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