Slow Boat to China

Hello again,
Well, its been quite some time since we last updated this website so where do I begin. After Vang Vieng we continued on our way through Laos up to Luang Prabang, which has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, but I'll get to that in a minute.

The drive from Vang Vieng is truly beautiful, but what a rollercoaster! A few people were green in the face by the time we finally made it to Luang Prabang 6 hours outside Vang Vieng. On the good side the drive took us up into the Laos mountains, we passed beautiful scenary, and small villages precariously hanging on steep hillsides. On the bad side, we were in a crowded minibus going far too fast over roads far too narrow. There wasn't a straight enough section the entire way for you to pull out your wedgy before the next corner flung you into the window or passenger next to you. Our driver had to dodge everything from huge 50 seater buses that took up the whole road to pigs and chickens (one poor chicken sadly lost its life). Unfortunately we did witness two accidents, no suprise considering the conditions, not to worry though, nobody was seriously hurt, I think.


Ouch, Thats a truck that T-Boned a Bus.

Luang Prabang is definitely worthy of its World Heritage Site title, we had 5 days there to explore. We went to temples, freed some birds (seriously), swam in waterfalls, kayaked down the Nom Kham river and basically enjoyed ourselves. Check it out.


The crowd from Luang Prabang, Look Mom, we didn't forget Moose! Along with Kendra is Paulien (Holland) on the left and Christina (Sweden) on the right. Thanks for the fun and the memories (Christina travelled with us the whole time we were in Laos, as I so eloquently put it one night, "Christina, your the longest person we've ever travelled with."....


Luang Prabang Royal Palace Museum with the Mekong River in the background.


One of the many Buddhist temples throughout the city.


Kendra and I exploring the Nom Khan river on Kayak.

The only unfortunate incident occured while we were cycling around the city, one of the girls we were with had her bag snatched from her by some guys on a motorbike, luckily for all, we were able to get it back, but it put a damper on our feelings on Laos. That didn't last long though as the following day someone returned our camera that "Yours Truly" forgot at a small store, and later we were all spontaneosly invited to a small outdoor block party by a group of friendly Laos people. We still love Laos.

Last week we got a comment from an anonymous person (Dave D.) who mentioned that he wanted to hear about some of the boring stories of travelling such as bus rides and weird occurances. After reading that comment I wasn't sure that we had anything that would fit the bill, however, Dave must have set off a chain reaction because since then we've had three straight days of "boring" events.

It started with our own personal "Slow boat to China". We left Luang Prabang for our two day journey to China on Sunday. We booked a slow boat (its actually called that) to take us to a small town called Nong Khiaw in Laos. Buses are quicker but the slow boat was supposed to include breathtaking scenary and we couldn't pass it up. It did not disapoint, it was amazing. However, because its the dry season the river wasn't exactly deep and our boat bottomed out on some rocks damaging the propeller as it did. We had to push it upstream until the driver could replace the propeller, not much drama or delay, but watching him replace the propeller sure brought Dave's comment to mind, check out some photos of the trip.


Picturesque beauty on the Slow Boat to "China" (Actually Nong Khiaw, Laos, but close enough).


Propeller repair job on the side of the river.


Our "Slow" and "Crowded" boat, at least everybody looks comfortable?

Another incident occured the next day when our minibus started smoking from the tires. The breaks were overheating, we had to stop. Once we did, it was discovered that there was brake fluid leaking everywhere. Not very good considering the driver was slamming on the brakes every 5 seconds to avoid trucks and chickens. Of course our driver told us "no problem" and we reluctantly got back in. We did have to stop twice more and wait on the side of the road to keep the brakes from burning out (at least they worked, kind of).

