Please let the power stay on...

So we're finally in civilization after a couple days of bussing about the off-the-beaten-trail areas of Laos (pronounced 'Lao' for anyone who is unaware.) Ventiane is the capital city and, as we've discovered, prone to frequent power outages. We've been on a bus tour, which isn't nearly as lame as it sounds, with a company called Stray Asia. There's a big orange bus:


that we've ridden all over northern Laos. Paige and I started the tour on April 10th in Bangkok and hopped off in Chiang Mai for Songkran (see previous posts for more info on the awesomeness of Thai New Year.) After Chiang Mai we went to Chiang Khong to cross to Laos.

Border crossing went far more smoothly than we thought. We were one of the first groups in line on the Thai side so as soon as it opened at 8 a.m. we were through. We took a long tail boat to the Laos side and filled out way too much paper work, surrendered our photos, US dollars and passports, and waited for them to call our name. No organization...three lines for three different things, all intersecting in a small, 15' x 15' area. Moderately painless, and we were done with immigration and changing money by 9:15 a.m. Fun fact: Lao money is the kip, and $1 = 8,000 kip. It's so strange to get a bill for dinner that's 30,000 kip...feels like so much money even though it's hella cheap here.

We started our first travel day on the big orange Stray bus, meandering through the hair pin turns in the mountains. Perfect time for a 24 hour bout of food poisoning to begin...rule #4 of the Stray bus is "Do not vomit on the bus." Luckily I had plenty of plastic bags with me for the duration. Also luckily, it was not motion sickness, as I originally thought. The rest of the bus rides were perfectly enjoyable.

The second day we stayed at bungalows on the bank of a tributary of the Mekong River. They were definitely rustic, but each one had a balcony with a hammock overlooking the river. We watched the sun set while swimming, and then had fantastic Indian food for dinner. That night there was a huge storm; rain falling on a tin roof is just an amazing sound. The next morning we saw the sun rise behind the mountains, which were cloaked in mists leftover from the storm. I swear this country is the most beautiful place I've ever seen.


We also explored a cave where communists hid from American bombs during the Vietnam war. The US-Laos conflict was called the Secret War because it was kept out of the media. Embarrassingly, I didn't even know about it until this trip. In 9 years the US dropped millions of bombs here, making it the most heavily bombed country in history. Currently, there are still approximately 20 million small bombs in the ground, and one person (or cow) is killed each day by stepping on one. I really need to read more about it; I'm aware I have a completely skewed image of the US-Laos conflict, because everything I've learned about it, I've learned in Laos. Still though, it's pretty disheartening to hear about.

After the beautiful riverside bungalows, we took a river boat to Luang Prabong. It's a terribly cute little city that reminds me very much of Chiang Mai. It has a lot of the same trekking and elephant riding that's available there, and a big backpacker population. Our first stop was the most beautiful waterfall I've ever seen - the water is an unreal shade of blue that just shouldn't exist in nature. There's a lagoon with a rope swing (at which I was utterly unsuccessful) and you can also jump from the top, about 10 meters high. The continuous shoot function of Meri's camera was awesome for capturing my follies. Here's some shots of the landscape:








That night we had dinner at a cute cafe and checked out the Luang Prabong night market. After that we headed to one of the coolest bars I've been to, called Utopia. It was all outdoors, overlooking the river. Really neat vibe, even though it closed at 11 p.m. because of the curfew.

The next day we headed to Vang Vieng for tubing. Basically, you don't even need an inner-tube; tubing is just going from riverside bar to riverside bar, swimming and drinking copious amounts of alcohol out of buckets. Photo evidence:





It was extremely fun, and because we started so early in the day, we were done and asleep by 9 p.m. Perfect timing for Paige and I to get up at 5:30 a.m. to go hot air ballooning over the mountains! We were just in time to see the sunrise as we went up in the air.














Laos, and the Stray tour, has been awesome and I'll be sad to leave. Tomorrow we'll explore the city of Vientiane a little, including a museum documenting the Secret War, and get on an overnight train to Bangkok. The last overnight train I took was in Germany, so we'll see how Thailand's train system compares. We have a sleeper, so I think we'll be fine.

On Saturday, Cambodia!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Chao Anou Rd,Vientiane,Laos

Happy Birthday Meri!

Meri is finally here after four flights (Atlanta to Amsterdam to Delhi to Bangkok to Chiang Mai) and 40 hours of travel! Paige and I picked her up at the airport and then headed to check in at our new guest house.

