phone calls, and mooonntthsss of missing her dearly we finally reunited with ARIE! Really, it feels like we have been seeing her all this time and that it hasnt been almost a year and a half since we last said goodbye at Korova all those months ago.

We all met on Khoa San Road where the group of us (Steph and I, the Koh Tao /Canadian-Sweedish pair, Arie, her boyfriend Alex and their friend) found a bar along the street and got ourselves caught up. Maybe it was the three of us being together again but it really felt a lot like St.Laurent and oh say the Vol patio. Actually I kinda feel like Khoa San Road is almost exactly like St.Laurent except dirtier, with pushy people trying to sell you things, drinks that come in bucket form rather than two-for-one, and with an earlier closing time (who woulda known khoa san shuts down so early?).

After a good few hours we headed out to finish off our previous nights plans. The tuk tuk ride to our next location of course turned into a tuk tuk race with lots of picture taking of one another and escalating rude gestures.

The next day the 7 of us took off to Chang Mai and 12 hours on a bus later we have arrived. Tomorrow we leave for our 3 day trek through the Northern Thailand jungle! So excited! Unfortunatly this means we won't be able to contact anyone much for a few days but we promise lots of pics to come after the trek. ANd if everything goes as planned, they should be the best pictures as of yet!

Miss you all!

P.S. Chang Mai is cold!

Tales of Flip Flop Theft

SORRY!!!! We've been horrible, and we know it. But i think we are going to have to blame this delay in posting on Koh pha ngan and its ability to suck out any functional human activity from all of its visitors. We did survive the full moon party! And what a party it was!!! However, its probably best described with pictures and unfortunatly they are being held hostage from us until our friend Kevin (our first American of the trip!) can post them for us. So deets of our amazing full moon night to come....

On the whole, Koh Pha Gnan can best be described by two concepts: insane partying and flip flop theft. We enjoyed the island with fred and anthony - one of who we met in singapore - and together we did a lot of lounging on Sunrise beach (where the full moon party took place) which had very wavy water finally, and enjoyed many a video and dinner resteraunt on the nights we took off from partying. We even managed to find a place that played sex and the city and served falafal - perfection! we stayed there for a good two hours...

just a little pic of the fun had on the island. please note that fred is also taking a picture of this and that neither of them was able to sip the undisclosed beverage for several tries as we were all laughing too hard. gooood times.

our home.

Seven pairs of flip flops and countless loss of brain cells later we packed up and took the team to Koh tao. or so we tried...on our first attempt at leaving the island we accidently missed the last ferry and so we rented a jeep for the day and drove around the island. its a very hilly and beautiful island with gorgeous views from the back of a jeep, not a day wasted at all. At one point we even came across 5 elephants at the side of the road, much like you see cows at home!!!

eventually the next day we made it to koh tao and fred signed up for his open water course as the rest of us are cool and experienced and certified scuba divers! thanks to him signing up we got to take advantage of cheaper accpmidation they provide....thank god as everywhere else on the island was booked up with the overflow of people continuing their travels from koh pha gnan and the party (as its the neighboring island). so once again we got to enjoy the splendidness that is koh tao except this time we always had a word of the day the boys would teach us as they say we dont speak proper english (our favourite was "pastings" tho we are still deciphering the true american english translation). the word could never be premeditated, it just had to come up in conversation. so this time around, we learned on koh tao and had a real cultural experience! or so we can pretend. we also filled our days with countless rounds of very intensely competitive cards. it got a little ugly sometimes.

sadly, after 11 days together, we said goodbye to the team. it was sad to go our seperate ways but Steph and i had to head up to bangkok to sort out vietnam visas and meet ARIE!!!! last night we went out with a friend from koh tao that we met one of our very first nights of traveling and his um girlfriend i guess...either way we went out for dinner on Khao San Road and then were heading by tuk tuk to a further location (we wont get specific but lets just say it involves a banana, a cigerette, and the writing of a letter) when suddenly a motor bike pulled up beside us as we were speeding down the street and grabbed the purse of the sweedish girl right off of her!!1 it was the quickest thing i have ever seen. Unfortunatly it was the second time its happened to her so she was more composed than either steph or i would have been if it had been us. sooo instead of cappiong the night off with a wild adventure and a good time, we ended up at the police station till 2am. ah well, we're meeting in 30mins to try to give the night a go again. anndddddd we will be seeing arie for the first time since november 2005............so gotta run!!! sorry for being so bad with the postings and we'll keep trying to be better!!!

to leave u, heres a sideways pic of mbk the best mall in the world that steph and i are probably going to live in forever here in bangkok. if u need us, look there.

xo