And finally our leg into China, once again, a roller coaster ride in a minibus to the Laos-Chinese border. We went to customs and got our stamps out of Lao, next was a matter of finding a way to get the 3 km to the China border. That was answered when a Chinese sleeper bus from Laos pulled up and offered to take us not only to the border but as far as Kunming, a city we weren't planning on reaching for 2 more days. This was a suprise, the bus looked actually kind of nice and we thought it would cost a lot of money. However, because we were literally picked up on the side of the road, not only we were able to get a great deal on the ticket we also saved money skipping two days at intermediate stops as well.


Our serendipitous sleeper bus that we picked up on the Laos Border.

The bus itself would have been comfortable if I was about 6 inches shorter, it definitely was cramped inside and we were the only foreigners on the bus. We quickly realized that there is a far greater language barrier here than in SE Asia. As far as the ride itself, at one point we waited three hours on the side of a mountain in some kind of traffic jam as there was plenty of construction going on in the area (a first hand look at all the resources China is snatching up lately) and then another 2 hour wait when the bus broke down and the crew had to fix it. The good thing was we were lulled to sleep by cheesy elevator music and Chinese pop songs being blared into our ears all night. What a ride, but we made it, 28 hours later, Yikes! After all that, we are currently in Kunming, China (Yunnan Province), check out the maps below.




Another country and another adventure, the next couple of weeks will take us to smaller and smaller towns until we are hopefully on the Tibetan Plateau overlooking the amazing city of Lhasa, we'll keep you posted.

Cheers,
Mike and Kendra

Pi Mai Laos!!

Mike and I were going to surprise everyone with our spontaneous decision to go to Kathmandu, Nepal. We were an hour away from booking our plane ticket when we heard that protests and fighting had broken out in the Thamel tourist district. Not wanting to get in the way of stray bullets, we decided to continue with our original plan of travelling to Laos, then up into China instead. Here's Mike's updated map of where we've been.


After a tourist filled Thailand, Laos has been a breath of fresh air. The Lonely Planet says "Travellers utter a distinct 'ahhh' when they cross into Laos, like settling into a comfy chair after a long day's work." This is the utter truth.

After another night bus (2 in a row!) we arrived in the capital city of Vientiane - a beautiful town with the Mekong river running through it and French colonial architecture sprinkled throughout the streets. As the town is quite small, we rented bicycles to tour the area. What an amazing day! Vientiane is such a quiet place, with minimal traces of Western influences i.e. no 7-11's and McDonalds on every street corner. Very refreshing!




One of the many sights in Vientaine we saw on our bikes.

Two days later we took a bus to Vang Vieng. The normally laid back, quiet villiage/town, was transformed into a place of music, water fights, fairs, with many locals on the streets as they celebrated the Laos New Year (Pi Mai Laos!). So far we have celebrated New Years 3 times!!!

For the past 5 days, we have been tubing down the Nam Xong river (twice) - which includes jumping from swings, zip lines and free falls from 7m... although I swear the cliff was AT LEAST 15 m high... I definately had time to scream for a long time on the way down!. Sorry, pictures are on the film camera, so you'll have to wait until they are developed.

We also rented mountain bikes to tour the villiage and see some famous caves in the area. First we went to Tham Jang - one of the largest caves I've ever been in. A little touristy though as it has cement floors and electrical lights. Our second cave, Tham Phu Kham was 6 km away. This bike ride involved a torrential down pour (okay, maybe just light rain), unpaved really rocky road, and interesting "toll bridges" along the way (see below), plus some aches & pains (some of us hadn't been on a mountain bike in over 10 yrs!). Then we had to climb 200m of rough, slippery terrain to reach the entrance of the cave. But it was worth it! The cave had not been altered from it's natural state (expect for the Buddha shrine in the first section). With only our head lights, we explored the dark caves, saw amazing stagalmites & tites, limestone formations, and a few bats. What a perfect day! Especially with the Laos massage to end the day... mmm massage!


We are actually in the Tham Jang cave but you can't tell, but really we are.


Mike finding a new section of cave, never explored before, or so he says...


Tham Jang Cave

Tham Phu Kham - just a little different than the first cave!!!

The wonderful mountain view that we saw while we biked. That's Christina on the left - a Swedish girl that we've been travelling with in Laos.

