Beer Lao!

Well! I haven't written for about 3 weeks...mostly because about 3weeks ago, I decided to apply for teachers college in the fall, andapplications were due on the 30th, so i spent my time on the computerapplying.Anyways, back to fun stuff. I think I left off in Bangkok. We stayedwith Jamie and Sarah for 5 days, and loved being there. We relaxed,watched movies, the full 3rd Season of the Office...can't wait to gethome and catch up with the 4th season! We ordered a Tuk Tuk for a dayand went to temples and sights around the city. It's hard to describea crazy city like Bangkok. The traffic is unbelievable, anytime ofday. We all think Toronto is bad, but it is NOTHING compared to thechaotic-ness (word?) of Bangkok. But it's also beautiful in places.The best part about Bangkok (besides the couches, popcorn and theoffice) were the markets...especially the weekend market! Julie and Iwent a little crazy with christmas shopping. we bargained our way tofull arms of gifts. The market is amazing, 6000 shopping stalls, withanything from clothes, pottery, scarves, bags, dogs, birds andbananas. After many hours of shopping and lazing around, we took asleeper train to Chiang Mai. We left at 7pm and arrived in Chiang Mai(Northern Thailand) at 9am. The train was so much nicer andcomfortable than the overnight buses we've been taking, we actuallyhad a good nights sleep.Chiang Mai was beautiful. It is Thailands second biggest city,although it seemed worlds away from Bangkok. It's city centre issurrounded by a moat which was pretty impressive. The people werevery friendly and laid back, and there was so much to do in the 4 dayswe spent there. The first night, we went to a cultural dinner anddance show. We sat on the carpet with a full meal set up in front ofus, as we watched the Thai girls dance, a fire show and the musiciansplay their traditional drums. I was dissappointed when the Thai girlsasked a few people to come up on stage and learn the dance...but, ithink they could tell...because the next time they asked me!hilarious! After the dinner show, we went outside to watch moretraditional dances done by children and some elderly people, in theirbright coloured outfits. That night, we went out and suffered the nextday in our Thai Cooking Course! I really wanted to learn to make someThai food, and dragged Julie along with me. It was a very rewardingand fattening day. We chose our menu (6 different courses) and wentto the market with our instructor to get our ingredients. We saw howto make coconut shavings and milk, but more impressively the 'butcher'shop. Much different than we have back home...basically with any partof any animal you can think of, including chicken feet, chicken anus,and a huge pigs head (which a lady jokingly lit a cigar in it'smouth). We then made our way to the outdoor kitchen and prepared ourmeals. I made Hot and Sour Soup, Pad Thai, Spring Rolls, Green CurryPaste and Green Curry dish and Pappaya Salad. We made two dishes andthen ate them, then made two more and ate them and so on. I was sofull by the end of it, my stomach was rock hard. I didn't eat againuntil the following evening. Julie did well, she only got in troubletwice. No, she was fine, but the instructor caught her stirring hersauce with one hand, talking to me and not holding onto her pan...sohe yelled at her...and then caught her doing the same thign a fewhours later!That same night, we went to see Thai Boxing Matches. This was super fun and interesting. Each Match is 5 rounds (or knockout), and eachround is faught to music, played by a band on the side of thering...adds to the intensity! I will say right off the bat that Julesand I bet on each match and I won 5 out of 6! Ok, so the matches depended on weight categories. Most were Thai Men vs. Thai Men, therewere a few International Boxers (Scotland, Sweden) and also Thai teensvs. Thai teens- these were my fav. they were chubby kids, and the onealways had his bottom lip pertruding, and danced/swayed to the music.(I bet he would win...and he did!)The next day, we walked around town, got a massage and i worked on myapplications. We went to a night market, but were distracted by thebeer stand, and ended up drinking instead of shopping. We went out,and again suffered the next day...well, Julie suffered more than me.I decided to spend the day working on my applications, and julie wenton a trek. We woke up by the tour guide banging on our door , out of breath (from climbing 6 flights of stairs) and asking if Julie was doing the trek or no. We were both so confused and hungover, and trying to rush to get her ready to go. Apparently whenshe got downstairs and into the bus, she realized her shorts wereinside out, and didn't have a chance to change them until lunch! While julie saw baby elephants and did bamboo rafting, I sat in front of the computer...not too fun. However, I really enjoyed Chiang Mai, it still held a lot of the tradition that other places in Thailand were lacking.

Onto Laos!
Laos, in 3 words: Laidback, Laidback, Laidback...oh, and beautiful!