The place we've been staying for the past 7 nights, that we finally left, was called MD Guest house in the Old City. It was 890 baht per night, but we had AC, a mini refrigerator, hot water, free breakfast, free wifi and not one but two pools. We realized how spoiled we were there when we checked in to Manee House with Meri and had a fan, no AC, and no amenities. Granted, we're paying 600 baht per night and there are three of us to split it now. But still. You have no idea how much you take AC for granted until it's 100 degrees, 100% humidity, and only a small fan to cool three people. The people here at Manee House are sooo nice though. And this is where the people who will be traveling on the Stray Asia tour with us are staying, so it's been nice to get to know them before we spend an 8 hour bus ride together.

So before Paige and I picked Meri up at the airport, we went to Doi Suthep, the temple on the hill with 306 steps to get to the top. After climbing to the top of the viewpoint on Phi Phi Don, I was expecting the worst. However, it was a really nice, meandering climb to the top without much exertion at all. The temple was beautiful, with more Buddha images in one place than I've ever seen. There's also an incredible view of Chiang Mai from the top:


I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I love panoramic pictures. Here are some regular pictures from the temple:


Paige on the climb up.


And me! The side rails are dragons that go from the bottom to the top.


We had to get snacks on the way down, of course. Paige got a waffle with Banana in the middle and I got roasted corn. Both were amazing and made us feel like we were at the Georgia National Fair. We also had to take advantage of the incredible fresh fruit. She got guava, her new favorite food, and I got strawberries. Which I promptly spilled on the floor of our van.

After Doi Suthep we stopped at a Hmong village. The Hmong people are immigrants from China that made their living off of opium farming until the 1970's. In the 70's the king banned opium farming, so they began to make their living from legitimate means - selling things to tourists. The village was like a big market, with items Paige and I had already seen a million times, so we went exploring on our own. We got out of the tourist jungle and found the area where people actually live. I took a picture of two adorable little boys:


After that I saw a kid in a Power Rangers shirt, so I obviously had to take a picture. I asked the group if I could take their picture and a ballsy 9 year old told me it would cost me 5 baht. After bargaining with them we settled on 1 baht per person (they were hard bargainers.) I told them that, for that kind of money, they would have to do something interesting. Here's the result:


They're pretty adorable.

This exchange, with the kids bargaining over the price of their photo, prompted a heated discussion between Paige and I about the morality of tourism. This is something I've been thinking about a lot since visiting the Sea Gypsy village in Rawai, on the island of Phuket. What sort of moral imperative are placed upon travelers? If I take a picture of poor children, and the photo illustrates their poor living conditions, am I exploiting them? Is the answer different if I pay them to take their picture? Also, why do 9 year olds even know that I should be paying them to take their picture? It all comes back to tourism and the effects, both positive and negative, that tourism has on a culture.

For the record, I enjoy taking pictures of kids (in a not creepy way) because the photos illustrate that children will be children, no matter what country they are in or what language they speak. I think all of us can say that we posed for a picture showing off our muscles when we were kids. Everyone can see the differences in cultures across the world; you have to look closer for the similarities, but they are even more meaningful once you find them.

The next day (Tuesday) Paige and I went on an elephant riding expedition. We left Chiang Mai at around 9 am to head into the mountains. We met our elephant, Mu Chu, and had an incredible time. It makes you feel very small to be on the back on an enormous, magnificent animal in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Here we are:


And here is Mu Chu's mahout:


Yes, I agree, the terrain is unspeakably beautiful. However, there are two things you will notice about this picture. One, there is a chain around the elephant's neck. Two, the mahout is holding an ankus. Obviously this brings up a whole slew of moral concerns about the ethical treatment of animals. I can tell you, Mu Chu was handled in the most professional, humane way. Actually, she handled her mahout more than he handled her. He very rarely used the tool, and then it was only to gently pull her ear if she got stuck eating and didn't want to move. And we didn't see her chained up at all, she was just in a pen when she wasn't being ridden. The question has to be asked, though, if they would be better off in the wild. However, at this point there are so very few wild elephants that you almost can't even ask that.

After elephant riding we went white water rafting on the Mae Tang river. The water level was really low where we were so we only got class 2 rapids. We still had a great time (minus accidentally stabbing Paige in the throat with the end of my paddle.)

After the white water rafting we hiked for about 40 minutes to a beautiful waterfall.


It was a wonderful day. And Meri came the next day!