One of the toll bridges that we had to pay to get across. I guess capitalism has started in Laos!

This is the view from where I had my massage. You can image why we love Laos so much!!!

Tomorrow we are taking a mini bus to Luang Prabang in Northern Laos where we hope to do some more treks.

To health & happiness,

Kendra & Mike

Northern Thailand

What, another update in less than 3 days, we must be bored or something. On the contrary, we've been quite busy in Chiang Mai, since the last update we've done a full day Thai Cooking course as well as a 2-day 1-night hike into the mountains of Northern Thailand. So where do we start.

The cooking course was great. We went to a local market to pick out the fresh ingredients for the days cooking. This was probably my favorite part as we've been passing these markets for weeks now without having a clue what half the stuff is (besides the fact that they are vegetables ofcourse). We learned 7 dishes all together from Pad Thai (great noodle dish) to Green Curry. The wierdest part was when we had to kill a live chicken...that was strange...just kidding...the chicken was already dead we just had to pluck the feathers...OK, kidding again...it was nicely chopped up for us just like at Safeway...hehehe. Check out some photos.


Let the Apron jokes come forth.


Getting instruction from Perm, our master cooking instructor.

The trek into the mountains was fantastic. Along with just the hiking we also had a ride on elephants, which, except for the fact that they were elephants, was kind of similar to horse rides back home. We both enjoyed the ride, a unique experience for sure. The only drama was when the elephant started freaking out, roaring (or whatever that sound is that elephants make) and our guide jumped off to smack it on the head...Not kidding this time. I mean, its just me but, if you smack an animal thats 10 times bigger than you on the head with a stick, that would seem a little dangerous don't you think...especially when your two guests were still on top. For a second there we thought we'd be another statistic of the many people that have been carried off never to return on the back of a rampaging elephant, oh the horror (hehehe). Actually the crisis was shortlived and no harm was done (except for maybe a bruise on the elephants head).

Pudong (the elephants name I think) and our guide just after getting off the contraption on its back. An interesting experience.

We were soon on our way to start the hike. The rest of the day we were walking through jungle, rice fields and around swamps (in Kendras case she walked through the swamps, but thats another story, see the photo below). The hike was fantastic, we had heard mixed impressions of the trekking up here in Chiang Mai as some people reported that it was kind of fake and boring. Ours, however, exceeded expectations. Along the way we were able to swim in waterfalls to get away from the heat, and at the end of the day we stayed with a family in a village of 150 people. There were 6 of us and the people we stayed with were the guides cousins. I thought that it would be uncomfortable intruding into the village but I was wrong. The people seemed genuine to us and we enjoyed a night out in the mountains. Some trekkers/hikers apparently go to villages that are all decked out for the tourists making the trip seem fake, this village (in the words of our guide who does actually live there with his wife) is a working village who supply vegetables and cows to the local markets, they understand the value of supplementing their income with tourist dollars and seem to enjoy having people come in once or twice a week (different families host the guests each time). All in all a good experience.

The next day was more hiking and another great escape into the cool of the mountain waterfalls. The last adventure of the trip was a cruise down a river on a bamboo raft. Tonnes of fun. It was the weekend so there were lots of people picnicking along the shores, what made it more fun was that currently Thailand is gearing up to celebrate the Songkram Festival (or Water Festival), which, without to much detail, is a massive 4-5 day water fight. Needless to say we were constantly attacked with splashing and water guns by people along the way. Pretty funny. Kendra was a particularily favorite target as they would sneak unexpectedly up to her while she was lying down on the raft...ofcourse, the rest of us didn't want to ruin the suprise...hehehe.

Some of the hiking photos.

The coolest spider I've ever seen, Kendra loved it...kind of. Thats our guide, La, holding it.


Kendra and I in front of one of the waterfalls along the way. The water was perfectly cold to keep us from overheating on the hike.