The long trip from Chiang Mai to Laos consisted of a minivan for 6 hours, spent the night in a tiny town, with not much else to do but walk along the Mekong and catch up in our journals. We were up early to start our 7 hour Long Boat Ride down the Mekong towards Luang Prebang...but it was quite a process even just to get on the boat. I describe it as 'Organized Mayhem'. People yelling, waving passports and visas, telling you to walk and sit or sign. We didn't end up getting on the boat until noon, and within 2 minutes, we knew it was going to be a long 2 days. The bench seats were just that. a slab of wood to sit on, and another at a 90 degree angle for a back rest. Absolutely NO leg room, I couldn't imagine being taller than 5.1 (thanks mom!). It was completely packed, with people sitting on the ground in the front, back and aisles...anywhere to strech their legs. We arrived in another tiny town, catered soley towards tourists on their way to Luang Prebang. The guesthouses ran on generators, so at 10pm, the town was dark and quiet. Julie and I were up early, determined to get a spot at the front of the boat, to stretch our legs. We succeeded! Today's boat ride was 9 hours... so long, but definitely beautiful. The boat stopped at several villages along the river, where children or women would come onto the boat to try and sell anything from bottles of water, to scarves, to pringles, to jewlery. The funniest part of the day was when we were stopped at a village to pick up 8 huge sacks of rice. An Irish guy beside me tried to help move and stack the bags, but ended up tearing it and dumping rice ALL over the floor...everyone just stared and laughed, while we helped to scoop up the rice with books and magazines. For the most part, I read, took pictures, daydreamed and listened to music...I think I listened to my MP3 player 3 times through in the past 3 days.

Finally we arrived! Luang Prebang is Beautiful! A very clean city with so many beautiful buildings and old architecture...a French Colonial feel. We ended up lucking in, finding a relatively cheap guest house right away, while others couldn't find places to stay because most guesthouses were full or really expensive. We stayed in Luang Prebang for 4 days. Mostly just walked around the beautiful city, went to the day and night markets, enjoyed delicious food and delicious beer. Beer Lao is amazing, def. my favourite on this trip...hence the weight gain.

Luang Prebang is a fairly big city, but with little traffic and everything was in walking distance. While there, we spent a day touring around the temples, the highlight being the temple at the top of the hill in the centre of town, 369 stairs up. It gave a beautiful view of the city and the river. We were also lucky enough to be in the city when a festival was being celebrated. From what we could gather, the people were there to give thanks and gifts to the monks. Women wore all white, and one street was set up with spindles of make cotton, which we later learned that in Laos Tradition, when someone ties cotton strings around your wrists, they are wishing you happiness, health and luck. We also visited a water fall, about an hour outside of the city. It was beautiful, with 6 separate smaller falls and pools to swim in. Julie and I climbed to the top of the falls...it was surprisingly quiet and peaceful, before the water fell over the edge. We also went to a show at the childrens centre. It is a centre for any child to learn the arts, music, traditional dance and more, during the day (if they don't go to school), after school and on weekends. It was really well done, with a puppet show and then a dozen traditional dances done by the kids. There was a little boy, probably 2or 3 in the front row that looked like he'd seen the show 100 times. He was up dancing the whole time, moving his arms and head to the music. He was so cute...stole the show!

Then onto Vang Vieng....THE most relaxed place I've ever been in my life. We went for 4 days, and stayed for 7. It is a small small town, with guesthouses, restaurants and few stores all catered towards tourists. The people are so friendly, helpful and laidback. I loved it here, the weather was beautiful, the river was unbelievable, the mountains surrounding the town reminded me of Banff (without the snow). The biggest attraction in Vang Vieng is the Tubing down the river. It is a stem off of the Mekong, and you choose whether you want to Tube for 10KM, 8Km or 5Km. We chose 8Km, were dropped off 8KM upstream and got into our Big Black Inner Tubes. What a day! There couldn't be a better way to relax then to slowly sail down the river, stopping at Riverside Bars for a beer, some food, or a swing off a platform into the water (julie did it...my fear of heights got the best of me!). At several points along the river there are quite intense rapids that soak you and spin you around. The water was chilly, but nice because it was about 28 degrees, sunny and blue skies.

It was in Vang Vieng that we met our new travel buddies- 4 guys from Argentinia and 1 from Bask Country. We partied and chilled with them for the 2nd half of our stay in Vang Vieng. They are great guys, and fit in well in the relaxed nature of Laos. We continued onto Vietnam with them.
I have to say that for the first time on the trip I was a hit a few times with an overwhelming sense of guilt of being a 'tourist'. I had really negative feelings about the Westerners coming in and acting as the 'rich, spoiled tourists, taking over the town'. It was only 9 years ago that Laos started to let foreigners and tourists enter the coutry, and now, it seemed that culture was being totally lost to cater to OUR needs...like the pubs and bars, pizza places, the restaurants with all day showings of FRIENDS or the Simpons....the tubing down the river and swing bars. I loved it...don't get me wrong...but my perspective of backpacking around in different countries has definitely changed. We're so fortunate to be in a position to be able to travel, and it's sad that we would rather experience our Own Culture in countries like Laos, then to experience Laos Culture.

We left Vang Vieng, fatter and relaxed as ever! Off to spend a night in the capital Vientienne (we heard there was not much to do or see here) and then onto Vietnam. We took a 4 hour bus ride to Vientienne and walked around the city. There is a Long Street with a replica of the Champs D'Elise. Apparently it was made out of concrete given to the Capital from the USA for their Airport.. But instead, the government turned it into this...and it is now called "The Vertical Runway". For dinner we had a big meal and tried some of the Laos Favourites (and more beer!) and headed to bed early. The next day, we walked for a bit, and then headed to the airport for our flight to Hanoi, Vietnam.

This is all for now! I am currently in Hoi An Vietnam. I will right more soon, but my eyes are strained from looking at the computer for so long! I hope everyone is doing well! Miss you all!