Thursday, April 19th, was Meri's birthday. We started the day with Chiang Mai Adventures, a company that does tours in the area. Little did we know, we were signed up for mountain biking at the beginning of the day. Anyone who knows Meri and I will know that we are NOT overly athletic people. The thought of biking uphill in ridiculous heat and humidity was a little too much for us. We biked for a couple kilometers and stopped at an elephant sanctuary for a break. Our tour guide worked it out so that we could actually do our elephant riding at that place. It was wonderful, the elephants weren't chained up and the mahouts really treated them as friends more than working animals. Also, there was a 2 month old baby elephant named Sky. Meri has most of those pictures on her camera, which means I don't have them here, but just imagine the cutest baby elephant ever and you know what we experienced. The elephant riding was really just like letting the elephant do its thing, and we just happened to be on its back. We went through the country side, and jungle, and river, and finally back to the camp. Meri and I had an absolutely amazing time.

After the elephant ride Meri and I headed for the river for white water rafting. Unfortunately, or fortunately, the water was too low for a raft so we had to kayak. The group we were with was amazing so we had a really good time racing them down 10 kilometers of river. It was also the first time this season that they were able to go down a couple of the rapids, so it kind of felt like we were pioneering it.

We met some really awesome people and then headed back to Chiang Mai for Meri's birthday dinner. She chose Thai food, so we went to the Bamboo Cafe for dinner. Meri had spicy basil chicken, Paige had a jacket potato (baked potato) with chicken curry, and I had an excellent beef bourguignon (I'm not always into Thai food.) We planned on going to the bars to celebrate Meri's birthday, but as she fell asleep super early, we didn't make it.

Today we woke up and headed to the Thai/Laos border! We stopped at a super awesome temple on the way, called Wat Rong Khun. The architect began building it in 1996 with the goal of mixing western and Thai culture. There are murals with pop culture references all over the walls of the small chapel, including George Bush and Osama bin Laden. Very interesting.

After the we headed to the Thai border town of Chiang Khong. We went to a really cool Thai restaurant for dinner that had a Thai Elvis/Michael Jackson impersonator playing. He just happened to be obsessed with Paige and was dedicating every song to her.

To make this already long blog post even longer, I finally got the pictures back from my disposable camera that I bought in Koh Phi Phi. Here are some of the better ones!








I also got some really cool pictures of macaques on Monkey Beach in Koh Phi Phi:








Stay tuned for posts about Laos, because that's where we'll be for the next 10 day!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Chiang Mai, Thailand

No water, no gun, no festival

Paige is finally here! It's been awhile since I've updated; I've left Phuket (again), met Paige in Bangkok, took a hella long bus ride to Sukhothai (ancient capital of Siam) and took another hella long bus ride to Chiang Mai. We started the Stray Asia tour in Bangkok but hopped off in Chiang Mai so we could celebrate Songkran. And this shit is nuts.

But first a little bit about Sukhothai; the name means "Dawn of Happiness" and the city was first founded in 1238. Now the ancient temples are ruins that make for beautiful sunset pictures. The park is pretty expansive, with 193 ruins on 70 kilometers of land (we didn't explore it all.) There are some great Buddhas still intact, the most famous being "Big Buddha" which is about 15 meters tall. We rented bicycles for the evening for 30 baht and just rode around for awhile.









We stayed at a super cute guest house, called Old City Guest House (creative) that was all teak wood. The room was clean and had ac, so at 400 baht/night ($6 per person) we couldn't complain.


We got into Chiang Mai the next day in time to see some Muay Thai. I saw a couple matches in Bangkok, but that was all amateurs. The fights in Chiang Mai were hilarious. They started with children, progressed to girls, and ended with a guy from Switzerland dominating a Thai guy. (Fun fact, we met the Swiss fighter at a bar later.) In the middle of the fights there was a melee, 8 "fighters" blind folded and just beating the shit out of each other, whenever they could actually find each other. Highly entertaining, and the 400 baht ticket fee included a free drink. The drink was some sort of spiked fruit punch, though - I don't think I really want to know what was in it.


After Muay Thai we found our way to the bars. We bounced from Reggae Bar, which had one of the best reggae/ska bands ever, to Heaven Beach, where we saw a hardcore Thai band play Papa Roach. Of course we had to stay and sing along to every word.

The next day, Songkran started! It is basically a huge water fight where everyone, from tourist to Thai locals to monks, participate. We made the mistake of going out with our regular bags, not waterproof bags, and soaked everything inside. Including passports, money, tickets, everything. That day we made sure to buy waterproof pouches. And water guns.