On our way to the village. Its currently the dry season in the area, they will wait till June to start planting the rice again. They also burn some of the fields to clear out brush for new crops which is why it appears a little hazy here. Nevertheless a beautiful sight.


I just missed taking this photo when Kendra fell into the swamp, it doesn't look that deep but she was in above her knees with visions of leaches flashing through her head I'm sure. She was unharmed. In case your wondering she's the one in the back looking a little off balanced. The puppy behind kendra was a stray that befriended us from one of the villages for the next 2 days, we called it Scrappy.


The Bamboo raft. If you look behind us you can see some people along the shore splashing the people on the raft. Its the Water Festival so be prepared to get wet. In the cars on the way home we were more than once suprised by people throwing buckets of water at us from the streets (and the festival isn't supposed to start till Wednesday!).

After all that we are headed back to Bangkok on the Night Bus today. We should get there by 6:00am tomorrow and from there organize ourselves for the next leg of the trip. This should be a suprise for you as well as us, because we don't quite know yet where that will be. We will keep you posted though and our next update shall have all the answers.

Cheers,
Mike and Kendra

Goodbye Ko Tao - Hello Thailand

Hi Everyone,

After much denial, Mike and I realized that it was time to leave our beach life to see the rest of SE Asia. We had 6 glorious weeks in Ko Tao, vegging, diving, meeting wonderful people, beaching, snorkelling, singing Grease songs in the back of taxis, etc. Although there was the odd negative occurrence, i.e. the cockroach that invaded Mike's personal space (I'll let him tell you about that one when we get home!), the trigger fish attacks under water (the males are very aggressive during breeding season - one guy we were diving with got bit in the head), and the drunken head shaving incident (see picture below), Ko Tao will be a treasured memory.


Snorkelling at Mango Bay on a day long trip around Ko Tao

Mike and I ready for our last dive.

The gang at Buddha View who helped us with everything - Gee, James & Joline. Thanks guys!


Our dive instructors who made us into the divers we are today. Our last dinner was with them - Jasper, Alex & Rene!

Kimberly & Scott - thanks for the great memories


Before....

After... Hee Hee

Travelling to Bangkok in style (Catameran high speed boat, then A/C double decker bus) for $12 CDN we arrived in Bangkok on April 2. We found New Siam II Hotel, highly recommended by Jay & Denise. Air conditioning!! Hot water shower!! And a TV to watch BBC news - now that was luxury. However after paying only 200 B per night, the 790 B charge for the room was quite the shock. The next day we toured Koah San Road and met with Tip the travel agent to get our visa's organized for China and Vietnam.

Funny thing, on the Bangkok tourist map, it tells you to beware of the tuk-tuks who will try to scam you. Mike and I were well prepared or so we thought. We wanted to go see the grand palance and temples. We took a local river boat to a pier (highly recommended). A gentlemen speaking very good english advised us that the palace was closed due to a private service and recommended us to go to a couple of other temples in the area until it reopened to the public later in the day. He arranged a tuk-tuk for us for 40 B to go to 2 temples and back to Koah San Road. After the first temple however, he wanted to stop at an "Exchange Market". Once we saw the store, we realized that we had been had and refused to get out of the tuk-tuk. He finally left the store and then took us to another temple called the Golden Mountain, which was actually quite extraordinary. When we got out of the temple however our driver had dissappeared. Thinking back, we're pretty sure that the palace was really open and we were scammed, but at least no harm done.


Picture of Tuk - Tuk for those how have never been to Thailand

Once we found out that it was going to take a week to get our China Visa, we decided to leave Bangkok and take an overnight bus to Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand). We just arrived this morning and found a decent room for 200 B. We are looking forward to seeing the villiage people, treks, elephant rides and taking some Thai cooking classes so that we can charm you with our cuisine cooking when we come home. Speaking of coming home, Kei you are right, we are hoping to stay abroad for a bit longer... maybe coming home in November??? We'll see....



Hugs & kisses everyone,

Kendra & Mike