It's difficult to explain the madness that is Songkran in Chiang Mai. The phrase "no water, no gun, no festival" accurately captures the mentality. Everyone is fair game and you WILL get soaked if you go on the streets. Any street. We rode around the old city walls (a big square enclosed by a canal) in a pick up truck with a two big buckets of water with huge ice blocks inside. It isn't interesting enough to just throw water on people in Thailand; no, you have to make it ridiculously uncomfortable by making it ice cold water! It's a relief to actually get hit by room temperature water, or even warm canal water. Most of the water used is straight from the canal; dirty, brown, stinky, but fun.

I was at a loss as to how to take pictures of the madness. We tried to buy a disposable waterproof camera, but most stores are closed for Songkran. I ended up putting my camera, surrounded by towels, in a clear plastic bag. I'm quite proud of the contraption and I was able to get some awesome pictures!


Paige and I with our guns after a full day of getting assaulted.



Paige getting shot for the first time today!



Extremely cute kid standing in a huge bucket of water and about to soak me.



Swimming to fill up buckets in the canal.



About to get soaked-again!


Paige returning fire.






Action shots.



Cute kid who had a ball posing for pictures for me.



Even vehicles aren't safe.



Handprints in baby powder paste covering an unsuspecting local's car.



Quintessential Songkran - doused with a bucket of canal water!







Happy Thais in the back of pick up trucks throwing freezing cold water.

Needless to say, we've had a blast here. The city is amazing even without the craziness of Songkran. The people are wonderful and there's a huge hippie/backpacker population. The bars are awesome too, and there's always someone new to meet. I actually ran into a couple guys I met in Patong.

The markets are amazing too. We visited the Night Bazaar, where we bought some hippie rope sandals (when in Rome) and the walking street, were we bought way too many bracelets. The markets have crazy street food too, including fried insects and HUGE whole grilled squid. No, I didn't try them...

Tomorrow we head to Doi Suthep, a temple 15 kilometers outside of Chiang Mai, to climb the 306 steps to the top. It's supposed to be good luck, but I don't think I'll be feeling very good when I get to the top. Especially since I'll be wearing pants and a t shirt instead of my usual bathing suit and strapless dress (temple modesty and all.) But it should be incredible. Then we're going hiking and bamboo rafting, and then Meri comes on Wednesday!

Till next time...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Chiang Mai, Thailand

So I was walking home from dinner and ran into an elephant in the road

Ok, it wasn't actually in the road, it was on the sidewalk. Still, it's the first elephant I've seen in Thailand. Kind of ridiculous that I went a month without seeing an elephant, but understandable I guess since I've been on the beach for the most part. It was really cool, though. I'm thinking that once I'm done with this trip I'll think elephants are as normal as stray dogs in Atlanta.


So I know it's been forever since I posted - I actually wrote an amazing, insightful, hella intelligent sounding post while I was in Koh Phi Phi but the stupid program lost it when I tried to save it. So you won't get so many of my rambling thoughts now - just the facts.

I went from Patong to Rawai, where I visited a sea gypsy village. Very depressing but I won't bore you with my idealistic objections. Suffice it to say, if you are visiting Thailand, visiting a sea gypsy village should not be on your top 10 things to do.

After Rawai I went to Phuket town. Very cool architecture, called Sino-Portuguese. It's like European mixed with Asian with a healthy dose of old school bad ass-ness thrown in. Examples:





Side note: in Thailand, you buy petrol for motor bikes from stands on the side of the road. The gas is in old liquor bottles. Kinda cool.


From Phuket Town I caught a ferry to go to Koh Phi Phi. Probably the most beautiful place I've ever seen. At least from afar; up close it's kind of like Patong, dirty and shitty. At least in the touristy parts. I think the only thing that can describe the landscape is pictures, though:














Yes, I'm a little obsessed with panoramic pictures right now. More shameless promotion of my Nikon and Thailand:


















Going out on Koh Phi Phi is kind of crazy. The bars are right on the beach and it's like going to a rave every night. There are fire shows and day glo body paint and ridiculous dance music for hours and hours on end. And if you're smart you buy your alcohol at the 7-11 where it's a hell of a lot cheaper than at the bars. At one of the bars there's a 12' tall pole that people can climb on and dance, if they are very stupid and/or very drunk. We saw one guy climb it, after a night of raging, and try to land a back flip off the top and onto the sand. He did not land it. We aren't sure if he can still walk.

I had to fly to Kuala Lumpur a couple of days ago for a visa run. Quick and painless, and KL is actually a really cool city. If I have more time I'll go back and visit. The people are so nice.

Now I'm back in Phuket and diving again. As of tomorrow I'll have my Advanced Open Water Certification, which means I can safely dive down to 30 meters.

And then Paige comes! So excited.

More updates to come.


Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Luangphochuain Rd,Mueang Phuket,Thailand